MindChess vs Mindful Chess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MindChess
This app offers daily chess training designed to enhance mental visualization and blindfold play. It features mini-games that improve calculation, memory, and concentration, inspired by grandmaster training methods. Practice exercises focus on board elements without needing a physical board.
- Mental visualization training
- Blindfold chess practice
- Calculation and memory improvement
- Concentration exercises
- Mini-games inspired by grandmasters
- Progress tracking
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MindChess is a daily chess gym and a study companion. Train board vision, memory and calculation in 60-second sessions, then take what you learn to your own games. THE GYM • Thirteen short drills: Square Color, Coordinates, Same Color, Same Diagonal, Bishop Captures, Two Knights, Collision, Memory, Mate in 1, Fork Finder, Piece Snapshot, Knight Distance and Opening Flash. • Timed mode (60 seconds, Game Center leaderboards) and Training mode (3 lives). • A daily challenge and a daily streak, with streak freezes and an optional reminder. • 39 achievements: badges at 10, 50 and 100 games of every drill, also in Game Center. THE STUDY TOOLS • Repertoire: play through your opening lines and the app brings each one back right before you'd forget it. • My games: game databases, PGN import and a viewer with variations, notes and marks. • Analysis: Stockfish 19 on your device, offline, with an evaluation bar and the top 3 lines. With Pro, the game report marks your mistakes. • Diagram scanner: snap a diagram and get the position ready to edit. Free. • Chess clock: increments, stages and time odds, for games with your phone on the table. • Notation your way: English, Spanish or figurines. The same board, with your look, across the app. • Public roadmap: see what's coming and vote for ideas. ON EVERY SCREEN MindChess works on iPhone, iPad, iPhone Duo and Mac. MINDCHESS PRO Pro unlocks Stockfish analysis and the game report, unlimited repertoires, lines and PGN imports, full statistics, unlimited game databases and clock controls, every drill every day and 11 Pro piece sets. Free stays useful: the scanner, the PGN viewer and the basic drills. MindChess is not an app for playing online games. It is the place where you train between them. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Mindful Chess
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Mindful Chess is a complete chess training app: solve puzzles, learn openings that stay with you, analyze any position and play a bot, all on your device. Solving quickly earns bonus points, but every wrong move costs points too, so the game rewards careful calculation over guessing. 100% OFFLINE — POWERED BY MINDFUL ENGINE Every feature runs on your device: the puzzles, the opening lessons, the analysis board and the bot itself. Mindful Engine is a chess engine written from scratch for this app, so there is no third-party server anywhere in the loop. Put your phone in airplane mode and the whole app keeps working. FEATURES • 1.4 Million Offline Puzzles: Tactics taken from real games, ready anytime with no connection needed. A progress bar shows how many moves each puzzle needs, and the move list shows what has been played. • NEW! See Why a Move Fails: Play a wrong move and your opponent's best answer appears on the board with a one-line explanation, such as "Check, but not mate: Black blocks with ...f6." • Daily Puzzle — Free for Everyone: One hard puzzle a day, the same for every player in the world, with a single attempt. The clock starts the moment the board is revealed and the fastest solve tops the leaderboard; each mistake adds 20 seconds. Build a streak, share your result and, if you like, get a reminder at the time you choose. • Opening Trainer — Openings That Actually Stick: Every line is first walked through with move-by-move explanations, then you play it back yourself. Spaced repetition remembers exactly which move you struggle with and brings it back just before you would forget it. 89 variations across 26 major openings, from the Sicilian and the London System to the Catalan and the Benko Gambit, trainable from either side. Starter lines in the Italian Game and the French Defence are free; the full course unlocks with Pro. • NEW! Analyze Position, Now From a Screenshot (Pro): Set the pieces up yourself, or pick a screenshot of a board and the position is rebuilt on your device; any square it isn't sure about is marked for you to check. See the best move and a full evaluation, play any legal move to get the engine's reply, then continue the position against the bot. Made for finished games, puzzles and study positions. • NEW! Opening Encyclopedia, Rebuilt (Pro): Over 3,800 named openings and variations from the open Lichess opening database, arranged in five ECO volumes and searchable by name or code. • Three Bot Difficulties — Free: Beginner, Club and Master, all on your device. The bot opens from a real opening book and only starts making mistakes once the opening is over, because that is when real players start making them. • Hints and Blunder Coach (Pro): Ask for the best move in the middle of a game against the bot, catch a blunder the moment you play it and take it back. In puzzles, see the next move when you're stuck. • Live Match — Face-to-Face Multiplayer: Challenge a friend in the same room. Two devices connect directly over your local network, no internet required. Choose your color and time control (3, 5 or 10 minutes, or untimed), offer draws and play instant rematches. • A Real Wooden Board: Maple and walnut squares, pieces that glide, legal moves that light up, and crisp sounds and haptics on every move. • Game Center: Two leaderboards, your all-time score and the daily race (requires internet to sync). NO ADS. NO ACCOUNT. NO TRACKING. Puzzles, opening lessons and your progress stay on your device. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to opt out of. Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. LOOKING FOR A BIGGER CHALLENGE? The Mindful Chess Advanced Pack unlocks an extra archive of 1.7 million master-level (1800+ Elo) puzzles. Thanks to Smart Storage, it downloads only when you unlock it, so the initial download stays light.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Mindful Chess at weekly against MindChess's every 3 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. MindChess sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Mindful Chess sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
MindChess ships an update every 3 months, Mindful Chess weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | MindChess | Mindful Chess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 140 MB | 280 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | omar megdadi | Volkan Mutluer |
In-app purchases
MindChess
- Monthly subscription$0.991 Month
- Yearly subscription$9.991 Year
Mindful Chess
- Pro Version Unlock$2.99
- 1800+ Elo Advanced Puzzles$4.99
Questions
Is MindChess free?
Is Mindful Chess free?
Do MindChess or Mindful Chess have ads?
Which is updated more often, MindChess or Mindful Chess?
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