Comparison

Chess Puzzles vs Beamlines

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Chess Puzzles

Enhance your chess skills with adaptive tactical training. Solve millions of real-game puzzles to build pattern recognition and increase your rating. The system adjusts to your level, offering structured sessions for steady progress.

Highlights
  • Adaptive puzzle difficulty
  • Millions of real-game chess puzzles
  • Themed tactical training (forks, pins, etc.)
  • Engine-supported analysis
  • Rating growth and accuracy tracking
  • Structured training sessions
Features
Read full description

Turn every puzzle into progress. Train with 5M+ puzzles from real games, personalized to your level. When you make a mistake, understand why - and learn from it. That’s the idea we built this app around. Solving more puzzles is useful, but we wanted training to be about more than getting a position right or wrong. We wanted every puzzle to teach you something - about the move you missed, the pattern you didn’t recognize, or the way you calculated the position. There are more than 5 million puzzles from real games. But the number itself isn’t really the point. What matters is finding the right positions for you, at the right difficulty, and helping you learn from them. When you make a mistake, you can understand why. Use hints, explore better moves, get coaching, and look deeper into the position instead of simply moving on to the next puzzle. Over time, your training starts to reveal which tactical patterns give you the most trouble. You can practice across 64 motifs and patterns - forks, pins, sacrifices, checkmates, endgames, and many more - and spend more time on the ideas that need it. You can also see how your training develops over time: your rating, accuracy, training time, and performance across different patterns. And when you’re ready for something truly advanced, there are more than 300,000 composed chess problems from solving competitions. They’re difficult, precise, often beautiful - and solving them can be one of the most satisfying forms of chess training. We’ve also tried to make this a place you’ll actually want to come back to. Solve a few puzzles when you have five minutes. Sit down for a longer session when you feel like training seriously. Build a streak, reach a milestone, or simply keep showing up. Whether you’re new to tactics or have been playing chess for years, the goal stays the same: Learn something from every puzzle. Play better chess. And we’re here to help you along the way. Privacy Policy: https://chess.phd/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://chess.phd/terms/

About

Beamlines

Features
Read full description

Turn mirrors. Bend light. Light every crystal. Beamlines One light source on a dark grid. Tap a mirror and the beam turns; send it through a prism and it splits into three colors. Clear the level when every crystal glows in its own color. ■ How to play · Tap a piece to rotate it. No dragging, no run button · The beam is always flowing, so the path redraws the instant you turn something · Fewer moves means more stars ■ Features · 180 hand-built levels across 9 worlds — mirrors, walls, color filters, splitters, prisms, color mixing, mastery, twin lights, expert · No tutorial text. The first level of each world teaches the new piece by letting you touch it · A new daily puzzle every day, with streaks and world rankings · The 180 main levels are ranked too - a board for every level, plus an overall standing · Ads never interrupt a puzzle, and Unlock All removes them entirely · No timers, no lives, no energy. Think as long as you like · Hints are never sold for money. Watch a short ad for one — we ask first — and every level is solvable without it ■ How color works · Red + green = yellow. Light adds up · Color filters subtract from the beam passing through · A prism splits white light three ways, and the direction you feed it decides where each color goes ■ What's free · Worlds 1-3 (60 levels) and the daily puzzle are free · Worlds 4-9 can be bought as single packs or opened together with Unlock All · Unlock All also includes future world packs Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/

Screenshots

Chess Puzzles4 screens
Beamlines4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Chess Puzzles at none against Beamlines's shown. Chess Puzzles also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 8 days). Beamlines's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess Puzzles sells 20 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days and Beamlines sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Puzzles ships an update every 3 days, Beamlines every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Chess Puzzles versus Beamlines: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess PuzzlesBeamlines
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (241 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews95.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings241 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 8 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size112 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergei TovmasianKYUNGROK KIM

In-app purchases

20 purchases

Chess Puzzles

Subscriptions20
  • Premium Weekly3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Access3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Week)$4.997 Days
Show 17 more
  • Premium Weekly3 variants$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Premium3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Premium$6.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Access$7.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Month)$9.991 Month
  • Premium Monthly3 variants$9.991 Month
  • Premium Annual$29.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Access$39.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium 1 Year3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Premium$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial$79.991 Year
5 purchases

Beamlines

One-time5
  • 월드 7 · 종합$0.99
  • 월드 4 · 분광기$0.99
  • 월드 5 · 프리즘$0.99
Show 2 more
  • 월드 6 · 색 합성$0.99
  • 빛 전체 해금$2.99

Questions

Is Chess Puzzles free?
Chess Puzzles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Beamlines free?
Beamlines is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chess Puzzles or Beamlines have ads?
Beamlines shows ads; Chess Puzzles does not.
Which is updated more often, Chess Puzzles or Beamlines?
Chess Puzzles ships an update every 3 days, and Beamlines every 8 days. Most recently, Chess Puzzles was updated on October 24, 2026 and Beamlines on October 16, 2026.

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