ChessView vs Chessful
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ChessView
Scan chess positions from photos, books, or screenshots and instantly play them out on a digital board. Analyze PGN files, import your online games, and explore classic matches. Offers optional AI commentary for deeper insights.
- Scan positions from photos/screenshots
- Import PGN and FEN files
- Replay and branch off game moves
- Full move validation
- Import Chess.com games
- Built-in classic games
- Optional AI commentary
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See a chess position anywhere — in a book, on another screen, on the table in front of you — and have it on a board you can play with, in seconds. ChessView is a study tool, not another place to play. Scan a position with the camera or from a screenshot, open a PGN file, or pull in your Chess.com games — then replay them, branch off, and work out what actually happened. Free, offline, no account, no ads, no tracking. SCAN A POSITION FROM A PHOTO Point the camera at a real board, or choose a screenshot from Chess.com, Lichess or a chess book. ChessView reads the position and puts it on your board. Anything it misreads, you fix in the position editor — then start playing it out. PLAY IT OUT ON A REAL BOARD Full move validation: legal moves, en passant, castling, promotion. Drag the pieces, step back and forth through the whole game, flip the board, and branch off wherever you want to see what would have happened. OPEN PGN AND FEN FROM ANYWHERE PGN files from Files, Mail, Messages or any app that can share them. Paste a FEN string and it loads. Export any position or game as PGN, FEN or a PNG image, and share it in one tap. YOUR CHESS.COM GAMES, OFFLINE Type your username, pick a month, and your games are in the library — ready to replay any time, with or without a connection. STUDY THE CLASSICS Famous games come built in — Byrne–Fischer, Morphy, Short–Timman, Lasker–Thomas — so there is always a position worth looking at. SEE THE EVALUATION Evaluations and main lines come from the Lichess cloud database: free, fast, no account needed. For positions the database doesn't know, ChessView offers a sensible continuation of its own. OPTIONAL: COMMENTARY IN PLAIN WORDS Add your own OpenAI API key and ChessView will explain a position or a whole game in sentences — the plan, the key ideas, the moment it turned. Entirely optional: everything above works without it. Your key is stored in the iOS Keychain, used only from your device, and never sent to us. PRIVACY, ACTUALLY No account. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Your games and your settings stay on your iPhone and iPad. WHY I BUILT IT Getting a chess position onto my phone used to be absurdly hard. A diagram in a book, a screenshot from a game, a FEN string someone sent me — none of it could just be opened and played through on an iPhone. PGN files were worse. So I built the app I wanted: open anything, put it on a real board, move the pieces. — Pavel, solo developer Designed for iPhone and iPad.
Chessful
This app acts as a private chess coach, analyzing your games to identify mistakes and provide personalized training. It focuses on improving your play through tailored exercises based on your weaknesses, without ads or requiring an account.
- Personalized mistake analysis
- Daily training based on weaknesses
- Track five key chess skills
- Play against 40 AI opponents
- Offline functionality
- Private by design (no accounts/tracking)
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Understand why you lose. Train what you actually miss. A private chess coach on your device — powered by Stockfish, built around your own games. No ads. No accounts. Fully offline. — WHY CHESSFUL — Most chess apps help you play more. Chessful helps you play better. Instead of confusing engine numbers, Chessful explains every mistake in plain language and turns it into focused, daily training. — UNDERSTAND YOUR MISTAKES — After every game, Chessful shows you: • Where you went wrong • What you missed • Why it mattered Nine mistake categories — from hanging pieces to back-rank weaknesses — explained without jargon. — TRAINING BUILT FROM YOUR GAMES — Your daily plan adapts to your weaknesses, not a generic curriculum. Hang pieces? You'll see more puzzles on hanging pieces. Lose endgames? Endgames take priority tomorrow. Spaced-repetition review locks in what you've learned. — TRACK FIVE SKILLS, NOT JUST RATING — Watch your real progress across: • Tactics • Defense • Positional play • Endgames • Openings — KNOW YOUR OPENINGS — Chessful builds your opening repertoire from your own games — the lines you really play, your win rate in each, and the exact move where you most often go wrong, alongside the engine's better move. Play the London 60% of the time? See precisely where it slips on move 6, then drill it. — PLAY 40 OPPONENTS WITH PERSONALITY — Eight tiers, from Novice to Master. Aggressive, defensive, positional, tactical, endgame specialists — each with a distinct style. Win twice to advance. Optional Game Center leaderboards and achievements. — STOCKFISH, ON YOUR DEVICE — The world's strongest open-source engine, embedded with neural-network evaluation. No cloud calls. No latency. No data leaves your phone. — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — • No accounts • No tracking • No ads • Your games stay on your device — DESIGNED FOR FOCUS — Calm dark interface. No streak guilt. No notifications begging you back. Native on iPhone, iPad and Mac — with a 3D board on the larger screens. — PREMIUM — Unlock unlimited analysis, the full daily training engine, deeper coach hints, your complete opening repertoire, all 40 opponents, and your full skill profile. Monthly, yearly, or one-time lifetime — your choice. — WHO IT'S FOR — You'll feel at home in Chessful if you: • Want to improve but feel stuck • Find engine numbers more confusing than helpful • Prefer structure over endless scrolling • Want a chess tool that respects your attention Free to download. Start with one game. See what you've been missing. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ChessView at 5.0 against Chessful's 4.5. ChessView also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 6). Chessful's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ratings volume, ads 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. Chessful sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. ChessView asks for nothing beyond the download.
ChessView holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
ChessView ships an update every 2 weeks, Chessful every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ChessView | Chessful |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 161 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pavel Gnatyuk | Antti Aittamaa |
Customer experience
ChessView
Chessful
In-app purchases
ChessView
No in-app purchases
Chessful
- Chessful Pro Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Chessful Pro Yearly7 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Support the Developer Coffee$1.99
- Support the Developer Supporter$4.99
- Support the Developer Huge Support$9.99
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- Chessful Pro Lifetime$29.99









