Checkmate vs Think Like a Master
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Checkmate
Sharpen your chess tactics with a daily "Mate in X" puzzle. Each challenge is drawn from real games and offers instant feedback on your moves. Perfect for quick daily practice or in-depth tactical training.
- Daily Mate in X challenges
- Instant move feedback
- AI Trainer for scenarios
- Real chess positions
- Tactical vision sharpening
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One move. One idea. One checkmate. Every day. Train your chess skills with a Mate in X puzzle every day—drawn from real games and designed to be solved, not grinded. Level up your Endgame. Open the app and you’re immediately in the position. Tap a piece to reveal its possibilities, commit to your move, and discover whether you’ve seen the winning idea. Play the correct move and the board responds instantly, take any route you like as long as you stay within the limit. Why you’ll love it - A fresh daily Mate in X challenge - Instant feedback on every move - AI Trainer for different scenarios - Built from real, high-quality chess positions - Perfect for quick daily learning or deep focus and polishing your tactics Whether you’re warming up before a game or sharpening your tactical vision over time, this is chess distilled to its most decisive moments. Find the mate. Own the day.
Think Like a Master
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Can you think like a chess legend? Think Like a Master puts you in the shoes of José Raúl Capablanca — one of the greatest chess players who ever lived. Study his real games, guess his moves, and discover what separates world-class chess thinking from the rest. HOW IT WORKS Each session replays a real Capablanca game from his historical record. After a short opening, you take control. For every position where Capablanca had to make a decision, you make your move first — then see how the master responded. Did you find his move? Did you find something even better? Were you close, or did you miss something critical? WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • How a world champion evaluates positions and selects moves • Which moves Stockfish considers the top candidates in any position • Where your thinking diverges from elite-level play • How to spot the tactical and strategic patterns used by the greats THE CAPABLANCA AI CHALLENGE At the heart of the app is an AI model trained exclusively on Capablanca's games — not just to find good moves, but to find his moves. The model has studied his patterns, his style, his preferences. It knows he favored clean piece activity over speculative attacks. It knows he simplified when ahead. It knows how he thought. Every time you guess a move, the AI is guessing too. You're not just competing against Stockfish's cold engine evaluation — you're trying to outthink a model built in Capablanca's image. Did you find the move the engine rates highest? Or did you find the move that he would have played? Sometimes those are the same. Often they're not. That tension is where the real chess learning happens. FEATURES • 597 real games from Capablanca's complete career • Stockfish-powered analysis shows the top 5 candidate moves for every position • AI style model trained on Capablanca's games predicts his preferred move • See when you think like the engine, when you think like the master, and when you found something neither did • Post-game report card grades your performance with detailed statistics • Deep analysis mode reveals continuations after every key decision • Fully on-device — no internet required for analysis • Covers his full career from 1901 through 1939 YOUR REPORT CARD After each game you receive a full breakdown: • How often you matched Capablanca exactly • How often your move was in the top 5 candidates • How often you found something better than the master • Your blunder count and where you went wrong MORE MASTERS COMING Capablanca is just the beginning. Future updates will bring more legendary players from chess history — each with their own AI model trained on their unique style. Every great player thought differently. Every one is worth studying. FOR ALL CHESS PLAYERS Whether you're learning the game or pushing toward a higher rating, studying master games is one of the most effective ways to improve. Think Like a Master makes it interactive — not passive. Stop watching. Start thinking.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Checkmate at none against Think Like a Master's shown. Think Like a Master's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.2). On price, update cadence and in-app purchases 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. Checkmate sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Think Like a Master sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Checkmate ships an update fortnightly, Think Like a Master every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Checkmate | Think Like a Master |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 72 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Emotion Computer | Kenneth Sparks |
In-app purchases
Checkmate
- Coin Bundle Small$2.99
- Coin Bundle Medium$4.99
- Coin Bundle Large$9.99
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- Coin Bundle Extreme$19.99
Think Like a Master
- Remove Ads$2.99
Questions
Is Checkmate free?
Is Think Like a Master free?
Do Checkmate or Think Like a Master have ads?
Which is updated more often, Checkmate or Think Like a Master?
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