Comparison

Checkmate Master vs Brilliancy

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

Head to head
About

Checkmate Master

Features
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Sharpen your tactical vision with Checkmate Master! Solve checkmate puzzles of increasing difficulty โ€” from quick mate-in-one challenges to deep multi-move combinations โ€” and test your skills against a smart AI opponent. KEY FEATURES: โ€ข Checkmate puzzles for every level โ€” from 1-move checkmates to multi-move combinations โ€ข Smart AI engine โ€” play against a native engine that defends to the last โ€ข Star ratings โ€” earn stars by solving puzzles in the optimal number of moves โ€ข Puzzle browser โ€” explore puzzles by difficulty and track your progress โ€ข Game modes โ€” human vs human, human vs AI, or AI vs AI โ€ข Beautiful themes โ€” a variety of board and piece themes โ€ข Sound effects โ€” immersive move and capture sounds โ€ข Supports 8 languages Whether you have a minute or an hour, Checkmate Master trains your checkmate instincts one puzzle at a time. Download now and start solving! The images of chess pieces and the chess board are from https://github.com/Kadagaden/chess-pieces and are used under the CC-BY-4.0 license (https://github.com/Kadagaden/chess-pieces?tab=CC-BY-4.0-1-ov-file#readme).

About

Brilliancy

Features
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Every position in Brilliancy is a real moment from a real grandmaster game, most of them played within the last few days, paused at the move that decided it. No puzzle sets written years ago. A pipeline watches grandmaster games as they are played, finds the single most dramatic turning point in each one, and verifies the answer with a chess engine before it ever reaches you. Then it hands you the board and asks the only question that matters: what did they play here? WHAT YOU DO Open the app and you are already in a position. No menus, no setup. Find the move, or give it up and see it. Every answer is engine-checked, so you are never arguing with a puzzle that is wrong. YOUR RATING IS REAL The Brilliancy Elo moves on every position you attempt. Solve one and it goes up. Give up, or peek at the evaluation, and it goes down, because a rating that only counts your wins is not a rating. You start at 1200 and the leaderboard ranks everyone by the same number. OPENING JOURNEYS Pick an opening and work through the key positions of it, each one taken from a real game and picked to teach one idea. The Sicilian, the King's Indian, the Ruy Lopez, and more. YOUR OWN GAMES Enter your Chess.com username and the same engine that mines grandmaster games mines yours. It finds the moments where your game actually turned, and hands them back to you as positions to solve. The mistakes you already made, as puzzles you get a second chance at. BUILT ON REAL GAMES 134,000 games and counting, from more than 1,700 grandmasters. Queen sacrifices, quiet killers, endgame precision, and comebacks from lost positions. Fresh games arrive continuously, so the feed keeps moving. WHAT THIS IS NOT There is no board to play a full game on and no opponent to beat. Brilliancy does one thing: it shows you the moment a strong player found something, and gives you the chance to find it too. Free. No account needed to start.

Screenshots

Checkmate Master4 screens
Brilliancy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Checkmate Master at every 2 weeks against Brilliancy's monthly. Checkmate Master also leads on device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Checkmate Master ships an update every 2 weeks, Brilliancy monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Checkmate Master versus Brilliancy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCheckmate MasterBrilliancy
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks โ€” betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better16.4
Further details โ€” not scored
Size29 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTB SOFT(SK)HereNow Labs Inc

In-app purchases

None

Checkmate Master

No in-app purchases

None

Brilliancy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Checkmate Master free?
Checkmate Master is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Brilliancy free?
Brilliancy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Checkmate Master or Brilliancy have ads?
Neither Checkmate Master nor Brilliancy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Checkmate Master or Brilliancy?
Checkmate Master ships an update every 2 weeks, and Brilliancy monthly. Most recently, Checkmate Master was updated on October 28, 2026 and Brilliancy on October 25, 2026.

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