Comparison

Chess Lab vs Simple Chess Trainer

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

Head to head
About

Chess Lab

Analyze chess games with a powerful AI engine, practice against 30 difficulty levels, or watch live top-tier matches. Save and replay games, import PGNs, and customize your board view for a premium experience.

Highlights
  • AI-powered game analysis
  • 30 difficulty levels for CPU play
  • Local 2-player mode
  • Lichess spectating with channel selection
  • Save and replay games
  • PGN import
  • Customizable 2D/2.5D board views
Features
Read full description

Open the app and your previous channel is right there. Watch world-class games in your spare time. Save interesting matches and analyze the positions. Chess Lab: Arasan Engine is a chess app that combines a world-class chess engine and Lichess spectating into one beautiful, intuitive interface. โ–ช Play instantly with "Web Invite" - No download or account creation required for your opponent. - Just send an invite link, and they can join immediately from their smartphone or PC browser. โ–ช Diverse game modes - Web Invite Match: Easy private matches via URL. - Offline CPU Match: Play against the powerful Arasan engine (featuring the latest v26.1 / NNUE v8). Practice with 30 levels of adjustable strength. - Local 2-Player Match: Play face-to-face on a single device. โ–ช Watch world chess on your smartphone. Lichess Spectating - Watch top world games right in the app, just like watching TV or manga on your phone. - Channel selection (Top Rated / Bullet / Blitz / Rapid / Classical), thumbnail/list display, and item count (10/20/30) support. - Displays board, moves, clock, playback controls, and termination reason. Rewind moves to review. - Your previous tab and channel open automatically, putting world games right in front of you during spare moments. - Save interesting games to history to use for your own learning. โ–ช Extensive analysis & replay features - Powered by Arasan: Built-in UCI engine that calculates highly accurate evaluations and best moves. - Real-time Analysis: Displays evaluation bar and eval graph in real-time during games. Recalculate past games with "Analyze Position" and save the graph. The graph uses a dynamic scale that excludes mate scores and clamps at a maximum of ยฑ15 pawns. - Candidate Moves Display: Shows top candidate moves on the board with arrows, ghost pieces, and evaluation labels. The 1st move is blue, and subsequent moves are color-coded green โ†’ yellow โ†’ red based on Loss (difference from the 1st move). Toggle visibility with the "Candidates" button. - Interactive History: Step playback, fast-forward, jump to any position, and a "Rewind" (back to start) button for efficient review. - Visualized Insights: Automatically highlights large evaluation changes (blunders). Color-codes long-thinking moves (red/yellow) to visualize time management. - PGN Import: Import external game data (PGN). โ–ช Premium board experience - 2.5D & 2D Display: Switch between a tilted 2.5D perspective and a classic 2D board. - Piece Design Toggle: Choose between text pieces and detailed image pieces. - Full Promotion Support: Accurately select Queen, Rook, Bishop, or Knight when promoting a pawn. - Pause & Resume: Automatically saves unfinished games so you can resume later. โ–ช Improved menu & settings - Redesigned bottom menu into a 3-tab layout: "Match / History / Lichess". The header switches according to the selected tab. - Tab selection state is saved, so the previous tab opens automatically on the next launch.

About

Simple Chess Trainer

Features
Read full description

Simple Chess Trainer is a focused practice tool for chess players who want faster board recognition, sharper annotation skills (for beginners), and tighter opening repertoire memory (for all levels) โ€” all free, with no subscriptions or accounts. Square Recognition. Drill all 64 squares with timed sessions, custom filters (whole board, light/dark only, ranks 1โ€“4, etc.), and a focus list that biases toward squares you've missed in the last 90 days. Toggle coordinates off when you're ready to find squares from memory. Annotation Drill for Beginners. Step through any PGN game move-by-move, identify mistakes, and let the engine queue tough positions for review. The Review Queue surfaces moves you've gotten wrong three times running until you've beaten them three times in a row. Opening Repertoire & Move Trainer (All levels). Drag the right move (or type it) for both sides of any game or opening line in your library. The new Random Review mode picks games weighted by how much you've struggled โ€” your hardest lines surface first; mastered ones come up rarely so you don't drill what you already know. Library. Import any standard PGN file to build your own repertoire or review your own games. The app indexes thousands of games in seconds and ships with 20 verified historical classics on first launch โ€” Morphy's Opera Game, Anderssen's Immortal, the Game of the Century, Kasparov's Immortal, and more. Stats. 7-day / 30-day / 90-day / all-time views of accuracy, response time, square-error heatmap, piece-error breakdown, and per-game Move Trainer mastery. Export everything as JSON anytime. Works fully offline. Private by default. Every drill, import, and statistic stays on your device. No accounts, no servers, no chess-data analytics, no subscriptions โ€” ever. Ads are served by Google AdMob and gated by App Tracking Transparency; remove them permanently with a one-time in-app purchase. Designed for iPhone and iPad. Built for iOS 18.

Screenshots

Chess Lab4 screens
Simple Chess Trainer4 screens

Verdict

The call

Chess Lab and Simple Chess Trainer are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Chess Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Simple Chess Trainer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Chess Lab versus Simple Chess Trainer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess LabSimple Chess Trainer
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews33.3% of reviewsโ€”
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysโ€”
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesโ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.6 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size64 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerkoji ozonoOleksandr Ioffe

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Lab

One-time1
  • Chess Lab Pro$2.99
1 purchases

Simple Chess Trainer

One-time1
  • Remove All Adds (One-Time)$12.99

Questions

Is Chess Lab free?
Chess Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Simple Chess Trainer free?
Simple Chess Trainer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Chess Lab or Simple Chess Trainer have ads?
Both Chess Lab and Simple Chess Trainer show ads.

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