dotChess vs Play Chess & Master Games
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
dotChess
Engage in classic chess matches with friends, AI opponents, or players globally. This modern application allows you to track your statistics, communicate during games, and resume play across multiple devices.
- Play live games with friends
- Challenge AI bots
- Global matchmaking
- Account creation and stat tracking
- In-game chat
- Cross-device play
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dotChess is a modern chess app built for playing with real people. Play live games with friends, challenge AI bots, or get matched with players worldwide. Create an account, track your stats, chat during games, and pick up where you left off on any device.
Play Chess & Master Games
Play chess against a customizable engine or study the games of chess legends. Features include engine analysis, an opening explorer, and offline play. Unlock unlimited access with a one-time purchase.
- Play against 8 skill levels of Pulsar engine
- Study games of 20 chess masters
- Over 800 World Championship games
- Engine analysis and opening explorer
- Offline play, no sign-up required
- Searchable game lists
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Play chess against the custom Pulsar engine with 8 skill levels (approximately 1200–2100). Explore the games of 20 of history's greatest chess masters during their peak years, including over 800 World Championship games. Includes engine analysis, an opening explorer, searchable game lists, and autoplay. No sign-up, no ads, and works offline. The playing program is one i've designed and tested at different levels on internet chess servers in order to come up with the ratings on the board. Users get 12 plays and can view 30 chess games for free. These are separate counters. There is a single one time in-app purchase to unlock both unlimited chess play and viewing. There are about 400 games per player on average with fully searchable lists. Just search world when viewing a player for the world championships. Chess masters included are Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Kapsparov, Karpov, Korchnoi, Fischer, Spassky Petrosian, Smyslov, Tal, Keres, Botvinnik, Fine, Alekhine, Capablanca, Lasker, Pillsbury, Steinitz and Morphy. Played games are logged and can also be viewed/analyzed. When reviewing master or player's games, users can override the moves and start making their own moves. The engine analysis has a move now option for users to test their moves against the engine. Back up to main line to undo. After a few moves, the opening name is given. When reviewing there is an opening explorer and engine analysis options on the board. The explorer is built from over 600k high rated, mostly over the board games. The full game's text/moves can be seen and copied to the clipboard to share with others apps when viewing Moves.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: dotChess at 5.0 against Play Chess & Master Games's 4.0. dotChess also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Play Chess & Master Games sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. dotChess asks for nothing beyond the download.
dotChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on June 5, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | dotChess | Play Chess & Master Games |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 193 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Thomas Baric | Michael Adams |
Customer experience
dotChess
Play Chess & Master Games
In-app purchases
dotChess
No in-app purchases
Play Chess & Master Games
- Play-Watch-Unlimited$3.99





