Chess vs Chessful
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess
Transform your device into a professional chess analysis board. Scan positions from photos, analyze games with a powerful engine, and organize your studies. Access opening books and a vast game database to improve your play.
- Professional analysis board
- Position scanning from photos
- Powerful analysis engine
- Opening books
- 8+ million game database
- Personalized game organization
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PROFESSIONAL ANALYSIS BOARD Turn your iPhone or iPad into a complete analysis board. Create, modify and analyze positions with our board editor. Study every game and take your chess to the next level. POSITION SCANNING Scan positions directly from photos or screenshots, in 2D and 3D. The app automatically recognizes the pieces and board layout. Ideal for studying real games or your own moves. POWERFUL ANALYSIS ENGINE Our advanced analysis engine evaluates each position with precision. Suggests the best moves, detects errors and displays strategic alternatives. PRACTICAL OPPORTUNITIES Discover the practical opportunities of each position. Identify tactics, strategic plans and key moves you can apply in your games. ADVANCED FEATURES + Complete opening books to study strategies from the initial phase of the game. + Database with more than 8 million games, updated weekly. + Download and upload .pgn files, share your analyses and save photos. + Share your studies with other players or coaches. PERSONALIZED ORGANIZATION Save all your games and analyses in your personal database. With an intuitive drag-and-drop system, organize your studies. COMPLETE AND FLEXIBLE ANALYSIS With interactive board, position scanning, powerful analysis engine and personalized organization, this app is the ultimate tool for chess analysis and training.
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: Chess at 5.0 against Chessful's 4.5. Chessful's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, ratings volume, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Chess sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Chessful sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Chess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
Chess ships an update every 3 weeks, Chessful every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Chess | 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 3 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 146 MB | 161 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alvaro Ribes | Antti Aittamaa |
In-app purchases
Chess
- Monthly$3.991 Month
- Annual$17.991 Year
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







