Chess vs CherryChess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Chess
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Chess-Buddy is a chess game where your computer opponent also talks with you using a powerful local LLM, Qwen 3 trained at 1.7 Billion parameters. This Chat system has been wrapped and designed to conform to this game giving a dynamic personality to the gameplay that feels alive and rich with a friendly buddy to play with. I like playing chess on my phone but I really like playing with a person. This isn't quite as nice as playing casual chess with a friend but it's pretty nice. Play chess against a real engine (the chess side of the AI is running on stockfish, the leading open source chess engine that everyone agrees is really great, with also selectable difficulty levels). After almost every move, Buddy reacts ā with a short line, a funny face might happen, and occasionally a little shade. You can chat freely between moves too. Buddy will respond. It's less like playing against a computer and more like playing against a friend who happens to be very good at chess but awkward at conversation, Not to say it is a bad chat LLM it's just not set up to work like a personal assistant anymore, the conversation is with a LLM that is essentially now Chess-Buddy. Everything runs on your phone. No internet required. No account. No ads. No subscription. The chess engine and Buddy's brain are built in. --- CHESS ⢠Full rules: all legal moves, castling, en passant, pawn promotion with a piece picker ⢠Four difficulty levels ā Friendly (800), Casual (1200), Competitive (1600), Expert (2200) ⢠Undo moves and reset anytime ⢠Game saves automatically ā pick up exactly where you left off BUDDY ⢠Reacts to the game with short, personality-driven commentary ⢠11 animated face states ā Buddy goes mindblown when something wild happens ⢠Chat freely: ask for help, vent about your last move, just hang out ⢠Runs entirely on-device with a local AI model ā no data leaves your phone DESIGN ⢠Bright, friendly, cartoon ā not a dark chess robot ⢠Tap or drag pieces, whichever feels natural ⢠Haptic feedback for captures, check, and checkmate ⢠One screen. No menus to get lost in. ChessBuddy is made by Adrondak LLC. Chess engine: Stockfish (GPL v3) ā stockfishchess.org Personality model: Qwen3-1.7B (Apache 2.0) ā Qwen Team / Alibaba Cloud Inference runtime: llama.cpp (MIT) ā Georgi Gerganov
CherryChess
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Cherry Chess is a beautifully simple chess app that helps you actually get better. Play against honestly calibrated bots or a friend, then let a full-strength Stockfish engine show you exactly where the game was won or lost ā all on your device, no account, no internet required. EVERY MOVE RATED ⢠Each move gets a verdict, from Brilliant and Best Move to Mistake and Blunder ⢠See instantly what your move was worth ā or switch it off and just play ⢠Optional evaluation bar right next to the board OPPONENTS AT YOUR LEVEL ⢠Bots from 300 to 2200 in steps of 100, each step measured against real playing strength ⢠They play like humans at their level ā including the mistakes ā and they finish won games ⢠Max: the engine at full strength, for when you want to see perfect chess ⢠Rated games always put you against the bot at your own level PLAY YOUR WAY ⢠Rated, free or against a friend on the same device, with an optional board flip ⢠With or without a clock, from 1 to 60 minutes plus increment, with a low-time warning ⢠Move list while you play and hints when you get stuck ⢠Focus mode hides everything but the board SEE WHERE YOUR GAME TURNED ⢠Full game review with the evaluation graph and the best move for every position ⢠The move list highlights only the moves worth finding ⢠Accuracy and a performance rating for every game ⢠Free analysis board to explore any position with the engine A RATING THAT MEANS SOMETHING ⢠Every rated game moves your rating, on the same scale as the bots ⢠Track your rating curve, accuracy, streaks and activity in your profile ⢠Your complete game history, ready to replay and review LEARN WITH A PLAN ⢠A learning path of 42 lessons in six units: board and pieces, check and mate, material, tactics, endgames and openings ⢠Free practice whenever you like: board coordinates, checkmate puzzles and an opening trainer with 22 opening families MADE WITH CARE ⢠Clean, distinctive design in dark and light themes ⢠Two piece sets: the custom-made Cherry pieces and a timeless classic set ⢠Smooth animations, haptic feedback and VoiceOver support ⢠Available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese and Chinese PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-up, no tracking. Your games and progress stay on your device, and the engine runs completely offline. Whether you're learning how the knight moves or chasing your next rating milestone, Cherry Chess meets you at your level ā and helps you go further.
Screenshots
Verdict
Chess and CherryChess are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters ā price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them ā neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Chess | CherryChess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | ā | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad ā better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 1.3 GB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adrondak LLC | Milan Swillus |
In-app purchases
Chess
No in-app purchases
CherryChess
No in-app purchases









