Kingsley Chess vs ChessLab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Kingsley Chess
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Kingsley Chess is a beautifully crafted chess experience for players of every level โ whether you're learning your first opening or hunting for mate in three. Play offline, anytime, with no sign-up required. PLAY SIX PERSONALITY BOTS Face six distinct opponents rated roughly 1200 to 2200, each with their own opening preferences and playing style. Start gentle and climb as you improve. DAILY PUZZLE & PUZZLE RUSH Solve a fresh tactic every day and build your streak. Then test your speed in Puzzle Rush โ 3 minutes on the clock, 3 strikes, and as many tactics as you can crack. COACH MODE Learn the ideas behind the moves with guided lessons that turn tactics into real understanding, not just memorization. 7 TIME CONTROLS From lightning 1+0 blitz to relaxed 30+0 โ or switch the clock off entirely and take your time. HANDICAP & ODDS MODES Level the board with material odds (no queen, no rook, no knights) or time odds for a fairer, more fun challenge. PASS-AND-PLAY Hand the device back and forth for a classic two-player game on a single screen. TRACK & SHARE YOUR PROGRESS Follow your stats over time and share a polished stats card with friends. 13 LANGUAGES Fully translated into English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, and Urdu โ including full right-to-left support. POLISHED & TACTILE A warm wooden board, smooth sliding piece animations, and satisfying haptic feedback make every move feel great. No account. No internet needed to play. Just open the app and make your move.
ChessLab
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ChessLab is a complete chess companion for iPhone and iPad: play, analyze, train and experiment, with the Stockfish engine built in and without ever leaving the app. HUMAN OPPONENTS Nine characters played by Maia-3, a network trained on millions of human games: it does not look for the best move, it plays the one a human of that level would play, blunders included. Each has a style, a repertoire, a temperament, a portrait, and an adjustable level on the human scale. Or take on Stockfish itself, from beginner (~900 Elo) to maximum (~3190 Elo). With or without a clock. Hints, a warning before risky moves, and an evaluation bar can all be toggled on demand. TWO PLAYERS Play locally on the same device, with a "pass-and-play" mode that flips the pieces so both players read the board comfortably. ANALYZE Run a game or a position through Stockfish: move-by-move classification (inaccuracy, mistake, blunder, brilliant moveโฆ), an evaluation graph, best-move and opponent-threat arrows, and auto-play through the moves. Import by PGN, FEN, position editor, or photo scanner. OPENINGS Pick an opening and step through it move by move: every move is explained, the alternatives are offered, and colored arrows link the board to the move list. 58 hand-written openings (bilingual), all reviewed by the engine, with simplified spaced-repetition training to memorize them. THE ENDGAME CORNER 78 courses proven by endgame tablebases โ the exact mathematical verdict: no taught move gives up a win, no recommended defence loses a draw. Nine families, from the opposition to famous studies. And free training: finish the position against best defence, where any move that preserves the verdict is accepted โ not just the lesson's move. VARIANTS Chess960 (Fischer Random Chess): a randomly drawn starting position, one chosen by number, or one you compose yourself, with a full post-game analysis just like "Play" mode. Eleven more variants against the computer, each with its own analysis: King of the Hill, Three-Check, Horde, Racing Kings, Atomic, Antichess, Crazyhouse, Stolen Move (a token every 7 moves lets you play twice in a row), Duck Chess, Barricades and Random Barricades. YOUR OWN REPERTOIRES Import your openings as PGN, variations included, and drill them with the same system. Share a repertoire as a single file โ no account, no server. What you already know about a position counts right away in the imported repertoire. PUZZLES Over 100,000 tactics puzzles from the Lichess database, filterable by rating and theme, plus puzzles generated automatically from your own mistakes in analysis. Spaced repetition and progress tracking included. LABORATORY Pit two Stockfish configurations against each other over a series of games to compare their strength, with an estimated Elo gap and confidence interval. EDITOR AND SCANNER Set up a position by hand, or scan it from a screenshot or a photo โ review and correct the recognized position before playing or analyzing it. BUILT FOR IPAD Full-size board with move list, graph and MultiPV visible at once, keyboard and trackpad support, polished portrait and landscape layouts. iCLOUD SYNC (optional) Turn on iCloud sync in Settings so your games follow you across all your devices, via your private iCloud. No account to create, no ChessLab server. Off by default: the app works fully offline. PRIVACY Offline by default: no ChessLab server, no analytics, no ads. Your games and settings stay on your device. iCloud sync, if you enable it, uses your own private iCloud โ your data is never shared with the developer. Fully bilingual, French and English. ChessLab embeds the Stockfish engine (GPLv3 license), the University of Toronto's Maia-3 network (AGPLv3 license) and free vector piece sets โ cburnett (GPLv2+/CC BY-SA), chessnut (Apache 2.0) and merida (GPLv2+). Full source code and license notices are available from within the app (Settings โ Licenses).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Kingsley Chess at 15.1 against ChessLab's 18.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Kingsley Chess | ChessLab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | โ | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 โ better | 18.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 169 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kuan Meng See | Thierry Maeder |
In-app purchases
Kingsley Chess
No in-app purchases
ChessLab
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Kingsley Chess free?
Is ChessLab free?
Do Kingsley Chess or ChessLab have ads?
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