Comparison

Chess Endgames vs ChessLab

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

Head to head
About

Chess Endgames

Master chess endgame theory through interactive play. Practice various scenarios against a challenging AI that explains mistakes and teaches winning techniques. Progress through guided paths or endless drills to solidify your understanding.

Highlights
  • Learn by playing various endings
  • Mistake explanations and coaching
  • Technique-based learning, not memorization
  • Rated Gym for endless drills
  • Guided Journeys for structured learning
  • Guest play without account creation
Features
Read full description

Endgames decide games, and almost nobody trains them. ChessEndings turns endgame theory into muscle memory: instead of watching lessons, you play each ending out against a built-in Stockfish tuned for maximum practical resistance. It never gives up the way raw engine lines do, so you have to find the real winning technique. The basic checkmates, from the start - King and queen mate, and the stalemate trap that ruins it - King and rook mate with the box method - Ladder mate with two rooks - Mate with the two bishops - Bishop and knight mate, the one everyone fumbles The endgame families - King and pawn: opposition, triangulation, the rule of the square, key squares - Rook endings: the Lucena position, the Philidor position, the Vancura defense - Bishop vs knight, opposite-colored bishops, queen vs rook - Passed pawns, zugzwang, back-rank mate, the 50-move rule Why it sticks - Every mistake explained: when you slip, the coach shows you what went wrong and the idea behind the right move. - No memorizing squares: revisit a position and the board is transformed, so you learn the technique, not the pattern. - A defender that varies: in a lost position with several equally good defenses, it rotates between them and never picks a weaker one, so you train the whole ending and not a single line. - Rated Gym: endless drills matched to your level, every position checked against the endgame tablebase. - Journeys: guided paths from the basic mates up to the hard rook endings. - Scan your own games: we find the won endgames you let slip, and the exact move. - Play as a guest: no account needed to start. Premium A one-time lifetime purchase unlocks unlimited daily drills, every family and journey, and endless rated Gym sessions. It is not a subscription: nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel. Whether you are learning your first king and queen mate or sharpening a rook-endgame technique you always misplay, ChessEndings makes the theory stick by making you play it.

About

ChessLab

Features
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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 move…), 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 → Licenses).

Screenshots

Chess Endgames4 screens
ChessLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ChessLab at none against Chess Endgames's 1. Chess Endgames's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess Endgames sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ChessLab asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Endgames ships an update every 4 days, ChessLab weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Chess Endgames versus ChessLab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess EndgamesChessLab
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB169 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAntoine TamanoThierry Maeder

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Endgames

One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$44.49
None

ChessLab

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chess Endgames free?
Chess Endgames is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChessLab free?
ChessLab is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chess Endgames or ChessLab have ads?
Neither Chess Endgames nor ChessLab shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Endgames or ChessLab?
Chess Endgames ships an update every 4 days, and ChessLab weekly. Most recently, Chess Endgames was updated on October 20, 2026 and ChessLab on October 19, 2026.

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