Comparison

Lamplight Tavern vs Cube Chess

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

Head to head
About

Lamplight Tavern

Features
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Thirty board games that people played for centuries and then stopped. Senet was buried with pharaohs. Hnefatafl crossed the North Sea in longships. Toguz Kumalak is still played on the steppe. Liubo was lost so thoroughly that its rules had to be reconstructed from a poem and a handful of excavated boards. Each one is here, with a board you can read, rules in plain words, and an opponent who will actually play you. THE INNKEEPER Every game has an opponent at three strengths — tipsy, sober, sharp. He is not a difficulty slider bolted onto a solitaire app: each game has its own engine, written for that game's shape. TONIGHT AT THE TAVERN One game a night, drawn for everyone at once — the same game, the same strength, the same side, the same dice. Five tries before midnight. Win, and the streak carries. The nightly challenge is free forever and reaches every one of the thirty games. RULES YOU CAN ACTUALLY LEARN FROM Every game explains itself: what the pieces do, what wins, and — where a reconstruction was necessary — what is documented and what is our best reading of the evidence. Illegal moves are refused with the reason, in the innkeeper's own voice, so the board teaches while you play. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE No account. No sign-up. No advertising identifier, no analytics, no tracking of any kind. The app makes no network calls at all — not one — so it works on a plane, in a tunnel, and on a phone that has never been online. Your streak and your language live on your device and nowhere else. THE SHELF AND THE CELLAR All thirty games stand open — every crate on the shelf and everything the cellar holds, yours for good, with nothing asked and nothing to buy. Take back as many moves as you like; the house has stopped counting. THE THIRTY Merels · Royal Game of Ur · Hnefatafl · Fox & Geese · Senet · Latrunculi · Bagh-Chal · Patolli · Puluc · Awithlaknannai · Oware · Fanorona · Yoté · Bao · Konane · Surakarta · Pachisi · Chaturanga · Seega · Mak-yek · Ming Mang · Nyout · Daldøs · Tabula · Liubo · Alquerque · Toguz Kumalak · Dara · Dou Shou Qi · Sittuyin Eight languages: English, Deutsch, Français, Español, 简体中文, 日本語, हिन्दी, Tiếng Việt. Game names stay as their own traditions have them.

About

Cube Chess

Features
Read full description

Chess that also grows upward. Cube Chess brings Raumschach — a 5x5x5, 125-square variant played on five stacked boards — to your phone. Pieces move forward, sideways, and up and down. The check you never saw coming arrives from below. That surprise is the whole game. ■ Prof. Mono teaches you An interactive tutorial covers everything from the rules to thinking in three dimensions. New to chess? Bad with spatial puzzles? You'll be fine. ■ The Challenge Tower — seven keepers Seven opponents with distinct personalities: the aggressor, the wall, the trickster. Climb one floor at a time through a story mode. ■ Get a little stronger every day Daily mate puzzles, a 12-step learning ladder, a three-strike Puzzle Rush, and forced-mate problems in two difficulty tiers. ■ A level that fits you Three AI strengths plus material handicaps, so your first win is never out of reach. ■ A quiet cosmos to think in Seven glass-and-starlight themes, unlocked as you play. Everything runs offline. No account, no connection required. Available in 12 languages. Test the depth of your reading in a quiet cosmos.

Screenshots

Lamplight Tavern4 screens
Cube Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cube Chess at none against Lamplight Tavern's 1. Lamplight Tavern's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, device support and iOS requirement 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. Lamplight Tavern sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cube Chess asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Lamplight Tavern versus Cube Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLamplight TavernCube Chess
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 3 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB73 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperAndreas RutschKamineko

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Lamplight Tavern

One-time1
  • The Whole Cellar$3.99
None

Cube Chess

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lamplight Tavern free?
Lamplight Tavern is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cube Chess free?
Cube Chess is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Lamplight Tavern or Cube Chess have ads?
Cube Chess shows ads; Lamplight Tavern does not.
Which is updated more often, Lamplight Tavern or Cube Chess?
Lamplight Tavern ships an update every 3 days, and Cube Chess every 3 days. Most recently, Lamplight Tavern was updated on October 7, 2026 and Cube Chess on October 3, 2026.

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