Pocket Chess vs Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pocket Chess
Engage in classic chess battles anywhere, anytime. Challenge a sophisticated AI with adjustable difficulty or play against a friend. The app offers helpful features like move highlighting and board rotation for an enhanced experience.
- Challenging AI engine
- Three difficulty levels
- Play as White or Black
- Show legal moves
- Special move support
- Board rotation
- Save game state
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Play chess on the go against the computer or a friend with Pocket Chess. - Challenging A.I. engine with three levels of difficulty - Quick A.I. response time - Play as White or Black - Option to show legal moves - Perform special moves such as castling and pawn promotion - Board rotation for two player games - Game state is saved if you quit the app
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
Sharpen your chess skills with a vast library of puzzles for all levels. Practice daily, offline, or track your progress with adaptive challenges. Analyze your moves with a built-in engine and customize your experience with various themes.
- Daily puzzles
- Offline puzzle packs
- Progress mode with Elo rating
- Puzzle analysis engine
- Bookmark puzzles
- Multiple board themes
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Improve your chess tactics with this large collection of chess puzzles for all levels! This tactic trainer lets you practice in 3 different modes : - Solve daily puzzles - Solve offline puzzle packs - Use the "Progress" mode to get random problems of your level and know your Elo rating All puzzles are of a high quality and are guaranteed to have a unique solution. The difficulty ranges from beginner to advanced (2000+ Elo). Other features : - A free powerful engine to analyze the puzzles - Level history - Bookmark puzzles - Several board themes - Optimized for both phones and tablets - A simple and intuitive interface, with no useless stuff, and no weird problems
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) at 90% against Pocket Chess's 24%. Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.5) and ratings volume (3.7K vs 22). Pocket Chess's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Pocket Chess sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) has 3.7K ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 24% of Pocket Chess's written reviews are positive against 90% of Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)'s.
Pocket Chess ships an update every 10 months, Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pocket Chess | Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.5 (22 ratings) | 4.7 (3.7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 24.5% of reviews | 90.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 22 | 3.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Steven Barnegren | Emmanuel Mathis |
Customer experience
Pocket Chess
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
User reviews
Pocket Chess
From 22 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Clean aesthetics
- 👍 Simple and good
- 🎮 Realistic graphics
- 😊 Great game
Room to improve
- 👎 Computer cheats
- 👎 Bots are atrocious
- 👎 Too hard
- 👎 Too easy
- 👎 Little to do
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
From 3.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 🚀 Offline functionality
- 💡 Wide variety of puzzles
- 🎯 Helpful for improving tactics
- 🕰️ Daily puzzles of varying difficulty
Room to improve
- 🐛 Some puzzles have flawed or ambiguous solutions
- 🤔 Difficulty levels not always accurate
- 📊 Lack of explanation for best moves
- 🔀 Inability to accept alternative winning solutions
Bugs and requests
Pocket Chess
Reported bugs
24 issues- Computer makes wrong moves
- Computer cheats by moving pieces
- Board flips for no reason
- Hard mode is too easy
- Option to castle is hard to find
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Computer says stalemate instead of win
- Computer AI is odd
- Cannot move where I want
- Computer makes ridiculous mistakes
- Board is set up wrong
- Queen and king are reversed
- En passant doesn't work
- Cannot win in 2 player mode
- Black queen on white space, white queen on black space
- Pawn promotion only gives Queen
- Squares are mixed up
- Bottom right corner should be white
- Queen goes on her own color
- En passant move missing
- Board setup backwards
- No undo button in 2 player mode
- No submit button in 2 player mode
- App charged without prompting
- Pieces are reversed
Requested features
9 requests- Make medium difficulty easier
- Add undo button
- Add submit button
- Option to fix board orientation in 2 player mode
- More variety in AI moves
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Make computer mode easier
- Make game harder
- Add more colors
- Level for kids
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
Reported bugs
2 issues- Occasional crashes or freezes
- Incorrect move validation in some cases
Requested features
4 requests- Add option to see captured pieces
- Provide more context and analysis for puzzles
- Improve difficulty categorization of puzzles
- Allow for user feedback on puzzle issues
In-app purchases
Pocket Chess
- Remove Ads$0.99
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
- Easy mates$1.99
- Intermediate mates$1.99
- Hard mates$1.99
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Easy tactics$1.99
- Intermediate tactics$1.99
- Hard tactics$1.99
- Mates in 2, 3 and 4 moves$1.99
- Intermediate Tactics - Vol. 2$1.99
- Hard Tactics - Vol. 2$1.99
- Easy Tactics - Vol. 2$1.99
- All-Access Pass$9.99
Questions
Is Pocket Chess free?
Is Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) free?
Which has better reviews, Pocket Chess or Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)?
Do Pocket Chess or Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pocket Chess or Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)?
Other comparisons
