Comparison

Chess Light vs Chess Puzzles

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

Head to head
About

Chess Light

A puzzle game inspired by chess, suitable for all skill levels. Solve over 180 unique puzzles by strategically placing pieces to illuminate every square on the board. Features adjustable difficulty and a helpful hint system.

Highlights
  • 180+ puzzles
  • 6 difficulty levels
  • Hint system
  • Place pieces to light up squares
  • Suitable for all skill levels
Features
Read full description

Chess Light is a puzzle game inspired by chess for everyone: from Beginner to Grandmaster. + 180 puzzles + 6 difficulty levels + Hint system Place the pieces on the board and light up all the squares!

About

Chess Puzzles

Enhance your chess skills with adaptive tactical training. Solve millions of real-game puzzles to build pattern recognition and increase your rating. The system adjusts to your level, offering structured sessions for steady progress.

Highlights
  • Adaptive puzzle difficulty
  • Millions of real-game chess puzzles
  • Themed tactical training (forks, pins, etc.)
  • Engine-supported analysis
  • Rating growth and accuracy tracking
  • Structured training sessions
Features
Read full description

Turn every puzzle into progress. Train with 5M+ puzzles from real games, personalized to your level. When you make a mistake, understand why - and learn from it. That’s the idea we built this app around. Solving more puzzles is useful, but we wanted training to be about more than getting a position right or wrong. We wanted every puzzle to teach you something - about the move you missed, the pattern you didn’t recognize, or the way you calculated the position. There are more than 5 million puzzles from real games. But the number itself isn’t really the point. What matters is finding the right positions for you, at the right difficulty, and helping you learn from them. When you make a mistake, you can understand why. Use hints, explore better moves, get coaching, and look deeper into the position instead of simply moving on to the next puzzle. Over time, your training starts to reveal which tactical patterns give you the most trouble. You can practice across 64 motifs and patterns - forks, pins, sacrifices, checkmates, endgames, and many more - and spend more time on the ideas that need it. You can also see how your training develops over time: your rating, accuracy, training time, and performance across different patterns. And when you’re ready for something truly advanced, there are more than 300,000 composed chess problems from solving competitions. They’re difficult, precise, often beautiful - and solving them can be one of the most satisfying forms of chess training. We’ve also tried to make this a place you’ll actually want to come back to. Solve a few puzzles when you have five minutes. Sit down for a longer session when you feel like training seriously. Build a streak, reach a milestone, or simply keep showing up. Whether you’re new to tactics or have been playing chess for years, the goal stays the same: Learn something from every puzzle. Play better chess. And we’re here to help you along the way. Privacy Policy: https://chess.phd/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://chess.phd/terms/

Screenshots

Chess Light4 screens
Chess Puzzles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chess Puzzles at every 4 days against Chess Light's every 18 months. Chess Puzzles also leads on ratings volume (238 vs 6) and review sentiment (95% vs 79%). Chess Light's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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 Light sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Chess Puzzles sells 20 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Chess Light against 4.8 for Chess Puzzles. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles has 238 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Chess Light's written reviews are positive against 95% of Chess Puzzles's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Light ships an update every 18 months, Chess Puzzles every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Chess Light versus Chess Puzzles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess LightChess Puzzles
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (6 ratings)4.8 (238 ratings) — better
Positive reviews78.6% of reviews94.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6238 — better
Update frequencyEvery 18 monthsEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB111 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPyrosphere, LdaSergei Tovmasian

Customer experience

Chess Light

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral7.1%
Negative14.3%

Chess Puzzles

All ratings238 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive94.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.3%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Light

One-time1
  • 20 Hints$0.99
20 purchases

Chess Puzzles

Subscriptions20
  • Premium Weekly3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Access3 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Week)$4.997 Days
Show 17 more
  • Premium Weekly3 variants$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Weekly Premium3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Premium$6.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Monthly Access$7.991 Month
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Month)$9.991 Month
  • Premium Monthly3 variants$9.991 Month
  • Premium Annual$29.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Access$39.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Premium (1 Year)3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Premium 1 Year3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Chess.PhD Annual Premium$49.991 Year
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Chess Light free?
Chess Light is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Puzzles free?
Chess Puzzles is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Light or Chess Puzzles?
Chess Puzzles is rated higher. Chess Light averages 4.7 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while Chess Puzzles averages 4.8 from 238 ratings.
Do Chess Light or Chess Puzzles have ads?
Neither Chess Light nor Chess Puzzles shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Light or Chess Puzzles?
Chess Light ships an update every 18 months, and Chess Puzzles every 4 days. Most recently, Chess Light was updated on October 12, 2026 and Chess Puzzles on October 16, 2026.

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