Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) vs Chess Notation Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
Chess Notation Lab
Master chess board coordinates and piece movement with this training app. Improve your ability to visualize moves, read notation, and understand square colors. Designed to enhance your chess calculations and potentially boost your rating.
- Identify squares by coordinate
- Fluid piece movement visualization
- Translate moves to notation
- Identify square color
- Orient on the board
- Speed up calculation
- Blind chess practice
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Welcome to Chess Notation Lab! Are you struggling to identify squares, remember sequences, and follow chess notations? Do you have trouble visualizing Bishop diagonals? Or Knight jumps? Or worse, mapping the available moves for the Queen to get/avoid a deadly fork? This training app is designed to end this misery. There are 2 training modes, each with 5 unique training sessions carefully designed to dramatically uplift your mastery over chess squares and fluid piece movement. A small dose of regular practice will empower you to: 1. Spot a square as soon as you hear or see its coordinate 2. Fluidly move any piece around the board, even without a board 3. Translate a sequence of moves into their notation with ease 4. Immediately identify the color of a square 5. Stay oriented regardless of whether you're white or black 6. Follow along with chess tutorials, books, or discussions at ease and comfort 7. Massively speed up your thought process on any calculation 8. Finally, start playing blind chess! Don't be surprised if you experience a sudden surge in rating simply by improving your square reading skills. The free version is already effective enough to significantly boost your chess career. However, if you want to support me and get the full version, first of all, thanks!! And then just a one-time purchase will unlock: - Longer time controls - Untimed practice mode - Milestones and Achievements and - Complete visualization of your records - Compete with friends over the complete leaderboards There will be no ads, neither in the full version nor in the free one. Just a beautiful and satisfyingly addictive path to mastering squares. The level of comfort you will feel about talking, reading or even thinking about chess is, believe me, just priceless. Caution: If you are rated below 1500, this app may be less useful for you, and tactics training should be prioritized.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Chess Notation Lab at none against Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)'s shown. Chess Notation Lab also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)'s advantage is ratings volume (3.7K vs 6) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.6). 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. Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) sells 11 one-off in-app purchases and Chess Notation Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Chess Notation Lab holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) has 3.7K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 90% of Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)'s written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Notation Lab's.
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) ships an update every 2 months, Chess Notation Lab every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) | Chess Notation Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3.7K ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3.7K — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Emmanuel Mathis | Nishat Majid |
Customer experience
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
Chess Notation Lab
Bugs and requests
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
Chess Notation Lab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles)
- Easy mates$1.99
- Intermediate mates$1.99
- Hard mates$1.99
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- 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
Chess Notation Lab
- Full Version$9.99
Questions
Is Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) free?
Is Chess Notation Lab free?
Which has better reviews, Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) or Chess Notation Lab?
Do Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) or Chess Notation Lab have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Tactics Pro (Puzzles) or Chess Notation Lab?
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