Comparison

Math Escape 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

Math Escape

Solve math problems quickly to guide a character through a volcanic maze and outrun rising lava. Offers three difficulty levels and achievement unlocking. Perfect for practicing arithmetic under pressure.

Highlights
  • Fast-paced brain training
  • Three difficulty levels
  • Unlock achievements
  • Compete with friends
  • iCloud sync
  • Ad-free gameplay
Features
Read full description

Outrun the lava with your brain! Math Escape: Speed Run is free, with no ads. Dash the stick man is trapped in the Volcanic Maze of Mathlor, and only your quick thinking can save him. Every right answer builds the path ahead. Answer wrong, or take too long, and the ground crumbles into the lava. Perfect for children learning their sums and for grown-ups who want a fast brain workout. HOW IT PLAYS - Solve each sum to add a step to Dash's path before it runs out. - Build streaks: 5 right in a row doubles your points, 10 in a row triples them. - Three levels: Easy (+ and −), Medium (adds ×) and Hard (all four operations). Harder levels run faster and score more. PRACTICE WITHOUT PRESSURE - Practice mode has no timer and no falling. - Choose exactly which operations to work on, such as just times tables. - Adaptive questions ask more of the sums you find tricky. SEE YOUR PROGRESS - Stats show your accuracy for every operation and your best streak. - Earn 14 achievements across every level. - High scores for each difficulty, plus Game Center leaderboards. MADE FOR EVERYONE - No ads and no tracking. - VoiceOver, Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion support. - Designed for iPhone and iPad. - iCloud keeps your scores, achievements and stats the same on all your devices. - Available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Brazilian Portuguese. Math Escape is free. If it has helped someone in your family enjoy maths, an optional tip jar lets you support its development, but it is never required. The lava is rising. Dash is counting on you. -------- Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

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

Math Escape4 screens
Chess Puzzles4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Chess Puzzles at 4.8 against Math Escape's 3.5. Chess Puzzles also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (242 vs 2). Math Escape's advantage is monetization model (ad-supported vs free with in-app purchases). On price, review sentiment, 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. Math Escape sells 4 one-off in-app purchases 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

Chess Puzzles holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Puzzles has 242 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Math Escape's written reviews are positive against 95% of Chess Puzzles's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Math Escape ships an update every 2 months, Chess Puzzles every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Math Escape versus Chess Puzzles: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMath EscapeChess Puzzles
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.5 (2 ratings)4.8 (242 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better95.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2242 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB112 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperAnkharis LtdSergei Tovmasian

Customer experience

Math Escape

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Chess Puzzles

All ratings241 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral0.8%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive95.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Math Escape

One-time4
  • Nice Tip$0.99
  • Generous Tip$2.99
  • Remove Ads$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Amazing Tip$4.99
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 Math Escape free?
Math Escape 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, Math Escape or Chess Puzzles?
Chess Puzzles is rated higher. Math Escape averages 3.5 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Chess Puzzles averages 4.8 from 242 ratings.
Do Math Escape or Chess Puzzles have ads?
Neither Math Escape nor Chess Puzzles shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Math Escape or Chess Puzzles?
Math Escape ships an update every 2 months, and Chess Puzzles every 3 days. Most recently, Math Escape was updated on October 10, 2026 and Chess Puzzles on October 25, 2026.

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