Chess Universe Reviews

UPDATE: Every game I now play takes me to ChessUniverse Store mid game. Even when I don’t push on anything while waiting for my opponent to make a move. The lock still ticks and I have been taken to ChessUniverse Store 5 times during an end game and lost so much time. Hate this update!

I’ve been playing chess with ChessUniverse daily for a long time now. Today there has been a big update which I was excited for at first but then became really frustrated. I won multiple games and the rating hasn’t changed at all. Moreover, when I try to play online it’s taking forever to find a player and when they do they don’t end up playing. I’m pretty sure the majority of people I was paired with today weren’t real people. You updated way to early. There’s a lot of glitches,bugs, and slow loading time that makes me want to rage quit. Fix ChessUniverse asap.

Update: Originally listed as 3 stars, now dropping to 1.

The developer responded to my feedback. “Great,” I thought. “I’m excited they actually read the notes and how frustrating it was.”

Nope, it’s a copied and pasted advertisement.

How infuriating to have them request feedback, you give feedback, and then they respond but without having heard your concern.

They literally would have been better served by not messaging me.

Original: I consider myself a decent chess player. I won’t be competing in any tournaments but when I play family, I get to bully them around some. I got to a level early on that I couldn’t beat. I tried everything—even going as far to spend all of my in-game currency to help me through it. Still couldn’t. So I got crafty: on another device, I opened an alternative chess app, rebuilt the level to match, and turned the computer up to max difficulty but with the computer on the rebuilt game, playing as me on ChessUniverse. I figured I would copy the moves, win the level, and move on. No dice. Still lost the level. Played through 3 times to see if I could get some variation. Still lost. If I had to take a guess, the AI in ChessUniverse gets significantly dumber once you spend. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

I’m giving a one star because I’ve been using ChessUniverse for a long time now and I wasn’t able to carry over my account and so everything I purchased on my other phone. I can’t use on this new phone and also because in all this time, they still haven’t addedwhen you’re having matches against friends or added no time limit at all so that people can have day long matches. Missed opportunities and seems like they don’t care about ChessUniverse .

I downloaded ChessUniverse because the idea of having some cool animations and unlocks based on your games was a fun one. Unfortunately, the ads are too much for me. The ads that players can choose to watch to unlock certain items are fine, but when browsing through menus to get stopped with a mandatory 30 second ad? Not for me. The other gripe I had, is there should be an option to mute all players. Every game I lost, the opponent felt it necessary to emote non-stop before playing the final move ...

With no mandatory ads on the menus and the option to mute all emotes, I’d definitely give ChessUniverse another shot.

ChessUniverse functions, I’ll give it that. This feels like a run of the mill ad-supported mobile game that just happens to be shrink wrapped around a chess board.

There are far far better options out there for learning and playing chess, options which cost less and provide far more value for both free and paid tiers. The educational content is weak at best and deity save you if you opt in to ad tracking.

Overall the interface feels cheap and rushed, I doubt very much that there’s quality cheat protection in place, and I just see no reason to recommend it over established alternatives for playing chess.

I’m also fairly certain this company is paying for reviews. I found more than a few reviews which rate ChessUniverse highly, yet mention no specific features and in some cases talk about some other game entirely.

It’s highly suspect that a variant of this game on Apple Arcade, published by a different company entirely, has almost as many reviews and about the same rating. The math doesn’t add up.

I don't think it's good at what it offers personally. For me it's main grab was puzzles and solo play, as we already have a few top tier multiplayer apps. But many of the puzzles aren't well designed. My main issue is you are forced to checkmate in the way they designed. If it says checkmate in 2 you are forced to do it the programed way, not just checkmate. A better designed puzzle would either allow the mate or not have the opportunity for another way.

Checkmate maze level 38 for an example, but you can find plenty more if you look. Quickly glancing I found 5 checkmates but only 1 is acceptable.

The game offers too many cosmetics, packs, and currency to buy. ChessUniverse used too many tactics to capitalize off of chess. Some puzzles you are forced to purchase individual and buy currency in-game to faster unlock skins. It’s greedy and manipulative, also I come across too many glitches or crashes especially in puzzles where I do the correct move and the game says that it was incorrect, and when I use “diamonds” in order to purchase hints it tells me that the move I made that the game said was incorrect was the right move.

Not too many things to do. All lessons are locked unless you pay it seems. 1 vs computer games are fun but i can never finish. It just stops and says out if time. Very unsatisfying. Let me play my game.

Biggest gripe: New players get blindsided. I will lose a piece and have no idea what i just lost. I meed to be able to see what just happened.

Next gripe: Let me play my game! Good grief! It's unsatisfying to start something and they keep stopping you half way through!

I did not realize how much stalemating there was in chess tell I downloaded ChessUniverse. It also come up with ridiculous scenarios for you to try and Navigate too which is not very fun since the game is often rigged to you can only do x amount of moves so the AI will just run out the clock on purpose just so you lose. ChessUniverse is really making me never want to play chess again with how much the AI does this all the time. I’m sure someone who isn’t a novice would really enjoy the challenge though. I can see why it gets lots of 5 star reviews

At first it seemed too competitive, but now I’ve found I love the 30 second games! Constant rewards will keep you hooked .The problem is the timer is not accurate. You or opponent will run out of time even when clock is not running . Been playing 3 years . Still the same problem.

I love the customization aspect of the game. I love a lot about the game but I think there should be daily refreshes on ammo and I think there shouldn’t be as many dud chests. You play so many games back to back to get a single key just to unlock a dud chest. And if the chest isn’t a dud you get 3-5 cards out towards something that needs 125 cards to fully unlock. Progression is ridiculously slow unless you spend money which makes it seem like that’s what the game wants more than anything. Also there needs to be an option in the settings to have to double click an area to confirm moving a piece. I’ve lost too many pieces and games due to accidentally clicking a square one space over leaving my queen wide open for getting taken. I have big fingers and the largest iPhone on the market and yet I still keep clicking the wrong space. You need to add a double click setting to move.

Revising my one-star review to establish I was able to make contact with the developer and get my questions answered - though they made it very difficult! Fortunately, their new site has a contact us button and they have been responsive.

ChessUniverse itself is quite good. I enjoy the training towers, even if they could stand more explanation (something I am told they are working on), and gameplay is great with lots of options for different types of games. I’m a little old for the cutesy theme items but if it draws in more folks to learn and play, all the better. Recommend.

Love ChessUniverse, made learning and progressing fun. Only thing i wish could be addressed is the time out time maybe set it to 20 sec. I feel 35 sec is enough for someone to switch to an app like SmallFish and enable cheating. Also it would be neat to be able to export games to SmallFish to analyze find where you broke down or made a strong move. Other than this this is the best App for chess on your phone!

Chess academy, ABC chess school, level 18 to be exact is the first issue i’ve had with the game. This level deliberately makes me lose. No matter what moves it gives me the option to pick, it WILL NOT let me win. I had mate in 4 MOVES and still it would not give me the option to get mate!! (It’s a check mate with the queen, guarded by the bishop and still, the game would not let me do it). Also, if If I use hints only, STILL does the game make you lose -_- Is this a deliberate way to make people use gems to get more moves or something???

Biggest thing is I’m not getting swamped with million ads. I’m not a super fan of the online play but still enjoyable. The Chess academy also makes this game stand out you don’t have a daily limit on the lessons you can use if you have the currency you can do them

I’m a slow starter, at 66 I’ve decided to find out what the fuss was all about with the Mathematicians playing Chess. Well ChessUniverse makes it all simple to understand and play. Most likely for those aged 5, 6 through 10 and 66 yo aged people. I’ve spent a few hours enjoying how the strategy and tactics of WAR. No math, thank the unknown.

My husband found ChessUniverse. We play each other when we are together or away at work, etc. It is also a great way to learn chess and clean your skills. I also like that we can message each other even though we have text messages lol 🌸

Why do games disconnect?!
I’ve lost many games because of this irritating problem! The game times me out , and then disconnects!
I like the game cause it pits you against same level player.
But the disconnecting is extremely irritating! Otherwise I’d give you 5stars!
fuegassi

This is one of those all games that is jus perfect no matter how u look at it.. from the smooth game play to the easy user interface its for everyone and the different effects when you check are amazing mayb some more affects would be cool but if not thats fine the way it is and you dont have to pay to unlock them you can jus play and earn them which is always good.. the developers knocked this one out of the park great job guys

I have downloaded and played countless chess apps and games over the last 30 years. This one the smoothest operating platforms I have experienced. When people ask me about chess apps this is the one I highly recommend.