Chess - Play & Learn Reviews

Hi there, been playing on Chess for about a month and started to really like it so looked at the memberships and there’s 3 levels ... $30, $50, and $80 (I believe) for a year, provided you pay upfront and not month by month. I was like ok I get it... there’s lots of features so you have to pay for more of them. Well that’s all good, I get that.

My main issue is with the puzzles that sometimes the “opponent” player doesn’t make the best move so you can’t actually solve the puzzle correctly unless you guess they will do the wrong thing. Solved a puzzle today and I would’ve gotten it right however the opponent made the worse move of their two moves and thereby I made the wrong move because I predicted the opponent would obviously make the best move. Please creators/admins fix this issue. It’s really not the way the puzzles should function. If you fix this I will gladly change my rating to 5 stars since that’s my main issues. Also I couldn’t find anywhere in Chess to report this.

But secondly to advertise their “videos” to watch to learn and improve in a notification or have it ever present on the main menu is really annoying when you can’t even watch the whole video because you don’t have the most expensive membership. I don’t like that. Just an annoying paywall situation where I already paid for Chess .

I had started playing this app around three years ago, but stopped playing after a while because me sister wouldn’t have time for it anymore. I also didn’t know all the weird stuff or the stuff that is secluded, like castling, stalemate and the difference between check and checkmate. And so I gave up on this app. But three years later, in 7th grade we had a this app tournament in our contest math class. I was very unpleased and upset to have found out that I lost in the second round! I watched the finals match, and watched one of my good friends get bashed and checkmated in around five to six maybe seven minutes. At that moment, I wanted to be like that guy who defeated my friend so badly. So I started forcing my sister to play this app with me. But however at one point she got tired of it. So then I had to find a good this app app or website to play on. After lots of asking people what the best this app apps are, I finally got this one!!! And I must say I love it! There is however, a minor issue. I found out there is now multiplayer! The other player must have an account and you have to invite them. Anyway, other than that, it’s all cool!!!

I want to offer simple design improvements that would engage users to a whole other level. This is so far a this app app / website that allows you to just play this app but severely lacks an actual this app community to the degree in which I see its potential. We want to find professional players / engage and keep up with this app news. People don’t want to read articles that’s boring. When I go to a professional this app players page all I see is comment spam from random people and no actual comments or video updates from the this app player them self. It needs to have Facebook comment design prioritizing the users comments at the top and then the most like comments after. They should also be able to add photos that could be commented on and liked. Secondly there are SO MANY sections that are not grouped up accordingly. People love simplicity. There should be a (Play) (Learn) (Watch) (News).
Instead, all the categories that should be located inside each drop box are scattered outside these categories and are extremely ugly and overwhelming. Besides that to somehow promote twitch engagement would be huge and lastly, getting borders for your advertisements would help you look like s more high quality website. I just love this app so much and Chess. I want Chess to be successful and the this app community to grow.

I have been playing on Chess religiously for over a year now! I was pretty bad at first. Got my blitz rating down to the low 300’s (not that I’ve never played, just hadn’t in a while and lost a grasp for the game) and have been building my account up game by game for over a year! I was almost at a rating of 800 when one user got livid at how bad I was beating him! He completely stopped playing and made me wait for the clock to run out to secure my win all the while messaging me insisting that I am cheating and he was going to report me! I obviously didn’t take him seriously because I assumed they’d look at the game and see we were playing at the same speed and his multiple blunders were the cause of this massacre as well as how could ONE ACCUSATION cause my account to be banned? Well guess what, the next morning MY ACCOUNT WAS BANNED! All of that hard work, achievements acquired, games I’ve learned from, just taken away from me without anyone reaching out, notifying me, and at least letting me say my side. I am completely dissatisfied and will let all of my friends who I recommended to Chess to delete immediately for their unjust handling of this situation! You are really banning people on spot because of one accusation??? Really????? For the customer service rep reading this, I hope you look at all of my match history, All two thousand of them, and tell me I did anything different in that match than in any other match I won or lost! Please

The abandonment feature frequently forfeits games just because you access another app on your phone. This just happened to me with less than 20 seconds away from the game. It’s really frustrating when you are winning a game and you pause a movie only to come back and find the game forfeited. Fix this glitch and it would be a 5 star review.

Really abandonment is a bad feature in a timed game. The rules of the game allow a player the entire time on the clock. Sure, it’s a jerk move to walk away from a game and make your opponent wait it out, but ratings shouldn’t change because of lost connections.

Edit: the abandonment feature has a bug. It frequently forfeits games instantly just because I check a text or email. I’m almost always playing long time format games. I almost exclusively play 15/10. I see several other reviews with the same complaint. Fix the bug. Make the rules clearly defined. At the very least there should be a set amount of time that triggers the abandonment feature and it should be easy to look up what this time is. Currently checking a text will instantly trigger abandonment. That definitely is not the way Chess should work.

I enjoyed this for the first couple of hours I had it installed. I made an account so I could access some of the features that you aren’t given off the bat. After spending a couple of hours playing against the computers, I got to one I had trouble beating. I decided I should look at some of the lessons that were recommended to me. After finishing the first lessons, I was about to start the next but was stopped because I had to pay to do more than one per day. I understand that Chess is free and normal this app lessons aren’t, but I wish you could have more lessons per day. I ran into the trouble of taking one lesson and then trying against the computer, only to fail again. So I would then wait a day to start the next lesson, only to realize I didn’t remember anything I was taught from the previous lesson, and I wasn’t improving. My suggestion is that the one per day increases to three per day. This would allow people to take multiple lessons in succession, and they could then practice what they learned from the lessons against a computer. Beside the one per day limit, I had fun and might install it again eventually.

This this app app is amazing and feels like it has everything you can possibly need. The this app AI can play at an extremely high level when you want it to and Ive learned many things from the AI! Also the live matchmaking system has a wide variety of options you can choose from, my favorite being the 10 minute matches because they are quick and fun, and it matches you up with other players in mere seconds. I would recommend Chess to any this app player, whether it be just starting out or a great player because the matchmaking will set you up against opponents of equal skill level and the AI can be set to any rating as well. For beginners there are videos and a bunch of resources available to help you to become a great this app player as well! One last thing I want to point out is that the developers are phenomenal, they are quick to address any problems you may have and really care about Chess and want it to be the best it can be. If you have problems or concerns I would highly suggest trying to reach out to them!

The daily puzzles and game reports desperately need a back button. I spend so much time staring at puzzles trying to remember what piece was captured and there’s no value at all in showing the previous move in literally half a second and expecting us to be able to see what piece was captured. I don’t even have enough time to focus my eyes before you make the move for the puzzles and same thing with the game recap. It needs a back button so I can look at what move was actually made. And you need to fix the alignment on the notations because I have to scroll to the right to see the check and check mate symbols. Simple fixes but it’s why I canceled my membership.

Telling me what the best move is in the game report is fine but if you don’t tell me WHY it does NOTHING to actually make me better!!! I switched to Magnus trainer and dr wolf for better explanations. Chess taught me how pieces move and how to castle but that’s it. I literally could not checkmate someone until I downloaded Magnus trainer lol. You also can’t replay the key moments and they move way too fast so when you show me I made the best response to a mistake for example I can never see what my opponent did first because it moves too fast and I can’t go back to previous key moments.

Having known not much more than the basic rules, I find Chess extremely helpful in helping me understand different moves and tactics. I now win almost all of my friendly games and I also compete in some casual tournaments in my community. Most of my more advanced learning has come through Chess, and it’s super handy. It gets your through the very basics quickly and brings you right in to the good stuff. That, along with some of the daily puzzles, offer a new experience every day.

I do not use premium but it seems that it would be worth it. You get so many more puzzles, which is one of the best way to master your moves and analysis of the game. The videos and streams are also convenient and not too bulky and very user friendly; the this app teachers are welcoming to viewers and keep a lively environment to keep me from getting bored.

I can easily spend 20-30 minutes a day or more without ever getting bored or tired of it. A fantastic app all around, free or paid.

I have played around with this app apps for years. This is the first one that actually gets me going and keeps me coming back. I have bought the diamond level and find it fascinating!!!!

I am 61 years old and have never developed a “3 to 4 steps ahead” thinking style. Chess is the real deal and is played by some really smart people. I believe it has all of the tools that I need to keep my mind sharp as I enter my senior citizen years!😁 An almost perfect app and I don’t give five stars unless I LOVE an app.

(note to developers: there is a fatal bug in the puzzles/learning/puzzles missed section. When you get done with all of the “missed puzzles”, Chess goes back to a starting position and then goes back to the home screen. I am using the latest version of the iOS. This has not been a big deal for me because I just start Chess up again and it works perfectly but I thought for the sake of tidying up loose ends you might want to look at it. 😊)

I want to start off by saying that I love Chess. I have been using it for more than a year now and I must say that out of the apps that I have on my phone currently, Chess is probably the one I have used the most, and will stay on my phone for many years to come. There are many cool features, most of which I use. There is anything from tactical puzzles to dazzle and baffle your mind and make you become a player, to daily puzzles and tournaments you can join.
However, there is one thing that I would add. On the website, you can join or leave clubs as you please, but Chess itself won’t let you unless it prompts you with it. I found this really annoying when I spent over half an hour trying to figure out and look up how to leave a club that I lost interest in. If you could please add this, then it would be much easier.
Overall, an amazing app.

This is basically a “join our site/email spam generator” app that has almost everything hidden behind a join/pay wall. What a joke. Why would exercises, puzzles, game modes, etc. _need_ me to join some random site and get spammed with emails from, in order to function? Hint: it does not. This is basically a mailing subscription grabber that is likely to sell your email and/or spam you. The UI also very frustrating as well seeing how this is not a native app and looks like a web wrapper for their site.

Chess has loads of bugs and many still exist in Chess with no way to report them to the developers and they have such a convoluted UI that doesn’t offer any help for looking where to even report the bugs. The best bug I came across was it just allowing pawns to move diagonally without capturing a piece (a basic rule and requirement that should never have been a bug in the first place).

This is such a low quality, cheap e-mail grabber app that put no effort into actually designing a high quality, bug free this app app but rather a dirty “register to use” model for a website-as-an-app loaded with bugs. Horrible.

Are you kidding ??? What the **** are you talking about man ? You are a biggest looser i ever seen in my life ! You was doing PIPI in your pampers when i was beating players much more stronger then you! You are not proffesional, because proffesionals knew how to lose and congratulate opponents, you are like a girl crying after i beat you! Be brave, be honest to yourself and stop this trush talkings!!! Everybody know that i am very good blitz player, i can win anyone in the world in single game! And "w"esley "s"o is nobody for me, just a player who are crying every single time when loosing, ( remember what you say about Firouzja ) !!! Stop playing with my name, i deserve to have a good name during whole my this app carrier, I am Officially inviting you to OTB blitz match with the Prize fund! Both of us will invest 5000$ and winner takes it all! I suggest all other people who's intrested in this situation, just take a look at my results in 2016 and 2017 Blitz World championships, and that should be enough... No need to listen for every crying babe, Tigran Petrosyan is always play Fair ! And if someone will continue Officially talk about me like that, we will meet in Court! God bless with true! True will never die ! Liers will kicked off...

fmhall | github

Original review: 1 star
Gotta say I wasn’t a fan. In my last game before I decided to uninstall, instead of giving me a victory it decided on a stalemate-draw (which was impossible). The opponent only had 5 pieces left: 3 pawns, 1 knight, and the king. I had him in a situation where he could not move his pawns because they were all blocked, nor could he move his king/knight without placing himself in checkmate. Either my castle, my queen, or my knight would have the victory. But instead of checkmate in my favor, it decided on a draw.

Edit to review: 5 stars
Gotta admit when I am wrong. I did not know that stalemate also applied to not allowing the opponent to move. I thought that if I trapped their king and placed them in a situation to where they couldn’t make a move without being in checkmate then I would be awarded the victory. I appreciate the response to my review. I’ll definitely both reinstall Chess and change the review.

Sometimes Chess kicks me out telling me I can't connect but I have a really good internet connection, or sometimes when I log it times me out as well they need to fix those issues, for the updates I my self in a team can not access the team posts and matches stats us VS other teams unless if our team post something that way I get access to the team posts and I go throw some times I would like to see how our team doing in the leagues and have to wait for that post to do so, you could just add on the menu "team posts" or something that will lead us to the team forum for those 3 reasons I'm giving a single star till the update occurs and those issues fixed I will change it based on that.

Edit: Chess has come along with many improvements and features, it has been running very smoothly, would love them to add “the conditional moves” to Chess and as well as our matches vs. “xxxx” to show the match tournament team we playing against, and access it to check the team scores.

I’ve been a VERY casual this app player thru the years, but never had a real grasp on the theories or strategies for playing.

Chess, in a very short time, has improved my game and my ability to think further ahead than just the next 1 or 2 moves like I did in the past. It is loaded with things to do, watch, and learn and I’m really getting into playing this app again. I’m getting decent wins against the computer that I would have lost before using Chess.

My only real complaint is, the after game analysis doesn’t explain WHY a different move would have been better, or WHY this move was a blunder. Some times its obvious, like I lost a queen bcuz I got too focused on a different piece. But frequently, it will suggest the best move was a sacrifice in order to move another into play. A quick example: had a knight in danger of being captured. Moved up a pawn to protect. After game analysis said the better move would have been to push up my other knight instead. But the other knight position would not protect my endangered knight nor would it threaten any other enemy piece. So as a relative this app beginner, I need more information on why this recommended move was a better choice...

That small issue aside, it’s a great app. I’m enjoying enough that I subscribed and excited to increase my knowledge and understanding of this app.

Chess hasn’t had any advanced fewtures for a long time. compared to the web version this Is very poor. would really appreciate showing the best moves on the board in analysis with arrows similar to the one on the web. I don’t think this feature is hard to add, it doesn’t need more that 2 days of work.

plus I don’t understand the feature in the analysis where if I play different moves, the alternate games are inserted inside the same log. its impossible to read or to find where I am or was. SPECIALLY when I press on the wrong tiny font by mistake. and why would you even have the ‘pressable’ log and the forward and back buttons so close to eachother. there is always a missclick and the experience becomes very bad. being the most known this app app i’m sure you can put some effort and do something better honestly.

retry button next to ‘next’ button in puzzles, very smart, and noway to go back. the puzzles goes to jupiter and i’ll never get to analyze it

I’ve never really played this app and am very bad at it, but this is a good application if you are looking to learn. It has lessons (some free ones to learn how the pieces move and paid ones that I haven’t looked at as it is a little too pricey) and you are able to select how long you want the game to be. One problem I continually have is running out of time during the games. Though this is clearly my problem and not the application’s, I’ve also been in quite a few games where my opponent has also not been keeping an eye on the clock and time just expires. I suggest adding a vibration, similar to the standard vibration from moving a piece when certain time intervals are reached such as every minute. I would add this to the settings if there is worry many users would not like this change.
Anyways, love Chess , great job to those who created and maintain it. Take care to anyone who reads this review.

Chess works well (most of the time). There are some oversights in design though. There is no way to control piece speed. I play on my iPad, and the piece movement animations are a bit slow - there should be an option to adjust the speed to move faster or slower. Additionally, when using an iPad + keyboard, the keyboard does not function at all. If I want to step through a game that I played using the arrow keys on my keyboard, this is currently not possible. Another helpful feature might be to add zen mode (hide player ratings, move-list, most unnecessary clutter from the UI when playing an online game). Additionally - I just found a bug that crashes Chess : if you try to scroll through the move list (using left / right arrows in the UI) while a modal window (such as you winning an online game) is overlaying the screen - Chess will crash after a few moves are scrolled through. (This is on iPad Pro running iOS 13.3.1).

THIS IS A GOOD APP FOR this app .. ONES OFF THE BEST.... Thevr ponse to me was about scoring and explain how difficulty levels changed how many points you gain or lose. ....I guess he didn't read my review because I said I've done over 4000 of the puzzles so I can improve....I said I noticed that I have done the same puzzles several times and the scoring is screwed up.... When solve the puzzles I get 5 points.... When hurry and screw up I lose 12 or 15 points etc etc blah blah right... The developer didnt take the time to realize I'm not a moron and I did over 4000 puzzles before the review saying it's flawed making cancel my DIAMON DR membership... DONT waste your time if your responding to make an excuse or explain why I too "dumb " to understand the scoring ..:) ITS PRETTY SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND....Respond to have two way communication Soo Chess will get better for everyone and people will like it more. WHEN a customer TAKEs THE TIME TO REVIEW a product, is probably BECAUSE they want to say thanks or help improve it..... If you learn about issues you can fix and improve Chess .... Then WILL BE MORE LOYAL AND and Happy and YOU'RE BUSINESS will NB be STRONGER FOR IT. THANK YOU 🙂

Excellent game play, game management, & much more. Post game analysis ranks each move “excellent/good/inaccuracy/blunder” and identifies what the better move would have been. Track your stats separately different game speeds, and accrue virtual ratings in the lessons and tactics drills. Pick up live timed games instantly, or play “daily” this app with days or weeks to make a move. I Love the daily tactics puzzles. Excellent interactive lessons and drills (e.g. practice every variety of limited-material mate). Watch other games live... easy to peek in on a friend’s games. GM video lectures and other curated material offer solid insights. Regular shows like “this app Brahs” always a good time. No other this app app comes close to this. Unlimited game play for free; all other main features available in reasonable quantities for free, more than enough to keep a casual player occupied. I upgraded just to get more daily tactics puzzles, and got deeper analysis tools I’m still learning about.

For the most part, this is OK. I do enjoy the daily puzzles, however sometimes they are just flat out wrong. I would say about one out of every 10 puzzle (recently more) is the wrong solution, and it is frustrating to lose points when you know that the recommended move is so obviously not the right move. Additionally, the hint button is absolutely useless. If I just accidentally touch it even though I didn’t mean to, I immediately lose all the points. What is the point of having a hint option if I can just as well make the wrong move and lose just as many points? Since using the hint provides partial solution, doesn’t it make sense that only partial points are lost? I would also recommend to the developers to add a confirmation prompt to the hint button to avoid these accidental frustrations. I had considered signing up for the paid version of Chess , but these glitches have stopped me from doing so. These are all minor fixes to make a very good and capable app even better. I really hope the developers take this feedback seriously and consider improving their app.

I enjoy playing blitz and rapid this app games with Chess. I find it a wonderful source of spacial cognitive ability enhancement.
The news and articles by Peter Doggers are well written and timely. You play against this app players from many different countries. The tactics training is fun and if you upgrade you receive extra features. Lessons are available and charts and statistics show your progress.
I play tournament this app at the West Valley this app Club. Our members use computers to train and analyse the games.
By playing many bullet games Online games I was able to achieve the 1st place of the Chaba Mehes memorial tournament. My ability to calculate quickly helped me defeat my rivals.
Developing an opening strategy with online this app is another benefit. You can pick your favorite player and watch live games. Whether you are an amateur or considering becoming a professional, Chess will be a great resource.