Chess Tactics Pro Puzzles Reviews

I liked the game at first and it felt fresh, but after finishing the built in puzzles all I was left with was the daily puzzles. But even with those, I wish the devs would include only “checkmate in x” puzzles, where the end result is a checkmate. I’ve only been doing the hard puzzles, and the game would tell me that a puzzle is “solved” but the actual game still had several moves before even reaching the endgame. This leaves me unfulfilled, and doesn’t help improve endgame or checkmate skills.

I have kept ChessTacticsProPuzzles on my iPhone for a few years now, coming back to it from time to time. This is a very solid app. First of all, it does not require an internet connection, like many of the other apps do. Most of the problems are correct, i.e. I do not run into bugs too often. I removed one star for the embedded chess engine - not sure what it is, since the name is never mentioned anywhere, but I get the feeling the engine it truly archaic (self made?). Not sure why in all these years the author chose not to upgrade to something like the most recent Stockfish version. And another star was lost due to the combination of minor cosmetic issues:
* some minor errors, i.e. the program does not always respond with the best possible move
* the board color schemes choice could be a bit better
* the board sound is quite strange, more like a click, not very realistic

Of all the chess tactics apps this one is very straight forward and a pleasure to use. (Some of the others out there can get very convoluted with their features.) My only gripe with some of these puzzles is that not all of them contain the most important feature in Chess combinations and that is: The Forced Move. The reason I’m writing this review, was because I just did one of their daily puzzles (nice feature) and after white takes black’s Bishop, the answer for black was to take the bishop with a pawn? Thus exposing the lonely Rook on the back file to be taken with white’s Rook... resulting in mate. Well… any decent player knows that you shouldn’t take that bishop. I find puzzles like this sometimes, but not all the time. Perhaps they need a better chess editor on board? Overall, not a bad app. Definitely worth having.

A lot of the puzzles are really straight forward and good for beginner and intermediate players. What frustrates me the most about the puzzles is that several of the hard puzzles have more than one winning solution; backed by computer analysis. Sometimes you can play a move that absolutely wins, but it’s not the “best” line. Let’s be honest, if one line is +10, and I go with the line that’s +8, they’re both winning. In my mind, a puzzle should only have one “winning” solution. Additionally, there are some puzzles that are mate in x, and you can be wrong if you choose a mating line that takes more moves than the intended solution, i.e., The puzzle may be a mate in 3, but you choose a line that’s mate in 4. It really doesn’t matter. Checkmate is checkmate.

I really like ChessTacticsProPuzzles and have been using it for a long time; I don’t want my frustrations to dismiss that fact. It would beneficial (in my opinion) to introduce alternative correct moves that give the user a chance to find the best solution rather than flat out calling it wrong.

ChessTacticsProPuzzles is very useful! I do like it a lot and the only thing I find bad about this is the moves. Sometimes there is a move that is good, but a there is better move. If I’m trying to checkmate, and when I make a move the game says it wrong because I should capture a piece instead, rather than checkmate. Very solid game though, would recommend.

I love the concept of solving chess puzzles but it is too restricted and won’t accept alternative solutions. If it says “mates in 3 moves” and there is more than one sequence to do so, it should slow for that. Restrict it to 3 moves, sure, but don’t say “wrong” just because the sequence isn’t the prescribed one. Relax and allow for some creative experimentation and, if successful, then allow them to then learn the prescribed solution also. Just my opinion.

This is the best chess puzzles app out there. My one gripe with ChessTacticsProPuzzles , though, is that many of the puzzles, especially the hard ones, have ambiguous solutions. Otherwise, it would be 5 stars. Many of the harder puzzles have a variation in mind, but these variations can be accomplished with a different order of moves. ChessTacticsProPuzzles doesn’t accept the alternative order of moves. Kind of trivial, I know, but chess is in the details haha.

This is, so far, the best chess puzzle program that I’ve found, but it has a serious issue at times. On some puzzles you must assume that your opponent will make a bad move in response to your move. You can’t “properly” solve that puzzle without that assumption. I don’t like that aspect of ChessTacticsProPuzzles which is why I keep looking for a better one. I haven’t yet found a better one.

Working these kinds of problems to me is the most helpful. Playing full games against an engine that never makes a mistake is far less so IMO.

My only concern with ChessTacticsProPuzzles is that I could use more practice with incremental strategy; these problems focus more on big moves.

Still ChessTacticsProPuzzles delivers just the right amount of challenge on a daily basis to keep me thinking like a chess player.

I’ve played a bunch of the puzzles now, and there have been a bunch of times where it says I made a move incorrectly, when in reality it was wrong. There was a time where I could have checkmated the king by sacrificing my bishop, and it said it was wrong. The correct move wasn’t even checkmate. I continued to go through the problems even after I “solved” them, and found that the king could avoid checkmate 3-5 moves later. It was pretty annoying. But the difficulty was good. Although some puzzles are rated as “easy” they are definitely not beginner, and improved my game quite a bit.

A great app for learning or reviewing the sharper side of your game. The problems are steeped a bit too much in mates, however that is where most forcing lines are anyway.
The format is much better than book diagrams because of the direct interaction. The result is that I am learning from the puzzles as I solve them, or attempt to 🧐.
I love the rating challenge to gauge my progress.
Overall a wonderful app for players at all levels up to 2200.

I have not encountered a better app-based tactical tool. Easy to use in spare moments (when one does not have enough time for a match). And one can spend a fair amount of time using ChessTacticsProPuzzles and feel consistently challenged. Its navigation is perhaps not quite as fluid as it would be after some improvement. And I join others in hoping that bugs are fixed relating to scenarios when one can mate in a single move as opposed to the prescribed six, as just one of several examples. I do not write many reviews, but I do so in this instance to echo that a very, very good app could be made even better.

I find that each of my chess software programs satisfies a different niche and this one is no exception. The daily puzzles are usually pretty good and many times the only way I’m going to fit in a little brain excercise. I really like the format of 2 easy, 2 medium and 2 hard puzzles each day. For me, it’s just great. I would buy it again and I do recommend this game which runs reliably on my iPad Pro.

I enjoy sitting down and doing chess puzzles. Even thought, it’s A great app for chess puzzles. It’s very hard to understand how it helps in the position. I hope that there would be A explanation bar on the side, or something.

So I’m able to understand the position more. Otherwise ChessTacticsProPuzzles is A great, it’s helpful to see patterns in real games. Also it’s easy to use. Unlike most apps, this actually has puzzles, that’s good.

Paid is only a few bucks and you get hundreds of puzzles. But I used the free version over a year and loved it.

ChessTacticsProPuzzles is probably 90% responsible for my improvement in chess over the last several years. Just 5 to 10 minutes a day helps keep you sharp.

All of the puzzles are challenging and helpful. Each tactic poses its own problem and teaches you something that will improve your chess playing ability at any level. Your desire to play will increase since you learn how the game really works and gain confidence in your game as you get better at analyzing each tactic. You will get better at choosing your moves at every stage of the game. This is a wonderful app, and you can buy additional puzzle sets, too.

I really enjoy the puzzles. I’ve played chess thousands of times, and even had a PC chess training program around twenty years ago, but I’ve never been very good.
I’m on puzzle #36 in the intermediate level, and I was just thinking today that I noticed this method has actually improved my game. The two-four move challenges are not daunting enough to discourage, and I find it hard to not say, “Just one more, just one more...” Each “baby-step puzzle is like a bite-sized candy. Pretty soon you’ve eaten the whole bag! I’m gonna finish them all !!

I like this a lot, but the only thing that is driving me seriously nuts, is that I'm a beginner, and I'm going through easy and I don't necessarily know what the goal of the next step is everytime. For example, I did puzzle 15 on easy, it ended with me taking the bishop, but that wasn't necessarily checkmate. Maybe I'm missing something or im such a beginner that im missing something, but this definitely scratches my chess itch without having to play a whole game. Hope you check out my criticism and respond! Thank you!

Great free chess tactics app. Very user friendly, daily puzzles (easy, medium, hard), comes with free puzzle “Packs” (150 easy, 100 intermediate, 50 hard). Highly recommended, lots of fun and helpful.

Devs: I do wish there was a way to show in the board UI the pieces that have been taken by each side - like Shredder. Small piece icons maybe on the left and right, just under the bottom edge of the board.

So far from a beginner standpoint this is the most well established app for newbies trying to do more chess puzzles most apps have some paid subscription thing, this doesn’t you can do as many as you want and they have daily puzzles and well easy medium and hard, I have been using this religiously and see a big difference in my chess play online! Good work!