All chess apps

What is in this directory

Every one of the 34 apps listed here has been installed and used before it was written up - no entries copied from an app-store description or another roundup. The directory covers the software an improving player actually touches: the two big play-and-analyze platforms, spaced-repetition trainers, puzzle servers, endgame tablebase drills, opening databases, desktop engines and GUIs, game analysers, and the small independent tools that do exactly one thing well. Hardware boards and pure entertainment apps are included only when they earn a place on training merit.

Apps that are abandoned, broken on current mobile OS versions, or repackaged Stockfish wrappers with a subscription attached do not get a listing. Being absent from this directory is a verdict too.

How each listing is written

Each app page carries the same fields so two apps can be compared without re-reading prose: real current pricing including what the free tier actually withholds, the platforms it genuinely runs on, the feature tags used by the filters above, the audience it fits, and an opinionated set of pros and cons. Every page shows the date it was last reviewed. When pricing or features change, the date moves - a listing that has not been checked in six months is treated as stale and re-tested rather than quietly left up.

Rankings and filter ordering are never for sale. Some outbound links are affiliate links, and an app only carries one when it would already be the editorial recommendation without it. That policy, and the full testing method, are written out on the methodology page.

If you do not know what you are looking for

Browsing 34 apps is the wrong first move for most people. The more useful starting point is the question underneath the search: which single app is worth adding to a training routine right now, and which of the ones already installed can be dropped.

• Not sure where to start: how to pick a chess app that will actually get you improving.
• Weighing two specific apps against each other: the side-by-side comparisons.
• Training a specific weakness: browse by use case instead of by app.
• An app is missing, or a listing has gone out of date: submit it and an editor will test it.