Indian Joe / Android Salad
Chess is one of the oldest board games. You can play relaxing games with friends, or you can get involved in a very active competitive chess community. The thing about chess is that it is easy to learn and hard to master. You can learn new things about this game years after its first launch. People are still out there if you are here to find some chess, here are the best chess games for Android.
We’d also like to give an honorable mention to FollowChess (Google Play). It is not a chess game, but it allows you to watch the chess matches of most of the major tournaments. It’s a great way to learn more advanced chess strategies and get more involved with the game.
The best chess games for Android
Chess by AI Factory Limited
price: Free / $0.99
Indian Joe / Android Salad
Chess by AI Factory Limited is one of the most popular chess games on mobile. It has all the basic things. It also includes 12 difficulty levels, casual and professional game modes, achievements, leaderboards, and even cloud saves. The interface is simple. However, there are eight chessboard themes. The free version does not contain in-app purchases, but it does contain ads. You can purchase the $0.99 version to remove them. Chess by Chess.com is another good app in this genre that works very similarly.
Chess openings trainer
price: Free / $4.99
Chess Openings Trainer is a chess training app. It helps you learn how to open good chess and how to go from the openings to the middle of the game. The tool monitors your movements and then moves instantly to specifically target your weak spots. You get better with time and so does the application. There are also flash cards with random slots to play from, PNG file support, and it uses the popular Stockfish chess engine. The pro version adds some extra features than the free version as well.
Professional Chess Tactics
price: Free / As low as $8.99
Chess Tactics Pro is different from most chess games. There isn’t much in the way of standard chess. However, it contains a lot of chess puzzles. It features offline puzzle packs (available as in-app purchases), daily online puzzles, and more. She claims that the difficulty of some challenges can reach ELO 2000+ and that’s a bit far fetched. It’s a good way to challenge your skills and learn some new tactics. The game is free to download. You can purchase additional content through in-app purchases.
CT-ART
price: Free / $7.99
CT-ART is among the best chess games for those who want to learn. Featuring 2,200 basic exercises, 1,800 additional exercises, and 50 learning topics. Each exercise has a different objective and is meant to teach you a different tactic. In addition, the game will track your improvement in ELO as you progress through the app. It is better to classify it as an educational app rather than a game. However, learning all the little tactics actually requires you to play chess.
Lichess is one of the most popular chess games on mobile. Its main premise is to play chess online against other players. The game has a player base of more than 150,000 players. That shouldn’t make it too difficult to find a game with someone at your skill level. It also has many game modes, tournaments and you can see your game stats. You can also play offline against a computer if you choose. The app also boasts of being available in 80 languages. The biggest attraction is the price. It’s free without ads or in-app purchases. The app is also open source in case you want to know how to get it working.
Mate in 1
price: Free / $1.99
Mate in 1 is a chess puzzle game from the developers of CT-ART. It gives you 2500 puzzles where you can checkmate in one move. It is double validated, gives players hints if errors occur, and you can bookmark your favourites. It is a rather interesting chess game for you to play to hone your skills. Plus, the sheer number of puzzles you get for $1.99 is definitely worth it. The game has some scoring errors as you progress, but it’s not too serious.
Play Magnus Chess
price: Free to play
Playing Magnus Chess is what the title says. It features a chess engine tuned to play much like Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen’s chess game. The game features the ability to choose Magnus’ age and the engine adjusts itself to play as it did at that age. This also presents a difficult casting as he has improved as he has gotten older. According to the app description, some players may qualify to play Magnus himself. This may just be the marketing doing its thing though. Some claim the engine isn’t as powerful as Magnus and that makes sense to us. It’s a decent chess game overall.
Really bad chess
price: Free / As low as $2.99
Really Bad Chess is one of the latest chess games for Android. It looks like a pretty standard chess game. However, this allows you to play with completely random pieces. You can have 5 knights and 3 bishops or 3 queens and 2 pawns on the board for all game interests. The free version lets you battle it out with the AI in several different game modes. The premium version adds a versus mode, removes and adds ads, and some other minor changes. This is a game of chess for those who always wonder what it would be like if careful balance and perfect strategy weren’t so important.
Chess hack
price: $6.99
Shredder Chess is not the most popular chess game on the list. However, people seem to like it. The game features over 1,000 chess-related puzzles, adjustable playing strength, and even save and load states like video game console emulators. This game also has a desktop version. If you buy the desktop version, you actually get that version for free, but it doesn’t work and vice versa. It has occasional glitches, but the AI is quite human-like and it’s a fun game to play.
Stockfish OEX Engines
price: free
Stockfish Engines OEX includes Stockfish Engines 11 and 15. You can load these engines into a GUI like Chess for All, Chess PNG Master, and a few others. You can find the list in the Google Play description of this app. People really enjoy Stockfish engines because they are among the highest quality of any engine. This app does not actually allow you to play chess. It just provides the chess engine for you to load in a different application. However, having Stockfish 15 freely available and on demand is something we think serious chess players will enjoy.
If we missed any of the best chess games for Android, tell us about it in the comments. You can also click here to check out our latest Android apps and game lists.
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