iPhone Games Review - Chess Pro & Chess Lite

Chess fans have a lot of choices on the iPhone. Do a quick search on the AppStore and you'll find at least 30 games to choose from. According to the Top 100 lists, the top chess application is iChess at #56 on the top free apps list. (None of the premium chess games are on the top 100 paid apps list).

I am an awful Chess player but I have a goal to improve. I've been playing the preloaded version on my MacBook Pro and was curious to check out Chess on the iPhone.

While I was recently reviewing WordsWorth by 99Games, I discovered their two Chess games - Chess Pro and Chess Lite.

Chess Lite ($.99 in the AppStore) is designed for casual players of Chess while the Pro version ($3.99 in the AppStore) is designed for advanced players who are looking for a bigger challenge.

The game loads quickly and even if you are a beginner in Chess you can pick up and play quickly. One of my favorite parts of the game is that when you select a Chess piece it shows you all the legal moves you can make with that piece. You can play Black or White, you can play by yourself against the computer or you can play in a multi-player mode. (The board rotates between players turns.) You can even play a demo of a Chess game to see how the game works.

I played a few games against the computer on the Lite version and was able to win once which made me happy. I didn't spend a lot of time with the Pro version but there are a lot of features in that version which would make it well worth the extra $3, including multiple levels of complexity and three variants such as Regular, Suicide and Losers.

Both editions make use of a professional strength Chess engine with playing strength over 2750 ELO. I had no idea what 2750 ELO meant so I looked it up on Wikipedia and here's what I learned:

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. Basically, it means that the engine used to develop the game is strong so players of varying skill levels will be challenged and have fun.

I've now played 3 games developed by 99Games and they are all good. I would highly recommend downloading Chess Pro and Chess Lite - whether you go for the Lite version or Pro is up to you. For me, right now, the Lite version is plenty of game but hopefully as my Chess skills improve, I can graduate to the Pro version.