Chess Pro

Review by eFreeware

Learning chess on a phone usually means picking between two unsatisfying options: a bare board with a weak opponent, or a free app so loaded with interruptions that thinking about a position becomes impossible. What most improvers need is something in between, a program that plays at a level they can handle and explains enough to stop them repeating the same mistakes.

Chess Pro from AI Factory Limited is aimed at exactly that gap. It is a paid Android board game, priced at $4.99, and it has been on the store since August 2010, which makes it one of the longer-running chess programs on the platform. It is built as a teaching tool first and a game second.

A paid chess program built around a tutor

The core of the app is its tutor. Rather than simply letting you move and then punishing you, it can point out a piece worth moving and let you work out the rest of the move yourself. That distinction matters: a hint that hands over the full answer teaches you very little, while a nudge toward the right piece keeps you thinking. When you want the complete answer, a separate hint option supplies the whole recommended move.

The developer has also added a safety layer that flags where your moves are unsafe, with an optional setting that extends this to pins and ties. For anyone who keeps losing material to the same tactical oversight, seeing the danger marked before committing is the sort of feedback a book cannot give you at the board.

A smiley face indicates who currently stands better in the game. It sounds trivial, but for a beginner trying to work out whether a position is good or bad, a plain visual signal removes some of the guesswork while they build the judgment to read it themselves.

Twelve levels from Novice to Master

Difficulty runs across twelve play levels, from Novice up to Master. The lower levels use what the developer calls intelligent weakening, so a beginner is not simply crushed by full-strength play with the clock running down. That approach tends to produce more useful games than an opponent that blunders at random.

There are two broad modes to work through. Casual mode is the place to learn, and Pro mode is where results feed into an ELO rating based on your games against the computer. Having a number that moves as you improve gives practice a shape that a string of unrated games does not.

From level three upward, you can switch on an option that shows what the computer is considering. Watching the engine weigh its options is a different kind of lesson from being told what to play, and it is the sort of feature that rewards a curious player rather than one simply chasing wins.

Playing through a game, from first move to review

A session typically starts with the opening, and the app names the line you are in, so a Queen's Gambit is identified as such while you play it. That small piece of context helps players connect what they have read about openings to the moves actually appearing on the board.

During play, the tutor, hints and move analysis are all available, and you can step through the game afterward in review mode. Going back over a loss move by move, with the engine's assessment alongside, is where a lot of the improvement happens, and having it built into the same app as the game itself keeps the loop short.

Games can be saved and loaded, and positions can be exported in PGN format. That makes it straightforward to keep a record of what you have played or move a game into another program for closer study. Timers, handicaps and statistics round out the playing options.

Opponents, boards and the engine underneath

The app runs on the Treebeard chess engine, which the developer notes was used in Microsoft's MSN Chess and is pitched as having a more human-like style than a purely calculating opponent. Playing against something that resembles a person's choices is often more instructive for club-level improvement than facing an engine that finds the objectively best move every time.

You can play against the computer, against someone sitting next to you in hot-seat mode, or online against friends through a Google Play Games account. The same account handles achievements and leaderboards, so there is a competitive layer for players who like comparing results.

Boards and pieces come in 2D and 3D styles. The app is designed for both tablets and phones, with landscape support across tablets and most phones.

What the $4.99 buys, and what it does not

Chess Pro is a one-off purchase at $4.99. There are no ads and no in-app purchases, so nothing interrupts a game and there is no second decision to make after installing. For a teaching tool you might use for years, that is a straightforward arrangement, and it is the main reason a paid chess app can be easier to live with than a free one.

The trade-off is simply the upfront cost. You pay before you know whether the teaching style suits how you learn. The risk looks small: the app has more than 100,000 installs and a 4.8 average from over 22,000 ratings, a strong record for a paid board game.

The app stays current, with a September 2026 update targeting Android SDK 36, and it still carries Top Developer recognition awarded in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Where the teaching shows its limits

The tutor is the reason to choose this app, but it is also the part that asks something of you. A recommended piece and a full hint are only useful if you stop and think about why the move works; players who tap through them quickly will get less out of the app than its feature list suggests.

Online play depends on a Google Play Games account, and the ELO rating is calculated from results against the computer in Pro mode rather than from online games. If your interest is competitive play against other people, the app's rating system will not reflect that.

The twelve levels are a wide spread, but the lower ones rely on deliberate weakening, so the strength of the opposition at any given level is a design choice rather than a fixed standard. Players looking for a consistent benchmark will find the ELO figure more useful than the level names.

A worthwhile buy for players who want to improve

Chess Pro makes most sense for someone who already knows the rules and wants to get better, and who would rather study a single game properly than play twenty quick ones. The tutor, the unsafe-move warnings and the review mode all serve that goal, and the absence of ads and purchases keeps the focus where it belongs.

It also suits a household or a pair of friends who want to play each other, thanks to hot-seat mode and online games through Google Play Games, with achievements and leaderboards for those who enjoy a scoreboard. The board and piece options mean it can look however you prefer without affecting how it plays.

At $4.99 with no further costs, the decision comes down to whether you want a teacher or just a board.

What's new in version 4.25

Targets Android SDK 36