Chess - Play and Learn Online

Review by eFreeware

Getting better at chess is awkward when your practice is scattered. A tactics book here, a video there, a handful of games against a friend who beats you the same way every time, and nothing that shows you why you keep losing. What most players need is one place that holds the games, the puzzles and the explanations together, so the losing positions turn into something you can study.

Chess.com is that place, at least by intent. The Android app comes from Chess.com, the company behind the long-running chess site, and it has been on Google Play since February 2010. It is free to download, carries ads and offers in-app purchases, and it has passed 100 million installs with a 4.7 average across more than 3.4 million ratings. Those numbers tell you this is not a niche tool; it is the mainstream option, and the question is whether the mainstream option is the right one for you.

Games at whatever speed you have time for

The core of the app is straightforward: you play chess against other people. Two-player online games are free to enjoy with friends, and you can also join tournaments against online players or people you know. Time controls run from one minute per game up to 30 minutes or longer, which covers the whole spread from bullet and blitz to slower games where you actually have room to think.

Variants sit alongside standard chess. Chess960, also called Fischer-Random, shuffles the back rank; blitz and bullet are the fast formats; puzzle battle and puzzle rush are timed competitions built around tactics; blindfold removes the board from view. If you have only ever played the standard game, these give you a reason to keep opening the app after the novelty of online play wears off.

For days when you would rather not face a person, there are more than 100 bot opponents. You pick the level and set a timer, and the games run offline against the computer. The developer also points to offline analysis, so you can go back through a game and see where it turned. That combination is useful when you want a game on a flight or in a waiting room, and it costs you nothing in terms of opponent availability.

Puzzles, lessons and a coach that talks you through it

The tactics side is where the app puts most of its weight. There are over 500,000 puzzles, and the rated mode adjusts to your skill level as you go, so the problems should stay near the edge of what you can solve rather than swinging between trivial and impossible. Puzzle Rush adds a clock and a high score to chase, which turns drilling into something closer to a game.

Themes let you target a specific weakness rather than solving at random. The developer lists checkmate in one, two or three moves, blindfold, endgames, forks, skewers, sacrifices and timed sets. If you keep dropping pieces to a knight fork, you can spend a week on forks and nothing else, which is a more direct route to improvement than playing more games and hoping the pattern sticks.

Lessons and videos come from masters, with hundreds of them covering rules, tactics, strategy, openings and endgames in a step-by-step plan. The coaching mode is the more interesting piece: you play with hints available, and you can review finished games with the coach to see the reasoning behind each move. It is the closest thing here to sitting next to someone stronger than you while you play, and it is the feature I would expect to matter most to a player stuck at the same rating for months.

There is also written material, including articles by coaches and masters, and openings such as the Queen's Gambit and the Sicilian Defense are covered for players who want to build a repertoire rather than improvise every game.

A rating, a leaderboard and a very large room

The app is built around a community rather than a solo experience. The developer describes a pool of more than 265 million players, with the community section putting the figure above 200 million and noting that more than 20 million games are played each day. Those numbers are the developer's, but the practical effect is that finding an opponent at your level and preferred time control is rarely a problem.

You get your own rating as you play, and the leaderboards let you measure yourself against the strongest players on the service. For anyone who responds well to a number going up, that is the engine that keeps the app installed. You can also follow popular figures in the chess world, including Hikaru, GothamChess and Magnus, which gives the app a spectator side alongside the playing side.

Cosmetics are part of the package too: more than 20 board themes and 3D pieces, plus performance stats covering your games, puzzles and lessons. The stats are the part I would actually use, since they turn a vague sense of being stuck into something you can look at.

What the free download involves

The app is free and contains ads and in-app purchases. That is the whole of what is disclosed about the money side, and it is worth taking at face value: you can install and use the app at no cost.

Two-player online chess with friends is free to enjoy. If you are deciding whether to install, the honest position is that the download costs nothing.

No price list is given. Anyone who has used a large free app before will recognize the shape of this: a generous free product with advertising, and purchases available for those who want them.

The player this fits

This is an app for people who want chess to be a regular habit rather than an occasional board game. If you play a few games a week and want to know why you lost, the puzzle themes, the game review and the coach hints all point at the same goal. If you are completely new, the step-by-step lessons and the ability to play bots at a chosen level give you a way in that does not involve losing repeatedly to strangers.

It also suits players who like variety. Bullet, blitz, longer games, chess960, blindfold, puzzle rush and puzzle battle mean the app does not depend on one format holding your attention. And it holds up when you are traveling or somewhere with poor signal.

Where I would be more cautious is with anyone who wants a quiet, minimal chess board and nothing else. This app is a full platform with a community, a rating system, leaderboards, videos and cosmetics around it, and that breadth is the point of it. Players who find ratings and daily streaks motivating will get a lot out of that structure. Players who just want to move pieces will find there is more here than they asked for.

A platform worth installing if chess is a habit

Chess.com is the most complete free option I can point to for playing and studying chess on Android. The combination of online games at any sensible time control, a huge puzzle library with themed and rated modes, master-made lessons, a coach that reviews your games, and over 100 bot opponents covers the whole loop from playing to practicing to understanding.

The trade-offs are the ones you would expect from a free platform of this size. The app has ads and in-app purchases, and it is a large, busy thing rather than a plain board. None of that changes what it does well, but it does mean the experience is shaped by the wider service rather than by chess alone.

For a beginner working through lessons, a club player drilling tactics and reviewing losses, or anyone who wants a game at short notice, this is an easy install. It has been on the store since 2010, it has over 100 million installs behind it, and it is still being updated, which is about as much reassurance as a free app can offer.