title image

Chess Premium

Board

Ratings

Age

4+

Category

Board

Languages

English

Chess Premium offers the complete, ad-free experience of the world's most popular strategy game. It features an outstanding AI engine with configurable difficulty, high-resolution Retina graphics, and immersive sound effects. Designed specifically for iOS, the app supports local 2-player matches, undo moves, and automatic game saving. It is widely considered one of the best-designed and most stable chess apps available.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

95/100

Chess Premium is the definitive version of the Optime Chess experience. For a small one-time fee, you get the same world-class AI and rock-solid stability but without a single advertisement. It is the 'antidote' to poorly designed, cluttered mobile board games. The interface is elegant, and the Retina-quality graphics look stunning on modern iPhone screens.

Everything about the game feels deliberate, from the configurable 'Think Time' for the computer to the way it handles game state persistence. It’s incredibly lightweight and fast, making it the perfect app to keep on your phone for years. Whether you are using it to practice your openings against the computer or playing a quiet match with a partner over coffee, Chess Premium is the gold standard for mobile chess.

Dinsun reviewed on: Fri Feb 27 2026

Features

1

100% Ad-free gameplay

2

High-resolution Retina display support

3

Powerful AI with configurable difficulty

4

Board rotation for local 2-player matches

5

Automatic game state persistence

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

Chess Premium is completely ad-free and offers a slightly more streamlined interface with full support for all Retina display resolutions.

Ratings & Reviews

Dear Optime Software LLC,
Sat Oct 21 2017 Samuel2616

I really love the look and feel of your digital rendition of Chess. I paid for the “premium” version of your game so that I could enjoy its simplistic beauty, undistracted by ads, so I thank you that I am able to do so. This app is beautiful, timeless, and something I can see myself playing until the iPhone 25. To further improve the experience for each and every one of your customers, I have come up with a few suggestions that, if implemented, will make the experience of using this app even better than it currently is. I thank you in advance for considering the following: • “Undo” after checkmate This will allow us to further evaluate our strategies, because we’re all prone to making mistakes and, as a beginner, I may not always see that a checkmate against me is about to take place. • The ability “Save” a game to rewatch later Each chess game is a unique piece of art, so it would be great to be able to revisit one of our masterpieces! Again, I want to thank you for taking the time to read what I have shared. Best regards, Sam

I Love It
Thu May 28 2020 Xctual I

If I could recommend anything, it would be maybe an extra color or two. Right now there's only bronze and silver looking pieces, but I think black and white pieces would be nice and simple as well. Also, whoever is bronze ends up being the person who goes first. Nothing is too big a deal, but some people I play with have preferences for the colors. The game plays well, and I use it a lot with others. The algorithim definitely keeps me on my toes.

Great chess engine, but closed
Tue Nov 03 2020 RiccardoPG

Having been a former USCF rated expert (2005 rating), I find this app to be all the challenge I need in my bucket list attempt to reach a master level. I play it on full strength with some limit to time since I can explore more plans/strategic lines this way. As expected, the tactical capabilities of this on a iPhone 6 are well beyond human, so much so that the app seems to almost play positionally. With this type of strong opposition, one can explore variations much more quickly and improve more quickly as well. However, since it can’t read PGN files, it is therefore limited in its full capability for training purposes. This is a shame, since otherwise it is a very powerful player.

Computer cheats on higher difficulties, but overall a great way to play chess on the run
Sun Oct 23 2022 Dragonsixes

I’ve noticed that the AI like to treat the knight as if it can be skipped over. That can be infuriating, especially when you’re “in check” from behind a piece blocking the checking piece. Other than that, i’d say the AI could use a little but of a nerf. I could go toe-to-toe with Level 7 difficulty in Microsoft Chess, however, i have yet to beat (what i assume to be) level 5 on this app. Other than that, this greatly supplements my chess addiction, and that’s enough to rate it 4 stars

Great app!
Sun Nov 18 2018 FaithWarrior990

Great design for beginners! The difficulty slider works well to allow you to tailor the gameplay to your ability level. The “undo” function has been very useful; I’ve been using it to see how moves will play out and to undo total blunders to see how the game could have progressed differently. Overall, I recommend the game. The price of the premium app is also well worth paying to remove the adds.

CHECK it out!!!
Fri Sep 25 2015 TheMightyCruiser

Well worth it to me. It appears some of the earlier bugs were fixed. Occasionally, checkmate will occur but it will only register as check, but I think that that is do to it being a lower level (which enables the user to hit undo in order to make a change). At least, that's how I took it! Happy gaming!!! Love it. 4 stars instead of five because of the lack of tutorial.

Total battery and data drainer and no response to emails.
Fri Oct 23 2015 Snake16lv

Tried to email, AGAIN, with no response. Beware before buying. I have written before four times with no response. I have made my app review known in the App Store. I will continue to do so until I get a response of why the chess app drains my iOS battery and just takes up all when I am not even connected to the Internet on my iPad. My iPad always shows 49 percent of battery usage when I play this game. If I play on my iPhone I have the same and it uses about five gigs of data in about a week. Can you tell me why this is happening. Thank you Again my fifth request.

Option to turn off stalemate?
Mon Aug 05 2024 Scott XD

I get that I’m not the best chess player in the world. But why does it almost always have to be stalemate? Other apps will let you make as many moves as it takes to overtake your opponent’s last piece and actually win! I wish their was an option to turn off stalemate. Makes it boring for someone like me. I like to chip away all my opponent’s pieces and then corner the King. But you can’t do that in this version of Chess like you can in other versions in the App Store unless you do it within an unknown number of moves. Frustrating to me for that reason

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