Last updated on January 28th, 2026 at 10:00 pm
Pure Chess – Strategy Game Review
Pure Chess is a Strategy/Board game from Ripstone Ltd, first launched in 29th August 2013.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 248+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Pure Chess Stand Out
Pure Chess puts other games in checkmate! Are you a Grandmaster in the making?
"The game combines superb production values, excellent AI and a robust multiplayer experience and amazingly, DLC chess sets that look so good I actually paid for them" Digitally Downloaded
"Pure chess is the best looking chess game to ever hit iPhone and iPad. Get ready to be blown away by the games visuals" Play Buzz
Experience one of the oldest known boardgames on the advanced technology of today. With ultra-realistic and unparalleled beautiful visuals you can almost reach out and touch the pieces. Created under the watchful eye of a fully-fledged Grandmaster; Pure Chess allows players to experience the traditional game like never before, showcasing gorgeous environments and unbelievably stunning chess sets.
You can now play Pure Chess cross-platform with your friends!
Learn the basics through step-by-step tutorials or challenge yourself to tournaments, with full control of skill level depending on how challenged you wish to be. An art, a science, a social engagement, a means for a challenge – whether you’re a beginner, an avid player or an ultimate Grandmaster, it’s time to experience one of the oldest board games known to man, brought to life on the modern technology of today!
Pure Chess is a game that can be played by everyone, at any age, but mastered by only a few. The question is… Are you a Grandmaster in the making? Your move!
Pure Chess is currently best played on iPhone 4S and iPad 2 upwards.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Pure Chess is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 9th October 2016
Recent improvements include:
Fixed DLC download issues.
Download & Availability
Pure Chess is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Awesome level to be achieved. Helps workout your mind.
The Park board is beautiful but you can only use the animal pieces. Is it possible to make it so one can use any other set of pieces in that theme.
Ive had this app over 10 years, dont know why it has a low rating because it is the best ever after Ive purchased at reasonable prices everything it been great for us 100%.
We love it, but the store is down. Id love to buy more chessmen.
It will not link up with the app store we wanna get them pieces man.
Muy buen diseo y mejor funcionamiento, reconfortable desde un app sientes q ests en un liger distinto, simply the best (Very good design and better performance, comfortable from an app you feel that you are in a different liger, simply the best).
The gameplay is very engaging and feels fully immersive. The very relaxing music adds an especially nice touch: Plus, we have yet to see better graphics on any other chess program.
Excellent chess game. The best Ive seen online.
We really love the game, since we played it on our iPhone 7 plus but recently we got a new phone which iPhone X so hoping that this game will be available in iPhone X version soon.
Staunch but not Staunton. Regardless, a great chess app. Grandmaster monkey! HiCoo.
So far, we like this chess version very much but we wish it was adopted for the iPhone X screen and the side info elements were pulled away from the board.
Great game accept one thing the game is way too easy and there are Not enough Difficulty Levels.
We used to be able to listen to external music in the background like the Calm app, pandora, tidal, sound Cloud, etc. Now we have to hear the same music over and over. Please bring it back. It was an awesome experience.
…overall probably the best chess app Apple has.
We like that it so easy to use and u can play people locally. We would recommend it to people who are trying to learn how to play chess.
It is the best chess app we have ever played.
We really love it..One of the best chess app.
Just learning. The levels are very helpful.
Our only wish is that there was an Apple Watch companion app so we can continue our game discreetly while in a meeting. Otherwise it's great.
Best 3D chess game hands down! From graphics to the gameplay itself perfect app for a chess player.
If you are willing to pay it gives you everything you need in a chess app.
Only complaint is that most of the environments make the board appear too dark, even with brightness at max.
We love this game so much. Its hella pretty and relaxing. We just wanna play it on our phone again but its need to be updated to work on the latest phones operating systems. ;-;.
We cantDownload a game the DLC already purchased it But the app keeps saying unable to connect to the Internet.
Negatives: the AI is a bit overpowered for the chosen difficult levels, making a true novices experience one full of disheartening losses. Additionally, the DLC is broken, and support has been unresponsive for a number of days. Pros: the game looks and plays amazingly well. Hands down the best chess app on the market today.
It a great app for chess very sophisticated and it has a highly detailed in graphics and the game play is fundamental only thing the only one thing is it has to many vacuous ads that pop up as anticipatory as Im to play they need to exclude the ads from the app it is a unnecessary inconvenience to the player thank you for understand and cooperation.
Love the way pieces and moves are explained! Not expecting to be a master……..yet. Lol.
We like this app. We just wish you could earn different style pieces instead of having to purchase them.
We love Pure Chess. We also have it on our PlayStation as well as Pure Pool.
Beautiful graphics and chess pieces. Our only complaint is that it really draws down your battery. Other than that it's great.
This is a very beautiful cheers app. We really enjoyed playing every day, the music is very nice and the graphics are outstanding. The only problem comes when you use tall pieces to play with… The standard camera angle view cut the top of all the main pieces on the opponent side, making it difficult to distinguish the king from the queen or the rook from the bishop, this happens mainly when you choose a set with tall pieces.
This chess app features gorgeous 3D graphics and smooth game play. The app has been updated, fixing the issue about pieces not downloading. It works great now, so we went ahead and purchased the whole package. This is a wonderful, full-featured chess app. Thus far we've only played at the "monkey" and "novice" levels, which are, of course, very easy, so we can't yet comment on the computer's intelligence. In any event, this is just what we were looking for in a chess app. Our favorite so far.
Cant make any purchase, same issue across devices.
We will gladly change this to five stars once we can buy our pieces and listen to our own music. We finally decided to buy some of the sets and the app will not connect to the store. Please fix this so we can buy our chess pieces! Why am we forced to listen to the music on the app? We would much prefer to have our own downloaded music playing in the background while playing this game. Please change this, its very annoying.
To this app's credit, the graphics are the best we've seen, and the animations are smooth. There are lots of choices for scenery, sets, and materials used to make the pieces – as long as you don't mind making micro transactions for the sets. You start off with the checkers set, which is literally just a set of checkers with pictures of the pieces on top. For ANY other set, you need to pay money. Even the stereotypical Staunton set is locked by a micro transaction. Other purchases include the ability to unlock other difficulties besides 1 and 4 (on a 1-10 scale) and the ability to have more than one saved game (really?). That said, once you buy the sets it's a VERY beautiful app. Worth it? Maybe.
The game itself is good and its features are good but the bot is overpowered and the rules are ridiculous we play other chess games and not once did we get into as many stalemates as we do with this game. Its almost like its rigged for us to lose. Either the AI becomes Super Sayan and completely owns you out of no where or your winning but it always ends in a stalemate cuz the game doesn't want you to win. Kinda reminds us of one of those crane machines. And if that wasn't bad enough the mini game was bs we failed the problem for moving any piece but the one the game wanted us to move and the move they wanted us to make was stupid it would never have worked in a real game. Why move the R next to the king sure you got a check and trapped him between his buddies but he could easily capture the rook on his turn or just moved away! Other than that the game the graphics and DLC are good. Just the AI is overpowered and the mini game challenges are ridiculous.
Although there can be some improvements. Not sure how many people still play chess games on an app, but with a little bit of marketing this game could be the number one board style game. Also please update to Super Retina display and full screen for the iPhone X. The low quality on such a huge scream makes it almost unbearable.
We understand the pay to play model but the options are extremely limited on every setting. Kind of makes us not want to support, as a new downloader.
Game has some of the best graphics of any other game that we have seen. We purchased this game on multiple platforms and also purchased the bonus pack. For some reason when we try to restore purchases on our iPAD, we keep getting this cannot connect to store. We have re-installed several times but we still am having the same issue.
Pros= absolutely beautiful visuals and incredibly relaxing soundtrack cons= sadly it outweighs the pros the AI is God awful. It doesn't Even come close to being balanced. One second you playing someone/thing close to you level the next you've been beaten by a grandmaster. If we could have our ultimate wish. Slap SmallFish AI with this GUI you have a masterpiece. It would also gather more attention to periodically keep adding more chess sets and locations.
While the graphics rendering is aesthetically pleasing, the game play is excruciatingly slow. Multiple taps on any button to trigger the action are constantly needed, multiple taps to the destination square are constantly needed. Game play is very 1980's like in terms of performance. Uninstalled.
We bought this app a few years ago and installed in an old iPad. When we replaced the iPad for a new one and try to install it but didnt work even when it was removed from the old one. We are using the same Apple account and keep tasking us to buy it again. We contacted support by email and they never answered us back.
This has been great for years, but Ive lost our in app purchases and cant get them back. It says it cannot connect to the store, but we have a fine internet connection and can sign in to Game Center with no issues. Hopefully there is a solution. Thanks.
This program has excellent graphics. Its performance is as bad as its graphics are good. When you get the program, it comes with a free set of checkers, little round icons representing chess figures. You are given the opportunity to buy different chess sets for one dollar each. None of them work. They have not worked for months, perhaps years. The app says, cannot connect to the App Store. Well, we dont know why not. We have contacted the Apple support team well over six months ago, and we have contacted the developers at about the same time. Havent heard a thing from either. If somebody would take the time to do the responsible thing and fix this, the application would be very nice. As it is, its an exercise in apathy at best.Fix the program.
We cant purchase anything, and the only pieces you start off with is checkers pieces? Really?! Come on man, you guys have to do better than this.
This is the worst app we have ever used! Do not get this! This is not fun and so so so so so boring! You will die of boredom and have no fun! We hate this so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much.
This app needs a new update. You cannot make, or restore purchases.
This WAS the most beautiful game out there, but the company has apparently died and nothing is accessible anymore. The next best app is REAL CHESS. Staunton chess set is no longer available for this. We DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS! The company has ignored all of our emails so dont waste your time.
The game is great, unfortunately the store connection is non existent.
Kinda frustrating how almost all features are locked behind a pay wall but every time we try to buy something we just get a message that says we cant connect to the App Store we love this game on psn but would like to be able to do, we dont know, anything on our iPad.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.4
- Size: 250.97 MB
- iOS: 6.1 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Ripstone Ltd
Last updated: 9th October 2016 | Genre: Strategy, Board | Developer: Ripstone Ltd