Last updated on January 16th, 2026 at 08:13 am
Chess By Post Premium – Puzzle Game Review
Chess By Post Premium is a Puzzle/Board/Education game from Games By Post LLC, first launched in 26th March 2012.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 39+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Chess By Post Premium Stand Out
Note there is also a free version of Chess By Post that is ad-supported. This paid version has no advertisements
Play correspondence chess with real people! Challenge your friends to friendly games or play ranked matches against random opponents of similar skill levels. Play as many simultaneous games as your want!
Automatic push notifications will let you know when you have moves waiting!
Improve your ranking by playing ranked games against comparable opponents. Skill ranking updates using the classic Elo rating system to adjust your rank when you win or lose. A leader board view shows you how you compare to the top players.
Chess By Post is perfect for players of all skill levels because your matched opponent's skill level will be adapted based on your own skill level.
Create a local hand-off game and play your friend by passing the phone back and forth.
Play against a computer opponent that adjusts difficulty to match your skill level.
Improve your skills by playing a practically endless set of rated chess puzzles.
Features:
-Tracks your skill level over time
-Matches you with similar skilled opponents
-Practice chess puzzles to improve your game
-End game analysis shows you the critical mistakes made by each player
-Head to head stats
-Move History Statistics – Explore the moves of every game you ever played with an interactive board explorer
-Freely move pieces to plan strategies
-Take notes on games to remember strategies
-In-game chat message board
-In-game move histories for easy review
-Ratings leader board
-Local hand-off games can be played offline
-Play games against a computer opponent with varied skill levels
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Chess By Post Premium is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 30th October 2023
Recent improvements include:
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Download & Availability
Chess By Post Premium is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Chess By Post Premium on App Store
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:
This is a great app that allows you up to five days to make your move. Its not unheard of that anyone takes that long but 95% of moves are transmitted much more quickly, often many moves are exchanged in a single day. Its just up to each player. Back in olden times moves in postal chess were transmitted via postcard, so this is much better. Opponents are fellow humans of approximately the same rating. When first starting you are paired with lower rated players, and some of them ghost you (which after five days gives you a win on time) but as your rating improves and you are paired against ever stronger players, youll practically never get ghosted. The app has a good demonstration board which allows you to try moves and lines before committing, which along with other resources is allowed in postal chess. (Except one should not use a computer engine to suggest moves; note on that below). Theres a note feature to save idea and moves. Ive had up to ten games going at a time with no problem, and theres no reason you couldnt have a lot more than that. Notifications tell you when opponent has moved. Countdown of the time left on the clock of whoevers move it is is clearly expressed, at first in terms of days, and then the last 24 hours is expressed in hours. Then the last hour is expressed in minutes. The free version has ads that are very unobtrusive and was completely satisfactory but we paid the modest fee to get rid of ads, mainly to support the developer. The paid version is a overall better experience but not necessary so long as the developer allows th free option . There is room for improvement. 1. The rating system mimics the Elo rating system but gives wildly inflated ratings compared to US Chess Federation or FIDE ratings. Im a C class OTB player (USCF) but our rating on the app currently would make us a virtual international master. We are nowhere near that strong and it would be preposterous of us to brag that we have a 2400 chess rating, as we currently do on the app. Thats fine because the ratings work well relative to the ratings of others on this same app, and are used only for pairing purposes, but anyone who is inexperienced in chess ratings could easily get a hyper inflated idea of his or her own playing strength. 2. It would be handy if one could simply swipe left on a game to go to the next game instead of going back to the list of games and selecting another game to view. Thats nothing if you only play one or two games but mildly aggravating if you have a dozen games going. 3. Theres a post game analysis button that has a computer engine analyze the game and tally the good and bad moves, etc. But, for example, a blunder that immediately allows a one move mate might not register as either inaccurate or mistake. We had such a game that showed us as making 100% accurate moves (all excellent or good) when in fact one move was so fatal that a rank beginner could have checkmated us immediately. But one can easily email the game in PGN format from within the app so that it can be copied into your own engine for analysis. 4. The Windows desktop app looks the same but is different enough from the iPhone and iPad app to occasionally cause confusion if not paying attention. The windows version also exports finished games in non-English pgn which our separate engines do not recognize. We dont claim English must be the default but it is inconsistent from the Apple store version. 5. The desktop also uses an approach that is inverse from the Apple version when showing differences in material won by the respective sides. We would prefer the app to use the standard material point value system (pawn=1, rook=5, etc) with the side with the material advantage shown as a plus number. E.g. If Ive won your bishop and knight and youve won our bishop and rook, you should be shown as being +2. But it doesnt give that tally, and even though captured pieces are clearly shown, one really has to do the (simple) math yourself. 6. The chess puzzle feature is ok but again gives inflated rating estimates and does not transfer between apps on different devices. E.g if we do puzzles on iPhone and reach a certain estimated rating, that rating does not show up in puzzles on our iPad. 7. We have occasionally made a move by accident when we would incorrectly believe Im in demonstration mode but really am not; the button to commit a move when in live mode is in the same spot and is same color as the take back button when in demonstration mode. Of course that is user error but when playing many games it is an easy mistake to make. 8. The rules do not clearly state whether chess engines can be used to suggest moves. We dont know why anyone would use an engine like that but official FIDE postal chess allows engines (USCF forbids them). That said, we do not believe any of our opponents have ever used an engine for assistance. Post game computer analysis almost always reveals inaccuracies on both sides that a computer engine would never miss, and even when a player plays a highly accurate it still looks like human moves. But the rule forbidding engine assistance should be expressed. 9. We mentioned the note feature, but more useful than saving notes would be the ability to save lines that youve tried on the demonstration board. In cases where we believe we can force an advantageous line but might not remember all the work that Ive put into our analysis, we end up taking a series of screen shots of each move as a way of saving the idea. This long list of suggested improvement may give the wrong impression of our opinion of the app. We really do love it and use it every day. That we can make such a detailed list of suggestions proves how much we use this nice app.
Have not found a better app for playing chess than this one.
We have played online chess on many platforms but we love this one because it is simple and easy to navigate. It has just the essentials without all the distractions and modes like chess.com.
The app, overall, is speedy and works as intended. Unfortunately, we see no way to start a rated game that isnt random. Why cant we start a rated game against our friends? Also, its been like this for years now- the chat deletes apostrophes. Its the only app Ive ever seen do that.
This is THE chess app to own for rated multi-player. The icon is on our first app page. Chess pieces have clean bold design, easy to identify. The rewind and plan ahead features are invaluable. The new puzzles feature is incredible!!! FEATURE REQUEST: Please offer an option to disable vibrate when another player makes a move on a different game while we are concentrating on our current game.
We would like to be able to view some game of the better players. Maybe you could hide the players names if necessary. Thanks. Love your game program.
Feature Request: There really needs to be a block function to be able to block other players if they become offensive! Once you are matched in a rated game with someone all you can do is end the game. Once you end A game the offensive player is still on your play list and they can still send messages to you. This needs to be averted.
We receive no notification when its our opponents turn although we already turned on notification in Settings . Im using Iphone 7 with latest iOs version. Please fix. Thank you.
Clean, tight no frills app. Latest update with board coordinates is great as well.
This is what Ive been looking for in online chess. Simple, subdued and a lot of fun. This is chess, not some social network without photos, mini biographies, or popularity contest. We can play under quiet and reserved conditions. Take our time to think and plan and above all else, enjoy ourselves with a good game of chess.
Best chess app. We tried all of them. This is by far the most user friendly and logical of them all. Well done.
Nicely put together. Highly recommend.
A great app that keeps getting better with each update.
Highly recommend this app. Cross platform – straight forward – – no complaints.
Great app. We play daily with friends and strangers. So fun.
No complaints here. The simplicity is perfect. One feature we think would be nice is the ability to swipe left and right between other open games. Tried to do it by default since other apps usually have that function and thought that'd be cool to have! Thanks again for the best chess app out there.
This is a good app 99.9% of the time. Every once in a while a friends move won't register for a day or so. But tats probably a network related issue more than the fault of the game.
The app has a mistake. The castle is allowed when a piece is threaten between king and the rook.
Update 6/17 – new update looks great. Everything below still applies :) Cant recommend this app enough. Works flawlessly and the notifications work well. A great way to play chess as someone looking to improve since it provides the ability to study moves for days if you wanted to. The plan moves feature is awesome. Upgraded less to get rid of ads and more to support the developer in this small way because we are grateful they have made such a great app. Please make it universal for ipad! Even if you change nothing but to make it look better on the ipad. Thanks.
This game works great all the time. We always find someone to play against for ranked games. It's also easy to play against our friends because this app is supported in all platforms. Would give it 6 stars if we could.
Since iOS 7 it crashes. Aside from that it's tip-top.
We already liked this app it has a thriving community of players, and is cross-platform so you can play with your friends even if they dont have an iPhone. However, the recent addition of a planning mode where you can try out scenarios and move pieces around takes it over the edge. We had said in a previous review we wished it had this kind of functionality, but the execution is better than we had hoped. The update also includes a new wood-look board that is nice, and the ability to add notes. Really happy with this update, so Im bumping our review from a 4 to a 5.
But should try to not let profanity into screen names for a perfect app.
We would normally give an app like this a great 5 star rating; BUT, this app has no way to leave feedback about other players. In the short time we have had the app, we have encountered several trolls who refuse to make a move, offer a draw when they are losing, or just not move and let the game time out. In order to protect the integrity of the game, these players need to be reported, and removed.
Lost our job, spent our last couple bucks to buy this app. This is all we do anymore. Sit in the dark (didn't pay light bill) and play this game. Wife said we were "obsessed" as she left. Shows what a psychology degree is worth these days. "Obsessed", whatever. Great app though you should try it and challenge us! We only have about 30 games going at once now-a-days, tryin to scale back a bit.
That's all–simple and fun correspondence chess app.
Multiple matches, a clever ranking system based on wins and loses and the rank of your opponent, a leader board, simple organization, intuitive layout, unranked matches with friends, game play that allows you to view a move before submitting. A very nice chess app.
We have a lot of chess apps but this one takes the cake. The ability to make many games and play them all at once is great, and navigating the app is easy. Over all if you don't have this app and you play chess you are missing out. We have only one thing that needs improvement and that is the customization of the board and pieces we would like more.
Great app! And has multiplayer rankings. If you enjoy chess this app will not disappoint.
Great app! Way better than chess with friends, wish we knew about this app sooner.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.2
- Size: 34.51 MB
- iOS: 12.1 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Games By Post LLC
Last updated: 30th October 2023 | Genre: Puzzle, Board | Developer: Games By Post LLC