Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 07:18 am
Chess – tChess Lite – Strategy Game Review
Chess – tChess Lite is a Strategy/Entertainment/Board game from Tom Kerrigan, first launched in 15th November 2008.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 76+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Chess – tChess Lite Stand Out
tChess Lite is the popular chess game designed just for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. tChess is like a virtual chess board on your device. It's fun and easy to use–perfect for the casual player!
This game features a very clean UI design and beautiful graphics. tChess is a fast and stable program. Pick up a game in your free time… and there's no problem listening to your music while you play.
(tChess Lite is a fully-functional version of tChess for casual chess players. If you're an active player and want enthusiast-level features, take a look at tChess Pro, which is over 1000 ELO stronger and has received rave reviews from Grandmaster Susan Polgar, PE's Chess Cast, and iPhone app critics.)
tChess Lite Features:
- Perfect for 1- or 2-player games (on the same device, no network connection required)
- Tap-tap to move pieces
- Highlights legal moves
- View full game history in the Move List
- Go back or forward move by move and replay completed games
- Built-in chess clock
- "Get hint" feature to improve your game
- Easy to undo moves
- Saves your game automatically if you exit the program or take a call
- Play against any ELO rating from 500 to 1200
- Computer opponent is the most fun and realistic for beginners and casual players
- Use the Profile feature to play rated games and track your progress
- Over 15,000 openings for fresh, varied games
tChess Lite is developed by Tom Kerrigan, author of the TSCP and Stobor chess engines.
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Chess – tChess Lite is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 29th November 2025
Recent improvements include:
- Updated for the latest version of iOS
- Fixed a bug where the animations would become jerky if the app was open for a long time
Download & Availability
Chess – tChess Lite is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Chess – tChess Lite 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:
We have used this app for years and find it very helpful and relaxing.
This is fun, challenging, and it varies the response even with the same set up very smart.
We are still learning the game so this works great for us. We get an idea of how we are rated as we progress from game to game.
Hints are helpful to learn strategies. Being able to roll back game several moves to see what you could have done better.
Being able to retrace, analyze & try different moves, compare your ideas for moves against the hints. When your decision vs the hint still gets you to check mate, increases confidence:).
Absolutely love it! Play most every day. IMO best one out there. Thanks you.
This is an excellent program to enjoy playing and learning chess without judging. You can retrace your steps when you made a series of bad or good moves. You can try different options as you play a game. You play against the strength of an opponent up to 1200 on the free app and higher for the pro. Board and piece selection is a fabulous option! You can change the look to increase variety. The app records the number of wins and even provides hints to move which you can compare with the choices you would make. A great app to learn and increase skill and confidence.
We downloaded a number of free beginning chess apps, but we found the Learn Chess ebook and tChess Lite were the most useful for us, a complete newbie. We've gone from "Huh?" to "Checkmate!" in about ten days and can now play with real people. Thank you, Tom Kerrigan, for such a clear set of instructions and a fun way to practice.
We are still learning the game so this works great for us. We get an idea of how we are rated as we progress from game to game.
This game is clean with a great interface. We love its simplicity and the engine is fantastic. Definitely worth the download. You wont regret it.
Great for a beginner. We didnt know En Passant was a thing. Now we do. Live and learn.
This game is garbage, the rating system makes no sense you can lose ten points are 600 points in one loss. The computer sometimes will not let you capture its pawn after moving two spaces on its first move. Playing live, opponents will ask for take-backs and if you refuse they stop playing it should not even be a option in the menu.
Im a beginner and we like how it rates you and gets harder as you get better. We also like that you can go back and learn from your mistakes. The hints are helpful but as a beginner we cant always follow why the computers choice is better than our move. So we just follow the computers thinking for a while and then go back to see where our choice would lead us.
This is a good chess app which knows all the rules and is a challenging opponent. Just when you think you have the measure of the program it sends a zinger which tells you to get better. It is good for keeping your skills sharp and good for some entertainment as well.
Can you please add a notification option so we can be told when our opponent has made a move.
We just love this game we play it all the time.
We like the app. There are a few areas where we believe there can be some improvement (1) the computer plays the same response to any particular opening we use and that becomes a bit predictable (2) we think it should be made more challenging. At the moment the ratings go to 1200 and we are there. Why not take it to 2400 more in alignment with international rating systems? (3) some daily chess puzzles might be a nice addition but not necessary (4) being able to save your game for reference later we believe to be important Other than these its a very good app.
We tried so many times, but not worth the frustration and poor UI for settings.
This program is a perfect example of what happens when Awesome & Genius collide.
A great way to become better. We use everyday.
App should teach and train through drills/ exercises, how to be a better player.
The only glitch is that the computer makes the match a draw in four moves if its in trouble. But there is no way to make it a draw if you are out of options. So it does cheat a bit in favor of itself. But its a really fun game.
This is the best chess app by far.
We're a chess geek, sorta, and we love this game. We also hate it when we loose, but this app is a good base to play chess. Gotta win =|.
A delightful variation on an old favorite. New and experienced players can't do better. BTW: After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.
Our daily friend. We love everything about this game. We play 10 or 15 games a day and amazed after years we can find almost infinite new endings it simply is the best.
Twice we have been jumped by pawns attacking while our piece was not diagonal.
We've played chess when we were a kid through high school. Our son recently wanted to learn chess. We started playing a wanted to see what was out there for apps to help both of us. This is a great app. From quick and easy rules of the game. Visual aid on how the pieces move and being able to adjust the difficulty level. Highly recommend. The graphics are basic but what you get for versatility not even a issue.
Choose your comfort level, (re-)discover the joy of this game! Rusty? Recharge your wits..the computer will bring you up to speed. Didn't find a way to back-play a mistake, nor a way to review. Are these features in this app? Still we highly recommend the overall enjoyment here.
This app is the best way to learn how to play. We'd never played before, and the instructions really helped us. Our friend who is a far more advanced player also uses it to play with friends often. Best app all around although the real time player could be improved! Still amazing app.
We love this app and would highly recommend it to anyone.
Returning to the game after a 50 year hiatus. We think the computer has little to fear at this point in time. Ap is great, and the cost was more than reasonable.
Recommend for all chess players.
We love this app very much. The menu's interface could be made a little cleaner and more straightforward, but the actual chess experience is top-notch, and we love the little features like naming the openings.
Awesome. Love the learning ability.
Excelent app. As a partner, very difficult to beat.
Great application, way to start playing.
We've played chess since we were nine years old – and always strive to improve our game. This app delivers – in spades! It offers many options, great rank tracking, and the engine challenges you, as a player, as vigorously or gently as you want or need to be challenged. The only option we would add would be an unlimited 'tactics trainer' where the engine would offer random scenarios for the player to identify the and make the next move. This app is a "must have" for players and lovers of chess at all levels and rankings.
We like the difficult setting of this game.
This chess app makes learning chess easy and fun.
We enjoy the smooth game play. We are not a grandmaster, but we think T Chess is a great learning tool. This fun app helps us relax.
The game is great! It's chess, you can't screw that up! The difficulty adjustment is great! We really enjoy it.
We enjoy playing against our brother, who taught us to play chess as a child.
Clean, simple design. A couple themes to choose from. Several gorgeous sets/boards. But most importantly, a solid, enjoyable playing experience both online and offline. Keep it up.
Play everyday. Best one we have found. Tried some of the others but none yet compare. Would highly recommend.
Simple or rated. We pass our time with it. Helps keep the cobwebs swept n engine working.
Unlike other chess games, TChess names the moves so you can learn them. The engine is even smarter than Chess Titans on the PC. And the ease of skill level choice and extra features are stellar. No wait time for the computer to move. Hints for educational purposes.
Excellent…best of all the chess apps we've tried.
Spent a long time looking for a good chess app. We love how this one assigns a rating and adjusts the AI's difficulty accordingly. Very clean and user friendly interface. Well done.
T Chess app has all the features to learn chess and go up in ratings. We are a complete novice, but by backing up the game moves, we can see exactly what strategy the computer used to get us into trouble. The app lets us go back and change a move to try to engage in better (hard to get any worse) planning and moves. We love the "hint" feature. After two weeks at the lowest level, we can usually guess what the hint will be! Very rewarding technique. A good feature is that the player can manually set the difficulty level, and doesn't have to progress until we were ready. Best of all- it's fun.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.0.1
- Size: 5.82 MB
- iOS: 26.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, JA, KO, ZH
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Tom Kerrigan
Last updated: 29th November 2025 | Genre: Strategy, Entertainment | Developer: Tom Kerrigan