Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 12:15 am
Deep Green – Board Game Review
Deep Green is a Board/Strategy game from Joachim Bondo, first launched in 9th December 2008.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 70+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Deep Green Stand Out
A no-nonsense classical chess app.
- CLEAN UI: Deep Green offers a distraction-free experience in a clean, native user interface.
- CUSTOM PIECE DESIGN: Beautiful chess set designed specifically for Deep Green and rendered at high resolution in both outline and 3D throughout the app.
- TIGHT SYSTEM INTEGRATION: Deep Green is built as a native app and features system-level Sharing, undo/redo, contextual menus, Dark Mode, high contrast support and more.
- OPEN GAME FORMAT: Games can be shared, saved, copied, pasted, imported, exported in the ubiquitous, open source PGN and FEN formats.
- UNIQUE CHESS ENGINE: Enjoyable opponent with adjustable strength, praised for its humane gameplay, developed for Deep Green on the Apple Newton more than 25 years ago.
- TWEAKABLE APPEARANCE: Engage the knights in the game by having them turn towards the center of the board, apply a humane, slightly random placement of the pieces.
- MODERN ARCHITECTURE: Rewritten from scratch making it a modern, maintainable app, prepared for the future.
- PRIVATE, AD-FREE: No ads, no tracking, no analytics, no nonsense.
If you like Deep Green, please rate it favorably on the App Store.
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Deep Green is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 9th June 2025
Recent improvements include:
Fixed
- Moved to scene-based life-cycle to comply with upcoming iOS requirements
- Cleaned up and smoothened launch sequence
- "No Games" placeholder is now vertically centered on screen
- Reduced binary app size by more than a megabyte
Download & Availability
Deep Green 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:
Deep Green has been a favorite since our Newton. Great chess game that is well designed.
This chess app is top notchalways has been. No other app is as enjoyable to use. BUT! This new update is a major change to the wooden board and pieces. It is no longer the green felt and classic wood. Look at the new version previews and make sure youre ok with that before you update. The classic wood board is not an option. We wish it was. Also, the Steampunk engines gears no longer make noise. We miss both that and the old wood board.
Im happy to see that this app has been updated! It hasnt left our phone since we downloaded it a decade ago.
Although it has been many years coming for this update it is like a beta version that needs more work.
The main reason we bought this game was the gorgeous design, and the new design just look like a generic life-less chess app :( The old icon is also 10x nicer than the new one Is there any chance of making the old green-classic them & app icon be an option? We are currently holding back from updating the app Thank you.
The updated version lost so much character and life compared to the old version, which was beautiful and had wonderful sound design. Why oh why did you replace our favorite chess app with this lifeless white void? Maybe re-release the old version as classic or something? Please.
This used to be such a great chess app with a simple, clear interface. The new facelift has made it unusable. Nothing works the same and the new visuals are a distraction at best. Oh well, we guess we have to find another chess app now.
This app is a joy to use. It does have some glitches, however, and is in desperate need of an update. We noticed that the website listed here for the developer is gone. But we found that the Twitter account @deepgreenchess is still active; which gives us hope that an update may be in the works. We wish the developer wellthis app is a jewel among the ruble.
This chess app is the best we've found. We're not a strong player – so the lower levels allow us to have some less strenuous matches. We can also ratchet up the brains for a real challenge. We also appreciate the developer continually not charging again for the added functionality of new screen sizes. We enjoy using this chess program and am very happy the money we spent went to such a great developer. (Rotating the iPad is one of the best easter eggs we've seen in iOS for some time – so beautiful and delightful!).
With its refreshingly high level of user-friendliness and visual elegance, the Deep Green chess app absolutely outstanding! Bravo.
Deep Green is a stellar game, if not the best of the chess games available anywhere for not much green. If you are looking for a game with brilliant offerings, one of our favorites is the manual setup option, than search no farther. Please do yourself a favor and pay the price for this game.
Please keep updating this app forever.
We find simplicity the strongest point for this app. Good job from the developer on graphics and sound. Attention to detail without overwhelming just as chess is intended to be played.
For years we have enjoyed playing chess using Deep Green but over that time it has become prone to crash. Often it will crash in the midst of a game but it can be restarted and resumes back where it was. But there are time when it crashes in the midst of an intense contest and restarting the application avails nothing; the board will flash back and immediately crash again. Fortunately, we have actually been able to capture the fatal board setups with a very quick screen shot to later continue on a more competent platform. We would consider this a fatal flaw for Deep Green especially considering that the last time this app was updated was at least 7 years ago at the time of this review; obsolete. Ostensibly the developers have become complacent.
By Please update it for iPhone X, keeps crashing.
The app keeps crashing, despite the current iOS version and plenty of RAM. This used to be one of the better chess engines available on iPhone. Also, we had to buy the app twice. The previous purchase was not recognized.
This is 8 dollars thrown away…after about 10 moves the program refuses to make another move, apparently content to just crash…again and again.
At least on iPad Pro, part of the board is always cut off. Poor graphics for a paid app. We pairs $7.99 and feel like an idiot for doing so.
A great way to play chess on the go.
We want to like this app so much, but we can't. Good chess apps are, basically, non-existant, and this is one of the only ones that looks good enough that we don't simply hate looking at it. That said, the latest update broke it completely, and updates are few and far between. This could be so much better and, sadly, it's just not.
Still the best. Bought this when iPhone 2 came out, and have enjoyed it immensely. Initial review——– What a blast from the past – we still have Deep Green on our trusty, still-functioning great-uncle of the iPhone, our MP2100 Newton. This 'version' of Deep Green has a great user interface, some really nice animation, and we STILL can't beat it. Egg Freckles.
One of the most well polished chess apps we've seen so far @ it can only get better. Sounds and a beautiful CHECKMATE banner would be nice. Also networked play.
Not the most feature-rich. Just enough features with perfect polish. This is the way we like software to be: uncomplicated and beautiful.
Still the best chess app on the store after all these years.
Deep Green is back and looking better than ever! We love it.
It really is the best looking and most elegant chess app on the App Store. Playing it is a true pleasure.
We were very excited to see Deep Green appear in the App Store pending an update…after only 4 years. We imagined something very cool after the wait…unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown…the board looks small on our 6+. We still really like the interface and have high hopes for the app but it's a bit lacking when compared to the current competition. We.
Deep Green is definitely the best looking chess game for IOS 8. Sadly, we haven't seen any frequent updates so we're surprised. Still looks good but it would be nice if the board was a little bigger.
There have been no significant updates in years. We have constantly asked for new skins, but no, no one cares. We have asked for fixes for critical bugs, but, again, no one cares. We would happily pay for new features on this app if the devs would just add them, but no one cares. This app is finished.
Not a bad engine, just crash happy and inconsistent. Compared to other chess apps out there this one is marginal at best on graphics/board size and workability.
Every time we attempt to set up a game board and click the dot to change pieces this app crashes.
On iPad, shifting from landscape to portrait or portrait to landscape causes the whole board to shift off the edge of the board. No way to re-center it again. Makes the game unplayable. We feel ripped off, quite frankly.
Every detail is considered in this wonderful game.
One of the first apps we ever got, still being updated. An app from a more… Civilized era.
…we bought all chess aplications for Iphone and this one is one of the best. Check TEST ALL !!!!! 66 chess aplications at Only ONE page on the world …here : …………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………chess-iphone.blogspot.kom ……………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …main reason why people like Deep green ??? OLD GRAPHICS … We suppose . We hope autor will made option to exchange board and pieces …old/new graphic.
Deep Green is the nicest chess game on iPad but the new skin is not as beautiful as the classic skin, remember to go to the settings and enable the classic skin, we hope they make the classic skin, the default one.
This game is great. The graphics and sound design are superb, and the chess engine is spot on. Just a joy playing chess with this app. This game is the one we will always come back to and never be bored with. Buy it right now.
It was the most beautiful app on our original iPhone, and we're so glad the developer has updated the graphics for the iPhone 4. Beautiful and fun to play. Thanks.
Maybe the best made app on an iOS device. Just amazing. Please buy it if you love good things in life.
We bought this app back in 2008 and have LOVED it. Only thing it was missing was retina display support. And it's here! This chess app in our opinion is the best out there. We've downloaded the others with choppy movements and cut and paste design. This app has stunning coding all throughout. Very well done.
First review we've written for any app. We've played nearly all of the chess games in the App Store and this is the only one that's remained on our iPhone. The new update is stunning. If you're looking to play chess on iOS, buy Deep Green. You won't regret it.
Hands down. Thanks for the update.
Cocoa Stuff's new update with stunning retina graphics puts this game over the top. Perfect for the casual player, this is easily the best chess app in the app store. While not striving for all the bells and whistles of other chess apps, this app strips the game to it's essentials; but with CLASS. ;-) Well done.
This is the chess app you want. No, not that other one, this one. Trust us.
Absolutely beautiful on iPhone 4 and iPad.
Falls short on not having GameCenter support for online play or retina graphics.
It's greatest chess game ever on appstore .. But we love things with retina sense ! …. Ex : when we hold any chess part it's seems like bad resolution …. Great app.
The game is beautiful and very clean, the most gorgeous Chess Game interface on App Store. Other great pro is the universal binary. But we must say that the 1.2 version needs some features: Deep Green Chess doesn't have an movements history, an analytical engine, an analytical small graph (just to see how you're doing during a game). It also doesn't have any way of personalization like pieces designs, boards colors. It also doesn't have any way of saving games, or exporting to mail. Shredder is more functional, but less beautiful.
The most beautiful chess game out there for the iPad or iPhone. The visual quality of the board and pieces is unmatched. There are obviously apps out there with more bells and whistles (Shredder, etc.), but if elegant design is what you're looking for, this is it.
The game is nice; however, it's so buggy. For example, if we accidentally flip the board we can't turn it back. Also it's not updated for iPhone 5.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 2.0.3
- Size: 24.53 MB
- iOS: 16.4 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Joachim Bondo
Last updated: 9th June 2025 | Genre: Board, Strategy | Developer: Joachim Bondo