ChessLab

Chess vs human-like players

Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

New: daily session, Coach, your mistakes become puzzles. Nine opponents that play like humans (Maia-3), Stockfish analysis — fully offline, no ads. ChessLab is a complete chess companion for iPhone and iPad: play, analyse, train and experiment, with Stockfish built in, without ever leaving the app. OPPONENTS THAT PLAY LIKE HUMANS Nine characters played by Maia-3, a network trained on millions of human games: it does not look for the best move, it plays the one a human of that level would play, blunders included. Each has a style, a repertoire and a temperament, and a level set on the human scale. Or take on Stockfish, from beginner (~900 Elo) to maximum (~3190). Optional clock, hints, a warning before risky moves and an evaluation bar, all on demand. ANALYSE AND UNDERSTAND Every move is graded (inaccuracy, mistake, blunder, brilliant…), each player gets an accuracy score, and the app tells you why a move was bad. The Coach adds the share of players at your level who play it. At the end, it offers to turn your mistakes and missed mates into puzzles. Load a game by PGN, FEN, position editor or photo scanner. DAILY SESSION Every day, what to review: opening positions that are due, missed puzzles, an endgame. A streak of days and medals to keep you going. OPENINGS 58 hand-written openings (bilingual), checked against the engine: every move is explained, coloured arrows tie the board to the move list, and spaced repetition makes them stick. Import your own repertoires as PGN too. ENDGAMES 78 courses proven by endgame tablebases: no move taught gives up a win, no defence offered loses a draw. Plus free training, where any move that keeps the verdict is accepted. PUZZLES Over 100,000 problems from the Lichess database, filtered by level and theme, plus your own, drawn from your mistakes. Personal rating and “At my level”. VARIANTS AND MORE Chess960 and eleven variants against the computer (King of the Hill, Three-Check, Horde, Atomic, Crazyhouse, Duck Chess, Barricades…), each with its own analysis. Two-player mode, and a Laboratory to compare two Stockfish settings. IPHONE AND IPAD A large board with side-by-side panels on iPad, keyboard and trackpad, portrait and landscape. Fully bilingual, French and English. Optional iCloud sync, off by default. PRIVACY Offline by default: no ChessLab server, no analytics, no ads. Your games stay on your device. ChessLab embeds the Stockfish engine (GPLv3 license), the University of Toronto's Maia-3 network (AGPLv3 license) and free vector piece sets — cburnett (GPLv2+/CC BY-SA), chessnut (Apache 2.0) and merida (GPLv2+). Full source code and license notices are available from within the app (Settings → Licenses).

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CHESSLAB 2.0 DAILY SESSION Every day, the app gathers what to review: opening positions that are due, missed puzzles, an endgame. A streak of days, medals — and a counter that stops once you have done your part. YOUR MISTAKES BECOME PUZZLES When an analysis ends, the app offers to create puzzles from the game: the mates you let slip and your costliest mistakes, shown on small boards. You accept or decline; nothing is created without you. A weakness profile builds up in Progress: phases, themes, trends. THE COACH Under a mistake, one sentence tells you what share of players at your level play that move: a typical mistake, an accident, or a rare find that few players spot. Computed on your device by Maia-3. YOUR PUZZLE RATING A personal rating that moves with every puzzle, and “At my level” to meet problems that fit you. OPENINGS Illustrated cards, filters by side and by level, and the 19 “classics” grouped together. RESUME A GAME An interrupted game resumes in one tap from the settings screen, and the app asks before replacing it with a new one. OPTIONAL TIME LIMIT One switch, and the app remembers your last choice. FIXES • A game resumed after a rook was captured on its corner could crash the app: fixed. • A game ending in checkmate was never graded to the end, so its accuracy and the puzzles from your mistakes were missing. Fixed.

The developer, Thierry Maeder, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

  • Data Not Collected

    The developer does not collect any data from this app.

    Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More

    The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

    Size
    178.2 MB
    Category
    Strategy
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
    • iPad
      Requires iPadOS 18.0 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    • Apple Vision
      Requires visionOS 2.0 or later.
    Languages
    English and French
    Age Rating
    4+
    Provider
    Thierry Maeder
    • Thierry Maeder has not identified itself as a trader for this app. If you are a consumer in the European Economic Area, consumer rights do not apply to agreements between you and the provider.
    Copyright
    © Thierry Maeder, 2026