Turn every puzzle into progress. Train with 5M+ puzzles from real games, personalized to your level. When you make a mistake, understand why - and learn from it. That’s the idea we built this app around.
Solving more puzzles is useful, but we wanted training to be about more than getting a position right or wrong. We wanted every puzzle to teach you something - about the move you missed, the pattern you didn’t recognize, or the way you calculated the position.
There are more than 5 million puzzles from real games. But the number itself isn’t really the point. What matters is finding the right positions for you, at the right difficulty, and helping you learn from them. When you make a mistake, you can understand why. Use hints, explore better moves, get coaching, and look deeper into the position instead of simply moving on to the next puzzle.
Over time, your training starts to reveal which tactical patterns give you the most trouble. You can practice across 64 motifs and patterns - forks, pins, sacrifices, checkmates, endgames, and many more - and spend more time on the ideas that need it. You can also see how your training develops over time: your rating, accuracy, training time, and performance across different patterns.
And when you’re ready for something truly advanced, there are more than 300,000 composed chess problems from solving competitions. They’re difficult, precise, often beautiful - and solving them can be one of the most satisfying forms of chess training.
We’ve also tried to make this a place you’ll actually want to come back to. Solve a few puzzles when you have five minutes. Sit down for a longer session when you feel like training seriously. Build a streak, reach a milestone, or simply keep showing up.
Whether you’re new to tactics or have been playing chess for years, the goal stays the same:
Learn something from every puzzle. Play better chess.
And we’re here to help you along the way.
Privacy Policy: https://chess.phd/privacy/
Terms of Use: https://chess.phd/terms/
I’ve enjoyed the app for a little over a week now. The different difficulties and filtering options are very useful and I really enjoy the clean look. My only notes would be the ability to turn off sound and vibrations. Also, the check marks when finding the correct move are a bit small for my poor eyesight. Possibly highlighting the whole cell/square for a split second would be a lot easier to see, then leave the little mark. But it’s only an idea. But I’m excited to see where it goes!
Developer Response
Thank you so much for your thoughtful feedback and kind words! We’re glad you’re enjoying the app and finding the different levels and filtering options useful.Just a quick note: in the latest version, you can now disable sounds in the Settings menu. We'll add the setting for vibration in next release.We also appreciate your suggestion about making the check marks more visible — that’s a great idea and we’ll look into ways to improve visibility.Thanks again for supporting the app — we’re excited to keep making it better!
Beautiful tactics training app
Piet Buitenbroek
This is a beautifully crafted chess tactics training app, based on the millions of available Lichess puzzles. The interface is clean and very well built. It allows you to do puzzles on specific themes. Having your rating calculated after each puzzle, a streak system and an increase in rank based on how many puzzles were solved at first try are features that keep you motivated. And being able to evaluate positions with the Lichess engine interface right inside the app adds even more. And it’s free! Thanks so much for building this!
Developer Response
Thank you so much! 🙏 I really appreciate your feedback. It means a lot to hear that you’re enjoying the interface, streaks, and puzzle rating system — all designed to make training with chess puzzles both motivating and effective.If you ever have ideas or requests, you can reach me directly in the app (Settings → Community → Telegram). And if you’re enjoying Chess.PhD, please share it with your friends or chess community — it helps more players discover and enjoy smarter chess puzzle training! ♟️Thanks again for your support!
Phenomenal
oliiri
Great app in development. Love how there is statistics now. I like how they are near unlimited puzzles always keeping one thinking and helpful computer solutions to see what would happen if you don’t choose a certain move. Something you guys could add maybe is maybe more customizing of the app like more board colors and other things so more people will join
Developer Response
Thank you so much for the awesome review 🙏I’m really glad you’re enjoying the app, especially the new stats and the computer explanations — I’ve spent a lot of time polishing those!You’re totally right about customization — I’ve been thinking about adding more board and piece color options soon. Hearing that you’d like it too gives me extra motivation to push it higher on the list 🙂Thanks again for the kind words and for being part of the early community — it really means a lot!
Phenomenal Training Aid
KB5108
The developer is very responsive and a pleasure to deal with. The app is one of the best training aids I have used. The puzzles are endless and I can focused on my weakness unlike other apps. 10/10!
Developer Response
Thank you - this truly made my day! Training on your weaknesses is exactly what Chess.PhD is built for, so I'm thrilled it's working for you. Always an email away if you have ideas or need anything. Thanks for the 10/10!
UI and performance improvements
Version 3.93
The developer, Sergei Tovmasian, 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 Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Contact Info
Identifiers
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Sergei Tovmasian
Size
118 MB
Category
Puzzle
Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
