What it costs

Playing is free. The training is sold.

Chess against the engine and chess against a person, unlimited, with no advertising anywhere in the app — that is free and it stays free. What is sold is the library, the drills, the exercises and the run.

Free

No account. Nothing to sign up for.

Unlimited play against the engine, 1400 to full strength
Unlimited online games over Game Center
Move-by-move coaching in every game you play
Five tactics puzzles a day
One Rush run a day
Three each: positional, endgame, Guess the Elo
Ratings, streaks and spaced repetition, in full

Chess Trainer Pro

Monthly

$3.99per month

Cancel in your Apple Account settings, any time.

Every daily limit removed
All 14,351 tactics puzzles
All 116 positional exercises
All 15 endgame drills
All 1,624 games to judge
Unlimited Rush
Everything in Free, unchanged

One-off unlock

$49.99once

A non-consumable purchase. It does not renew.

Exactly the same as Pro monthly
No renewal, no expiry, no reminder emails
Restores on your other devices
For people who would rather decide once

Prices shown are US App Store prices. Your local price is set by the App Store.

The whole allowance

What the free tier actually gives you.

Activity	Free	Pro
Play against the engine	Unlimited	Unlimited
Online games over Game Center	Unlimited	Unlimited
Tactics puzzles	5 a day	Unlimited
Rush runs	1 a day	Unlimited
Positional exercises	3 a day	Unlimited
Endgame drills	3 a day	Unlimited
Guess the Elo	3 a day	Unlimited
Advertising	None	None

Daily allowances reset at midnight, local time.

Why it is shaped this way

Three decisions, and the reason for each.

Metered, not locked

Nobody pays for a trainer they have not used, and a mode that refuses to open teaches nothing about what is behind it. So every mode opens, every day, and you get far enough in to feel the loop and watch the rating move.

The paywall is never shown on launch. When the day’s allowance is spent the screen says so, and only a deliberate tap opens the purchase sheet.

Two prices, not three

There is no annual plan in between, because a third price is a third decision to make at the exact moment somebody wants to solve a puzzle. Monthly if you are not sure. One-off if you are.

Playing is never sold

Chess against the engine and chess against a person cost nothing to run and are the reason the app exists. Selling them would make this a chess app with a toll booth rather than a trainer.

And there is no advertising — partly taste, partly licence. The app links Stockfish, which is GPLv3, and a proprietary ad SDK in the same binary would make the whole thing undistributable. The licence page explains it properly.

Buying, cancelling, refunds

The awkward questions, answered here rather than in an email.

How do I cancel?: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Chess Trainer. We cannot cancel it for you, because the subscription is between you and Apple and we never had it. Cancelling stops future renewals and does not shorten the period you have paid for.
How do I get a refund?: Through Apple, at reportaproblem.apple.com. We cannot issue refunds for App Store purchases. If something is broken, tell us — we would rather fix it.
I bought the unlock and got a new phone.: Sign in with the same Apple Account and tap Restore purchases on the paywall screen. The app asks StoreKit what you own; nothing is stored on a server of ours because there is no server of ours.
Does Pro change my rating or unlock “better” puzzles?: No. The rating system is identical and every puzzle in the library is reachable on a free account — five a day at a time. Pro removes the counter, not a curtain.
Will the free allowance shrink later?: It may change in either direction as the library grows. Unlimited play against the engine and against a person will not become a paid feature; that is written into the Terms rather than only promised here.

More questions, and how to reach a human →