An app by Tiny Builder
Chess with someone who tells you why.
A 3D board you move with your finger, and a coach above it who plays at your level and says what each move did. Nine other opponents from 250 to 1800, twelve lessons on the board itself, and 80 puzzles with a rating that follows you.
- A coach who explains
- No account needed
- Works offline
- Android first, iPhone next
Watch it
Tiny Chess Master in 30 seconds
A chess master in your pocket: he lights up the best move, catches every mistake, and grows with you to 1800.
The video plays from YouTube. Watch it on YouTube
New in Tiny Chess Master
A coach, a trophy, and everything Pro adds
The Chess Master explains as you play, every rival has a crown to win, and Pro opens the whole app.
A chess master in your pocket
He plays at your level, says what each move did, and lights up the best move when you tap him. With Pro he grows with you all the way to 1800.
Win the golden trophy
Checkmate a bot and the trophy comes up on the board, its crown is yours, and the next rival is offered straight after the win.
Pro unlocks it all
The Chess Master to 1800, all nine bots, every lesson, all 80 puzzles, game review and two players on one phone. Monthly or yearly, each with a 7-day free trial.
What it looks like
A real board, on a real table
Real screens from the app, the same ones you will see in the stores.
Meet the Chess Master
He plays you, and he tells you why.
Most chess apps hand you an opponent and a number at the end. This one sits a coach above the board who watches what you do and says something about it, in words rather than engine lines.
Good start. Pawns in the middle of the board give your pieces room.
Hmm, not quite, it leaves your bishop on B5 hanging.
Try your bishop from C4 to D3.
- He adaptsStarts around 600, goes up a step when you win and down when you lose.
- He hintsTap him and he names a move you could play, lighting its two squares.
- He teachesThe lessons are his: arrows, lit squares and stars on the board.
What Tiny Chess Master does
Small app, patient teacher
Everything here is in the app today, on the phone, with no connection needed.
A coach who watches your game
He is reading the position you are in, not a script. Take the centre and he says so. Hang a knight and he says that too, before you lose it. Win and he plays a little harder next time; lose and he eases off, so the game stays worth playing.
A tip when you are stuck
Tap the Chess Master and he names a move in words, lighting the two squares on the board. It is the nudge a person sitting beside you would give, rather than an engine line you cannot read.
Nine opponents, in five tiers
From Pebble at 250, who is still learning what the pieces do, up to Torre at 1800, who is the engine at full strength. Each one is beaten by the one above it, so the ladder is real and the next step up is always a fair fight. Beat a bot and you win its crown, and the next one up is waiting.
Lessons drawn on the board
Twelve of them, from how the pieces move to castling, forks, pins and skewers, famous checkmates, how to start a game and how to win an endgame. Glowing green arrows grow out of the piece, squares light up, and gold stars wait for you to go and collect them. Nothing to read but a sentence at a time.
Puzzles with a rating
Eighty positions out of real games, each one a mate in one, a forced mate in two, or a tactic that wins material. Solve them and your rating goes up, miss them and it goes down, which is the most honest progress bar there is.
Two people, one phone
Pass it across the table. The camera swings round to face whoever is to move, so nobody has to ask whose turn it is, and the coach stays quiet for the whole game.
A room, not a diagram
The board sits on a round table in a dark room, lit from the side, with the pieces casting real shadows across the squares. If you would rather have the old flat view, Top View gives you the board from above in one tap.
Pick it up, take it back, look again
A game you walk away from is waiting on the menu when you come back. Take a move back when your finger was faster than your head, and when a game ends you can walk through it again with the coach, move by move.
He says it out loud
The coach reads his lines if you want him to, which is easier than reading while you are looking at the board. The speaker in the corner turns it off, and it stays off.
How it works
Open it, drag a pawn, learn something
- 01Pick who you are playingThe first time, the Chess Master asks how well you know chess and what to call you, then starts at your level and moves a step up the ladder each time you win. Or pick a bot, a lesson, a puzzle, or the person across the table.
- 02Drag a piecePick it up, put it where you want it. Legal moves only, and the board turns to face whoever is to move. A taken piece walks off and stands on the table beside the player who took it.
- 03Listen, or askThe coach says what each move did, out loud if you like. If you cannot see a move, tap him and he names one. Checkmate raises a gold trophy over the board, which never gets old.
Chess guides
The rules, the tricks and the mates
8 guides written beside the app: how every piece moves, what the pieces are worth, the tactics that win games, and the checkmates worth knowing by name.
Tiny Chess Master at a glance
The short version
What you get, what it costs, and what happens to your data.
- Price
- Free to start: the Chess Master to 1000, four bots, the first lesson, the Daily Puzzle, stats. Pro, monthly or yearly, unlocks the rest. No ads
- Device
- Android phones first, on Google Play, with iPhone to follow. Portrait. Not built for iPad yet
- Account
- None. Open it and drag a pawn
- Connection
- Not needed. The engine and the coach run on the phone
- Opponents
- Nine bots from 250 to 1800, one adaptive coach, and two players on one phone
- Tracking
- No advertising, no third-party trackers. Anonymous usage counts only, which Settings turns off
Questions
The things people ask before downloading
Yes. The first lesson, free for everyone, teaches how every piece moves with arrows and stars drawn on the board rather than paragraphs to read, and eleven more come with Pro: special moves, what the pieces are worth, check and checkmate, forks, pins, famous mates, how to start a game and how to win an endgame. The first time you open it, the Chess Master asks how well you know chess and starts at your level. The weakest opponent plays at about 250, a bot that is still learning the rules itself, so a first game is winnable.
Learn the game from someone who answers back.
Offline, no account, and a coach who explains himself. It lands on Google Play first, then the App Store. Leave your email and we will tell you the day it does.
