Chess Quest

Chess Quest offers 1200 exercises in six levels (200 each). After the so-called "Basic Level" for beginners, the exercises in the Level 1 are comparable to the educational exercises in the Anthology of Chess Combinations. In fact, some of them are the same exercises. Exercises in level five are challenging for advanced players, perhaps even for masters.


An advantage of Chess Quest is that completed exercises can be returned to for further study. Another advantage is the option of playing through alternate responses by the defending player. A small tree symbol appears in the game annotation where alternate responses are possible. Some exercises have complex trees.

The app has a simple design. Pressing a plus advances through the exercises in each level, or through the several levels. The user may configure whether the objective (White to checkmate, White to draw) is announced at the start of the problem, or remains hidden. I find this feature useful, and have turned off the notification. Hence, I must assess whether I am playing to win or to draw. Sometimes. the objective is merely to gain an advantage, or to avoid losing equality.

The quality of the problems selected is a significant strength of Chess Quest. They are well chosen.

The app works in portrait mode and does not rotate. I paid $4.99 for the app, but this price is a sale price "for a limited time."

GM Leonid Yudasin selected the exercises.

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