SmallChess

SmallChess is a chess software company built by Ted Wong, a former Principal Engineer and Head of Data Science at Chess.com and Chessable. The company's flagship product, SmallFish, is one of the highest-rated chess analysis apps on the iOS App Store, powered by Stockfish 17.1 at roughly 3600+ Elo.

SmallFish gives you three ways to improve: review your games with commentary, study how Stockfish evaluates positions across multiple lines, and track your progress over time. It also includes endgame tablebase integration, opening book resources, and a clean graphical view of your game performance. The app has earned a 4.8-star rating from over 4,300 reviews and has climbed as high as #155 globally in the Board Games category.

What sets SmallChess apart from other mobile analysis tools is the philosophy behind it. There are no in-app purchases, no ads, and no data tracking. You pay once and get a full-strength engine on your phone. Ted Wong is also building a new open-source Stockfish app using React Native, plus an encyclopedia of openings project with 500+ annotated games. The company actively recruits chess software developers through its Discord community.

SmallFish is available for .99 on iOS, iPadOS, macOS (Apple Silicon), and Apple Vision Pro. A companion app, Chess Tablebase for Stockfish, is available as a free download for endgame study.