Notation: Chess Coach
Darren Cox Games iPhoneiPadiPod touch
Notation: Chess Coach is a paid Games app for iPhone and iPad by Darren Cox. Rated 4.7/5 from 6 ratings. Requires iOS 18.6. Updated October 29, 2026.
- Rating
- 4.7
- 6 ratings
- Price
- 2.99 USD
- on the App Store
- Size
- 563 MB
- Age 4+
- Updated
- Oct 29
- 2026 · v4.0.0
Screenshots
About Notation: Chess Coach
Notation is a chess coaching app that teaches you why — not just what. Every chess evaluation comes from Stockfish 18, running entirely on your device. Every pattern, weakness, and tactical motif is detected by hand-tuned on-device classifiers built on decades of coaching theory. The language model's only job is the last step: explaining what the analysis found, in plain English, like a coach sitting next to you. The chess is never generated. It's explained. THREE COACHING FRAMEWORKS Notation is the first chess app to operationalise multiple grandmaster-level coaching frameworks as deterministic measurement: • Dan Heisman's seven positional elements — Mobility, Vulnerability, Centre Control, Coordination, Speed, Time, Flexibility — measured per-position with super-GM baselines • Jeremy Silman's coaching emphasis frames — fifteen frames choosing what to teach at each moment • Jacob Aagaard's positional predicates — Where are the weaknesses? Which is the worst-placed piece? What's the opponent's plan? All computed on-device. All deterministic. The same principles human coaches have used for decades, encoded into classifiers that run before the language model ever sees the position. GAME REVIEW Every game gets a coherent on-device review — no API key needed, no internet, no cost. Template-driven narrative against the full coaching substrate. When you want depth, upgrade once with your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key, o ruse the On Device LLM with no additional costs and the richer review becomes the permanent artefact for that game. Nadia comments on at most six moments — only the ones worth learning from. PDF export of every review. PLAYER PROFILE Style axes — Aggression, Tactical Alertness, Positional Play, Endgame — derived from the substrate with confidence bands. The seven Heisman elements sit below as evidence. Full-screen iPad dashboard. PDF coaching report you could hand to a human coach. OPPONENT SCOUTING & MATCHUP REPORTS Scout reports surface the full eight-axis substrate on any opponent. How-to-play-against framing with concrete suggestions. Player-vs-opponent comparison across all axes with weakest-phase detection. SHADOW — YOUR CHESS TWIN Shadow learns how you play and saves checkpoints. Play yourself from six months ago. See how far you've come. Coming soon: calibrate Shadow to your real-life rivals by importing their games. PLAY ON YOUR PHYSICAL BOARD Pair with Chessnut Air, Pro, Go, Air+ and Move over Bluetooth. Notation tracks every move on real wood while Nadia coaches. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Stockfish on-device. All coaching classifiers on-device. Cohort baselines on-device. Optional cloud AI is bring-your-own-key — your Anthropic or OpenAI API key, your account, your data. We never see it. Leave the field blank and Notation works fully without it. IMPORT YOUR GAMES Connect Lichess or Chess.com. Import PGN files. Nadia analyses everything in the background. £2.99. One-off. No subscription. No ads. No tracking. Yours forever.
Ratings & reviews
4.7
6 ratings
What’s new
Version 4.0.0 · Updated October 29, 2026
So much is new - its been a while but back with a major update. Thanks to Apple's on device Foundation Models - Nadia Is now on device on all Apple Intelligence supported devices! Optionally you can use a cloud LLM provider with your own key. iPhone Duo support is in *beta* Localisation - Nadia has hit up the language learning apps over the summer, and now speaks English, German, Spanish and French! Plus full app translation throughout!
Play today's Sudoku puzzle
A quick 6×6 Sudoku every day; levels grow to the classic 9×9. A free daily puzzle from Fiplay, same board for everyone. It plays right here, no download.
App privacy
The developer, Darren Cox, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
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| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notation: Chess Coach | 4.7 / 5 (6 ratings) | 2.99 USD | October 29, 2026 | |
| Stockfish AI Chess | 5.0 / 5 (18) | Free | Nov 1, 2026 | Compare |
| HIARCS Chess | 4.8 / 5 (205) | 9.99 USD | Sep 22, 2026 | Compare |
| My Blunders | – | Free | Oct 13, 2026 | Compare |
| GrandArena | – | Free | Sep 22, 2026 | Compare |
| AI Chess Coach – Chessy | 4.1 / 5 (18) | Free | Oct 27, 2026 | Compare |
| Clutter · sketchbook puzzle | – | Free | Nov 1, 2026 | Compare |