Skakmat
Collect all the stars.
Hint
Collect the stars
The first lessons are games: move the rook, the bishop or the knight onto every star, and learn how each piece moves.
Chess that explains every mistake.
Skakmat teaches children chess step by step: 40 short lessons, thousands of puzzles with no daily limit and six bots, from a mouse to a dragon. When a move gives a piece away, the coach says why and lets your child take it back.
Coming soon to the App StoreSee how it works
- $1.99 once · No subscription
- No account, no chat with strangers
- Works offline
From how the rook moves to checkmate
40 short lessons in nine chapters. Each explains one idea in a few sentences, then your child tries it on the board, with a hint whenever it’s needed.
Give checkmate.
Hint
Check and mate
Escaping check three ways, mating on the back rank, with two rooks and with the queen, and in the end mating the bot from scratch.
Find a square where the knight attacks both the queen and the rook.
Hint
Tactics with names
Forks, pins, skewers and discovered attacks, each with its own lesson and puzzles to practise it.
Puzzles without a daily limit
2,692 puzzles in levels of 20, easiest first: mate in one, free pieces, forks, then mate in two. Your child solves as many as they like; there’s no counter that stops at three a day.
- Stars for solving without help
- A hint shows the piece, then the whole move
- A new level opens when half the last one is solved
Give checkmate in two moves.
Hint
Six bots and a patient coach
Play a mouse that barely knows the rules, a rabbit that forgets to guard its pieces, and on up to the dragon. When a move hangs a piece or misses a mate, the coach says what went wrong, shows the better move and offers a take-back.
On iPhones with Apple Intelligence the coach’s words are phrased by Apple’s on-device model; everywhere else Skakmat writes them itself. Either way it all happens on the iPhone.
For the whole family
A profile for each child
Each child gets a name, an animal and their own stars, lessons and wins against the bots. Siblings never mix up each other’s progress.
Two players, one iPhone
Play each other on the same phone, with the board turning round between moves if you like. The only opponent who isn’t a bot is sitting next to you.
No account. No strangers.
Skakmat has no chat, no online games and no account, so there’s nobody to meet. Your children’s names and progress stay on your iPhone, and the bots and the coach run on the phone itself.
- No account
- No chat
- No ads
- No tracking
No yearly plan to learn chess.
Skakmat costs $1.99, once. No account, no ads, no tracking, no limit on puzzles, and your children’s progress never leaves your iPhone.
That’s all it ever costs. Every feature and every future update is included, and so are the extra app icons. No subscription, nothing to unlock later, and if something’s wrong, you write straight to Peter, who made it.
Questions
Is it a subscription?
No. Skakmat costs $1.99, once. There’s no subscription, no in-app purchases and no ads, and no limit on how many puzzles your child solves.
Does it need the internet?
No. Lessons, puzzles, the bots and the coach all work offline. There’s no account to sign in to.
Which ages is it for?
Roughly 6 to 10, from a child who doesn’t know how the pieces move to one who beats their parents. Beginners of any age are welcome.
Can my child talk to other players?
No. There’s no online play and no chat. The bots live in the app, and the only person your child can play is the one sitting next to them, on the same iPhone.
How strong are the bots?
From the Mouse, which barely knows the rules, to the Dragon, which beats most children and plenty of grown-ups. Each one makes the kind of mistakes a player at that level makes.
Where do the puzzles come from?
They were made for Skakmat: the bots played over a thousand games against each other, and every position with one clearly right move became a puzzle, checked by the engine.
Which languages does Skakmat speak?
English, Danish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.