Press kit

Duo Chess – Face to Face

Everything you need to write about Duo Chess. All images may be used in coverage of the app.

Fact sheet

App name: Duo Chess – Face to Face
Developer: Francisco Daniel Bañales
Platforms: iPhone (designed first for the foldable iPhone Duo) and iPad, iOS and iPadOS 26 or later
Release: Coming soon
Price: Free, with a one-time Pro upgrade. No subscription, no ads, no tracking.
Languages: English, Spanish (Mexico), Japanese, Russian
Modes: Face to face (two players, one device), tools for a real board (clock, color draw, scoresheet, position editor), solo against the computer
Contact: hello@duochess.app

Short description

The app for chess in person. Lay the phone flat between two players and each side of the screen turns toward its player, or set it beside a real board as your clock and scoresheet.

About the app

Duo Chess is the app for chess in person: two players at one phone, or players at a real board with the app beside them. Unfolded and lying flat, an iPhone Duo becomes a face-to-face board: each player gets their own side of the screen, with their own clock and buttons, and the pieces turned to face them. Folded, the cover screen is a solo game against the computer. It works the same way on regular iPhones and on iPad.

Colors are drawn with a small ritual: two paper hands, one hiding a white pawn and one a black. Fair play handicaps let a parent and child or a club player and a beginner play a real game, with different clock times, piece odds and helpers for one side only. Touch rules designed for two people at one screen mean only the player to move can touch the pieces, and an undo is a request the opponent has to accept.

For games on a real board, the Tools tab has a split-screen clock (each player taps their own half, with increment, Bronstein delay and different time per player), the paper-hand color draw, a scoresheet with a notation keypad that checks every move, and a position editor for setting up a position to analyze or play on. "Start a game on a board" runs the color draw, clock and scoresheet as one flow, and the finished game is saved like any other.

Every game is saved and can be replayed with an evaluation graph, mistakes and turning points, and shared as PGN, an image or a GIF. Rare finishes such as a smothered mate or an en passant mate are added to a collection of eight cards. There are no ads, no tracking and no subscription: Pro is a single purchase.

Key features

Face-to-face play with each player's panel and pieces turned toward them
Paper-hand color draw; rematches swap colors
Fair play handicaps: time odds, piece odds and per-player helpers
Two-player touch rules: turn-locked pieces, palm rejection, agreed undo, hold to resign
Tools for a real board: split-screen clock, color draw, scoresheet that checks every move, position editor
Solo play against the computer, levels 1–10, with hints and an evaluation bar
Automatic game history, replay, review and PGN export
Rare moves collection with eight cards, two of them legendary
VoiceOver, spoken moves, non-color highlights, Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion