Chess Opener App Reviews

Play a game. If youre not sure of the opening or variation, just play it on the explorer. Or, practice openings to make sure their correct.Books are great, but so is this app...especially on the road!

Tons of catalogued openings. Plays fast and is interactive (gives hints, allows move take back).

This app has great content and as a tool to learn openings it does a fair job. For the cost however, it is poorly executed. I understand chess is not about being flashy & keeping things simple keeps the focus on the game & helps keep distractions at bay but the UI is painful to look at (so I dont use it). It looks like it was put together by a fourth grader for a class project (did anyone see the icon?). The layout, the controls, the color schemes, selecting options etc. are all disappointing compared to the beautiful, well developed free apps available. This apps only positive is that it provides to an almost otherwise neglected niche. I appreciate the concept but wish we could move beyond the prototype. Please make the UI more user friendly i.e. actually think it through, and give it a major face lift. UPDATE PLEASE!!!

Awesome app! Tons of openings, love the fact I can keep playing after opening is done. Using it on iPad after buying it for iPhone is sweet :) Amazing database! Gambits opening db nice touch.

Good for beginners to advanced.

This is a great tool for learning and exploring openings. I mostly use it in explorer mode, where you can explore responses to variations. One complaint is that there is no landscape format on he iPad, but hopefully theyll address that in the future.

Chess opener is an amazing app. So many openings that are accurate and go deeper than all other opening apps. I am a chess player with a 1970 rating and am young player, but very lazy. I want to learn openings but cant bring myself to. This app makes it easy and I have already learned so many lines, variations, and openings you will not regret getting this app it is amazing.

I cant believe a 1970 says the database is deep. Most variations go 6 or so moves deep. There is no commentary or training. I am still waiting for a good opening app having wasted money on two

Im learning how to become a better chess player and openings is my weak spot. I think this app is going to help me a lot.

Yep.

Very good information on my weak point.

This is a useful app. It would be the app of my dreams if we could set up our own positions, enter the correct moves, save them to a problems data base and have the program automatically load the next problem. Wow! You could enter tactics, key positions in your own repertoire, and endgame endgame positions and have all this on your phone! It would take some work to enter these positions but it would be worth it. I would pay $50 for such an app.

Lets you step through, rather than just running them at speed. Great database of variations

So far I like it. It gives me a good reference to learn from when Im on the run and cant be on Chessmaster at home.

This app is so great. I refer to it all the time for variations. Trust me,get it!

This is a terrific app. It allows you to automate display of an opening until you learn it, and then test yourself without using the display move button. For my learning style this was much better than a different app that just displayed a particular opening. The Grandmaster example games are a nice addition to see how an opening was used in real games (shows suggested next moves after the defined moves of the particular opening). My one small gripe would be that the Opening Book menu of all openings splits openings to wide groups (such as B20-B30), and the resulting list can take a long time to scroll through. Such scrolling would be easy on a computer, but on an iPad it takes a zillion flicks to get to the bottom of the list. Fortunately, searching for an opening does work, but shorter lists would be nice, too.