# Chess Viewer — user reviews > 131 indexed App Store user reviews of Chess Viewer by Everyman Chess, rated 4.41/5 from 404 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-viewer/id410841427/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-viewer/id410841427.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 293 · 4★ 52 · 3★ 18 · 2★ 13 · 1★ 28 ## What do users think of Chess Viewer? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 💡 Convenient way to read chess books - 👍 Easy to use and navigate - 🚀 Smooth performance **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes and stability issues - 🔍 Difficult navigation and lack of features - 💰 Expensive in-app purchases **Commonly reported bugs** - Purchased books not downloading or appearing in library - Restore purchases feature not working - Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions - PGN file parsing errors **Most requested features** - Add board coordinates for easier study - Implement an integrated chess engine for analysis - Allow hiding of move comments for puzzle solving - Improve bookmarking and place-saving functionality - Provide more customization options for the board and pieces ## Newest reviews (16 of 131) ### 4/5 — App Crashes on File Upload *2024-12-23* The app crashes every time I try to upload a file, regardless of its size. My phone is updated to the latest version, and I have plenty of storage available, yet the issue persists even with files smaller than 1MB. I used the app before, and it worked perfectly fine. However, after reinstalling it recently, the crashes started happening. Please address this problem as it makes the app unusable ### 3/5 — Purchased books not available on m2 iPad Air *2024-05-30, version 4.4.1* You need to fix this. New and previous purchases do not appear in books section. Working well on iPhone ### 4/5 — Thank you *2024-04-20, version 4.4* Thank you for restoring select text. ### 1/5 — Cannot download purchased book *2023-09-13, version 4.3* Tried multiple times but get the message “The server claims you are not authorised to access this file.” This is despite it saying it has been purchased and showing up in my Apple purchased list. ### 1/5 — Fails to Load or Restore Purchased Books *2023-08-19* June 19, 2023 Review: The recently upgraded app failed to load my prior purchases. The restore previous purchases option failed over and over again. Currently, the app deserves negative stars. **Developer response:** Apologies, we have just released a fix for a problem relating to verifying purchases so please try this again. ### 1/5 — They STILL haven’t fixed this app *2023-08-13* You STILL cannot download books you have paid for. They seem to have no sense of urgency to fix this problem, so I’m reporting them. ### 1/5 — Worst app *2023-08-11, version 4.3* Can’t download the book. Charged me multiple times for trying to restore purchase. No link between iPad and iPhone. Worst app all around. Waste of time and money ### 2/5 — How do you open a PGN?! *2023-08-01, version 4.2* I have PGN files saved in my iCloud that came with RCA courses that I purchased. One problem though - how do I open these files in this app? I can’t figure it out. Thanks! ### 1/5 — Cannot restore purchased books. *2023-07-18, version 4.2* Cannot download or restore previously purchased hooks. ### 1/5 — Thieves *2023-07-08* Purchased book not showing up in my book library. Deleted and reinstalled app, now I have lost ALL my purchased books. Hundreds of dollars worth! DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP! They updated the app and your purchased books now show up in the bookstore, BUT YOU STILL CANNOT DOWNLOAD THEM. You’d think that would be first priority to fix, but it’s not with these guys. What good does it do to see the books you’ve purchased, yet cannot download them? ### 3/5 — Good but? *2023-07-07* The books are great, and they keeps improving BUT…WHY on my {Apple device},did one of the updates recently remove the books app ability to use speakable content,to allow us to underline paragraphs and have it read to me? That was one of the main reasons why I bought many many books from this app. Please bring that back speakable content. function I feel cheated;I bought over 50 books,had I known you would remove the readability function I would not have bought many books from this app at all. I enjoy, allowing an app to read long introductions, which I find very enjoyable. But some of us don’t like to read long paragraphs introductions,please restore in another update,the readability function. ### 1/5 — Purchasing and Restore Purchases Broken *2023-06-13* Bought a book and the payment went through and it said it would download the book, but that not happened. Restore purchases no longer works so if you ever install the app on a new device you will not be able to get your books. **Developer response:** Apologies, we have just released a fix for a problem relating to verifying purchases so please try this again. ### 1/5 — Bugged - Purchased book not downloaded to my book list *2023-04-29, version 4.0.2* I purchased the book Coach Yourself and the book was not downloaded. The page of contact support says not available. So, I have 24 dollars gone because I have no book Fix it. ### 1/5 — Chess viewer now not showing on iPhone *2023-04-28, version 4.0.2* Until update I could share a pgn with chess viewer. Now it will not show chess viewer when I press the share button ### 1/5 — I lost my money, extremely poor customer service. *2023-04-20* First the good… then the bad and the ugly. The chess books with PGN are nice! IF they work and IF they load. Several books I purchased never showed up on my book list. I went to the restore purchases option in the settings of the app. No dice. I uninstalled the app and reinstalled and lost EVERYTHING. Hundreds of dollars of books. Went to the restore purchases option, says purchases restored and will be downloaded. But NOTHING. Phone on and off. Nothing. I sent several messages through contact page for app developer. No response. I tried contacting customer service number listed. It takes me to a spam bot message for auto insurance. Horrible experience. Just hoping I can get all my money back. **Developer response:** Apologies, we have just released a fix for a problem relating to verifying purchases so please try this again. ### 4/5 — Not working on iPhone 14Pro *2023-02-12, version 4.0.1* Great app and my favourite study tool among all PGN readers. However, it’s not working properly on iPhone 14Pro. You can’t open your downloaded PGN notes from the files or anywhere else and also is not supporting Greek as it used to in earlier versions. Never had a problem on iPhone 8, it’s a great shame I can’t use it anymore on my new device. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t access store on app *2024-11-01, version 4.4.1* Can’t access store. Please fix ### 1/5 — They cannot keep this app working . *2024-10-31* As soon as they fix an issue with buying or download books from the store, Apple issues an update on their software, this app won’t allow you to restore purchases or download books and it takes forever for the designers to update this app and fix the problem. It took them months to fix the last issue and it is taking them months to fix the current issue. Don’t bother buying this. Go to Chessable. ### 1/5 — Everyman Chess Viewer *2024-09-29, version 4.4.1* Doesn’t work with iOS 17.7 on an iPhone 11: All my purchased books have disappeared; “Restore Purchases” fails to restore anything (though it claims to have done so) and “Book Store” fails to load anything, spinning merrily until the app eventually crashes! How about fixing it? ### 1/5 — Useless app *2024-09-22, version 4.4.1* I downloaded this app today but I was not able to download any PGN either from my IPad or from the website. Big disappointment! Nenad ### 1/5 — Please update! *2024-09-04* Love ChessViewer! It’s super handy for reviewing games and learning new strategies. But it’s already September 4th, and we still can’t access the store to buy books. It’s a bit of a letdown since I’ve been really looking forward to grabbing some new resources. Please update the app soon, and it’ll definitely be an easy 5 stars! ### 1/5 — Crashes every time while opening any pgn file *2024-08-22, version 4.4.1* This application simply never works under no circumstances I have tried ! Do not purchase ! I even purchased a book for $20 (in-app purchase) hoping that would work... It failed... crashed while opening the book ! I expected much better from Everyman Chess ! ### 1/5 — Won’t download and display PGN files from web *2024-08-08, version 4.4.1* App crashes without displaying any error messages when downloading PGN files from the web, which means the correct name for the app is Purchased PGN Book Viewer. ### 1/5 — It doesn’t work. *2024-06-17, version 4.4.1* It doesn’t load purchased books and it crashes when it tries to download the books. It just doesn’t work at all. ### 1/5 — Restore purchases broekn: hundreds of dollars wasted *2023-12-03* I purchased dozens of chess books via the app. It worked great for a year, then one day none of my books appeared. In the bookstore within the app they show as "purchased", but I cannot access any of them. Please fix this problem, it has been broken for 6+ months. How hard could this be to fix....? ### 1/5 — Wouldn't buy PGNs in the app *2023-11-16* Really liked the app, pretty minimal but really provides what I want. But, I'm unable to download any of the PGNs I have purchased. Originally, I was just unable to download Fischer Move By Move, but decided to redownload the app in hopes of fixing the issue. Now, I can't download any of my purchased books. I tried contacting customer support awhile back but nothing happened. App was updated, and looked like it might fix it. However, still dosen't work. IDK. App is usable if you just import PGNs. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Easiest way to study chess books! *2024-04-25* I have purchased dozens of chess books via the app. I love studying the everyman chess books on my iPad with this app. There was a snafu with loading large numbers of purchases which is now fixed. The app is amazing. Thanks chessviewer! **Developer response:** Apologies, we have just released a fix for a problem relating to verifying purchases so please try this again. ### 5/5 — Market is not downloading *2024-01-28* Can’t get access to the book purchasing page Please fix **Developer response:** Apologies, we have just released a fix for a problem relating to verifying purchases so please try this again. ### 5/5 — Dr.Jack *2023-12-07, version 4.3* Very Nice App ### 5/5 — Great app but purchasing doesn’t work *2023-07-20, version 4.2* In principle this app is superb. However, the big however, you buy a book, and it takes your money, but then nothing else happens. No book. ### 5/5 — Best PGN reader out there *2021-12-21, version 3.0.10* Awesome ### 5/5 — Perfect *2021-04-30, version 3.0.10* Works great for what it is ### 5/5 — Does the job pretty well! *2021-03-16, version 3.0.10* Gotham Chess got me using this for his course and it is great! ### 5/5 — Super helpful! *2021-02-18* I used this app to prepare my repertoire for my first tournament. It worked great and I got incredible positions out of the opening! 5 stars! ### 5/5 — Best PGN viewer out there *2019-08-25* As I indicated in my title, this pgn viewer for the price (free ) is the best out there. Sure it can use a little bit of improvements and hopefully the developer has time for that. It does just about everything I expect it to. ### 5/5 — Great *2019-06-02, version 3.0.10* The books are great, and they keeps improving the Chess app!!! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*