# ChessView — Scan chess positions & PGN > Scan chess positions & PGN (iPhone/iPad app by Pavel Gnatyuk.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chessview/id6748862638 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Pavel Gnatyuk](https://appshunter.io/developer/634353888) - Category: Games, Education, Board - Price: Free - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 26.0 · 21 MB - Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Russian, Ukrainian - Released: 2025-08-06 - Data updated: 2026-08-29 - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chessview/id6748862638/reviews.md ## What is ChessView? See a chess position anywhere — in a book, on another screen, on the table in front of you — and have it on a board you can play with, in seconds. ChessView is a study tool, not another place to play. Scan a position with the camera or from a screenshot, open a PGN file, or pull in your Chess.com games — then replay them, branch off, and work out what actually happened. Free, offline, no account, no ads, no tracking. SCAN A POSITION FROM A PHOTO Point the camera at a real board, or choose a screenshot from Chess.com, Lichess or a chess book. ChessView reads the position and puts it on your board. Anything it misreads, you fix in the position editor — then start playing it out. PLAY IT OUT ON A REAL BOARD Full move validation: legal moves, en passant, castling, promotion. Drag the pieces, step back and forth through the whole game, flip the board, and branch off wherever you want to see what would have happened. OPEN PGN AND FEN FROM ANYWHERE PGN files from Files, Mail, Messages or any app that can share them. Paste a FEN string and it loads. Export any position or game as PGN, FEN or a PNG image, and share it in one tap. YOUR CHESS.COM GAMES, OFFLINE Type your username, pick a month, and your games are in the library — ready to replay any time, with or without a connection. STUDY THE CLASSICS Famous games come built in — Byrne–Fischer, Morphy, Short–Timman, Lasker–Thomas — so there is always a position worth looking at. SEE THE EVALUATION Evaluations and main lines come from the Lichess cloud database: free, fast, no account needed. For positions the database doesn't know, ChessView offers a sensible continuation of its own. OPTIONAL: COMMENTARY IN PLAIN WORDS Add your own OpenAI API key and ChessView will explain a position or a whole game in sentences — the plan, the key ideas, the moment it turned. Entirely optional: everything above works without it. Your key is stored in the iOS Keychain, used only from your device, and never sent to us. PRIVACY, ACTUALLY No account. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. Your games and your settings stay on your iPhone and iPad. WHY I BUILT IT Getting a chess position onto my phone used to be absurdly hard. A diagram in a book, a screenshot from a game, a FEN string someone sent me — none of it could just be opened and played through on an iPhone. PGN files were worse. So I built the app I wanted: open anything, put it on a real board, move the pieces. — Pavel, solo developer Designed for iPhone and iPad. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 1.18 — 2026-08-25 Rebuilt around Liquid Glass. ChessView now looks and moves like an iOS 26 app: new materials, a calmer board, and controls that stay out of the way of the position. • Better board recognition. More positions read correctly the first time — from photos, screenshots and printed diagrams. • Better move suggestions when a position isn't in the Lichess database. • Smoother, steadier navigation through move history on both iPhone and iPad. • Fixed several issues around importing, exporting and saving games. Still free. Still offline. Still no account, no ads, no tracking. ### 1.17 — 2026-08-09 Rebuilt around Liquid Glass. ChessView now looks and moves like an iOS 26 app: new materials, a calmer board, and controls that stay out of the way of the position. • Better board recognition. More positions read correctly the first time — from photos, screenshots and printed diagrams. • Better move suggestions when a position isn't in the Lichess database. • Smoother, steadier navigation through move history on both iPhone and iPad. • Fixed several issues around importing, exporting and saving games. Still free. Still offline. Still no account, no ads, no tracking. ### 1.16 — 2026-08-02 Rebuilt around Liquid Glass. ChessView now looks and moves like an iOS 26 app: new materials, a calmer board, and controls that stay out of the way of the position. • Better board recognition. More positions read correctly the first time — from photos, screenshots and printed diagrams. • Better move suggestions when a position isn't in the Lichess database. • Smoother, steadier navigation through move history on both iPhone and iPad. • Fixed several issues around importing, exporting and saving games. Still free. Still offline. Still no account, no ads, no tracking. ### 1.14 — 2026-07-18 GPT-5.4 analysis with sharper evaluations and stronger candidate moves. New: Scan positions from photos and screenshots - just capture any board and start analyzing. (Requires OpenAI API key.) ### 1.13 — 2026-06-20 GPT-5.4 analysis with sharper evaluations and stronger candidate moves. New: Scan positions from photos and screenshots - just capture any board and start analyzing. (Requires OpenAI API key.) ## More apps by Pavel Gnatyuk - [Любимые сказки](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id634353885) - [BalanceMeal](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/balancemeal/id6752800376) - [LiquidReceipt](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/liquidreceipt/id6753892642) - [VinoReel](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vinoreel/id6760934541) All apps by Pavel Gnatyuk: https://appshunter.io/developer/634353888 --- *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 2026-08-29.*