Chess Opening Trainer vs OpenChess
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Opening Trainer
Learn chess openings with a simplified interface that analyzes millions of games. Moves are scored and ordered by popularity, making study straightforward. Test your knowledge with built-in quizzes.
- Simplified interface
- Move scoring based on popularity
- Analysis of over 2 million games
- Straightforward study approach
- Opening knowledge testing
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Chess opening is very important for a chess game. There are lots of apps to help one study chess openings. But most of them are too complicate. There are way too many numbers associated with a move. Users will easily be overwhelmed and will lose interests in studying too. Chess Opening Trainer tries to provied an easy and simple interface to study openings. It studied over 2 million games and generated one score for each move. All the moves for each situation are ordered by its popularity. The interface is easy and straight forward. Chess Opening Trainer also provides a way for the user to test his opening knowledge.
OpenChess
Master chess openings by playing against a specialized AI. Explore specific defenses or move sequences, and gain insights into positional advantages and piece values. Improve your game from the very first moves.
- Learn specific chess openings
- Play against AI focused on opening lines
- Analyze positional advantages
- Evaluate piece values and mobility
- Understand pawn structure
- Track defended and attacked pieces
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Learn chess openings with OpenChess: An Opening Explorer. Play against the computer, or play as both sides, and be shown the lines that are within any opening that you are interested in learning. Want to learn the Sicilian Defense or the Queen’s Gambit? Choose that category and play against that a computer that only follows lines within that opening category. Wany to focus on learning all of the openings that start with a specific move, such as pawn to “e4”? This category can also be selected, and you can play against a computer that only plays lines that start with “e4”. The chess engine in this app is not Stockfish, and it does not look very far ahead. It is meant to provide a decent base evaluation and allow the majority of the reason behind the evaluation of the current position to be shown to the user. The following information can be shown to the user: • Positional advantages for each piece type (pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen and king) • Piece value advantages for each color • Mobility scores for each piece where mobility plays a big role (bishop, rook, queen, king) • Pawn advantages and disadvantages (passed pawns, isolated pawns, backwards pawns, doubled pawns) • Total value of pieces attacked by each color as well as total value of pieces defended by each color A lot of chess games are won and lost within the opening moves, this app was designed to help players learn solid openings that either help them gain a winning advantage out of the opening, or at the very least help them not lose due to the opening moves played. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: OpenChess at 5.0 against Chess Opening Trainer's 1.4. OpenChess also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months). Chess Opening Trainer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ratings volume (7 vs 2). On price and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. OpenChess sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Chess Opening Trainer asks for nothing beyond the download.
OpenChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 2 respectively.
Chess Opening Trainer ships an update every 4 months, OpenChess fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Opening Trainer | OpenChess |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.4 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 14.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Ad-supported — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 33 MB | 57 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Propersh LLC | David Bryant |
Customer experience
Chess Opening Trainer
OpenChess
In-app purchases
Chess Opening Trainer
No in-app purchases
OpenChess
- Tarrasch Defense Opening$0.99
- Trompowsky Attack Opening$0.99
- Scandinavian Defense Opening$0.99
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- Three Knights Opening$0.99
- Zukertort Opening$0.99
- Van't Kruijs Opening$0.99
- Vienna Game Opening$0.99
- Ware Opening$0.99
- Opening Explorer$4.99
- OpenChess Premium$19.99
Questions
Is Chess Opening Trainer free?
Is OpenChess free?
Which has better reviews, Chess Opening Trainer or OpenChess?
Do Chess Opening Trainer or OpenChess have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Opening Trainer or OpenChess?
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