Comparison

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) vs Openings Mastermind

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)

Master chess tactics with over 2500 exercises focused on delivering checkmate in one move. This app provides structured lessons, hints, and explanations to improve your tactical understanding and speed, suitable for beginners to intermediate players.

Highlights
  • 2500+ mating exercises
  • Focus on mate in one move
  • Hints and explanations
  • Speed training tool
  • Interactive lessons
  • Rating change monitoring
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

If you are a beginner, you should practice much to mate in one move. This course provides excellent material for this training. The big number of exercises (2500) covers different methods of mating. Many of them is an excellent tool for speed training even for stronger players. This is a rare course that is intended even for players with USCF rating of 600. Even if you only study and solve 10% of the exercises, you will learn a huge number of mating patterns and probably never miss a mate in one again! This course is in the series Chess King Learn (https://learn.chessking.com/), which is an unprecedented chess teaching method. In the series are included courses in tactics, strategy, openings, middle game, and endgame, split by levels from beginners to experienced players, and even professional players. With the help of this course, you can improve your chess knowledge, learn new tactical tricks and combinations, and consolidate the acquired knowledge into practice. The program acts as a coach who gives tasks to solve and helps to solve them if you get stuck. It will give you hints, explanations and show you even striking refutation of the mistakes you might make. Advantages of the program: • High quality examples, all double-checked for correctness • You need to enter all key moves, required by the teacher • Different levels of complexity of the tasks • Various goals, which need to be reached in the problems • The program gives hint if an error is made • For typical mistaken moves, the refutation is shown • You can play out any position of the tasks against the computer • Interactive theoretical lessons • Structured table of contents • The program monitors the change in the rating (ELO) of the player during the learning process • Test mode with flexible settings • Possibility to bookmark favorite exercises • The application is adapted to the bigger screen of a tablet • The application does not require an internet connection The course includes a free part, in which you can test the program. Lessons offered in the free version is fully functional. They allow you to test the application in real world conditions before releasing the following topics: 1. Few-figured positions 1.1. Rook checkmates 1.2. Queen checkmates 1.3. Bishop checkmates 1.4. Knight checkmates 1.5. Pawn checkmates 1.6. Any piece checkmates 2. Many-figured positions 2.1. Rook checkmates 2.2. Queen checkmates 2.3. Bishop checkmates 2.4. Knight checkmates 2.5. Pawn checkmates 2.6. Any piece checkmates 3. Complicated positions 3.1. Checkmates with help of the King 3.2. Underpromotions 3.3. Mate with pawn promotion 3.4. Discovered check 3.5. Double check 4. Any piece checkmates 4.1. Volume 1 4.2. Volume 2 4.3. Volume 3 4.4. Volume 4 4.5. Volume 5 4.6. Volume 6 4.7. Volume 7 4.8. Volume 8 4.9. Volume 9 4.10. Volume 10 4.11. Volume 11 4.12. Volume 12 4.13. Volume 13 4.14. Volume 14 4.15. Volume 15 4.16. Volume 16 4.17. Volume 17 4.18. Volume 18 4.19. Volume 19 4.20. Volume 20 4.21. Volume 21 4.22. Volume 22 4.23. Volume 23

About

Openings Mastermind

Master chess openings with this app. Import studies, explore with advanced engines, and practice specific lines through repetition. Track your progress and improve your game.

Highlights
  • Import Lichess Studies or PGNs
  • Explore openings with Stockfish 15
  • Practice openings by repetition
  • Smart practice queue
  • Track learning progress
Features
Read full description

Get ready to take your chess game to the next level with Openings Mastermind, the ultimate chess opening app! Some of the features include: - Import Lichess Studies or custom PGNs - Explore openings with Stockfish 17 and the Lichess position database - Practice openings by repetition against your own custom openings database - Take advantage of the smart practice queue and improve your learning - Observe your learning progress in different openings With our app, you can take your opening game to the next level by practicing against the specific lines you want to master. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced player, our app is the perfect tool to help you improve your opening moves and become a better chess player. Planned Features: - Continue against engine, after study line ends - Analysis of your games from Lichess and Chess.com compared to your openings database

Screenshots

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)4 screens
Openings Mastermind4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) at 92% against Openings Mastermind's 50%. Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (178 vs 6). Openings Mastermind's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Openings Mastermind asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) has 178 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)'s written reviews are positive against 50% of Openings Mastermind's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) ships an update every 2 months, Openings Mastermind fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) versus Openings Mastermind: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)Openings Mastermind
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (178 ratings) — better4.3 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews92.3% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings178 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB88 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingChristian Heise

Customer experience

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)

All ratings178 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral0.6%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews39 reviews
Positive92.3%
Neutral5.1%
Negative2.6%

Openings Mastermind

All ratings6 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles)

One-time1
  • Full course$1.99
None

Openings Mastermind

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) free?
Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Openings Mastermind free?
Openings Mastermind is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) or Openings Mastermind?
Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) is rated higher. Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) averages 4.8 out of 5 from 178 ratings, while Openings Mastermind averages 4.3 from 6 ratings.
Do Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) or Openings Mastermind have ads?
Neither Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) nor Openings Mastermind shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) or Openings Mastermind?
Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) ships an update every 2 months, and Openings Mastermind fortnightly. Most recently, Mate in 1 move (Chess Puzzles) was updated on November 2, 2026 and Openings Mastermind on November 3, 2026.

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