Comparison

Chess Opening Lab (1400 vs ChessBase Mobile Chess

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

Head to head
About

Chess Opening Lab (1400

This app offers a comprehensive chess opening manual with theoretical reviews and instructive games from grandmasters. It features detailed classifications, evaluations, and characteristics of key moves, along with interactive lessons and over 350 training exercises.

Highlights
  • Theoretical review of all chess openings
  • Instructive games with detailed annotations
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • 350+ training exercises
  • Evaluations and characteristics of key moves
  • History and current status of variations
Features
Read full description

This is a perfect opening manual. It features a theoretical review of all the chess openings, which are illustrated by instructive games of the greatest chess players. This compact opening manual contains a detailed classification, which makes it useful to players of any level - beginners, intermediate and advanced players. Each opening variation is supplied with evaluations and characteristics of key moves. The history of the variations' development is described, as well as their current status. The theoretic material is nicely illustrated by classic games with detailed annotations that demonstrate the principal ideas and plans of each variation for White and Black. There is also a special training section with more than 350 exercises of various difficulty on more than 40 openings. This course is in the series Chess King Learn, 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. The program also contains a theoretical section, which explains the methods of the game in a certain stage of the game, based on actual examples. The theory is presented in an interactive way, which means you can not only read the text of the lessons, but also to make moves on the board and work out unclear moves on the board. 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. Rare variations 1.1. 1. g3, 1. b4, .. 1.2. 1. b3 1.3. 1. d4 1.4. 1. d4 Nf6 1.5. 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 2. Alekhine's defense 3. Benoni defense 4. Bird's opening 5. Bishop's opening 6. Blumenfeld counter-gambit 7. Bogo-Indian defense 8. Budapest gambit 9. Caro-Kann 10. Catalan system 11. Center gambit 12. Dutch defense 12.1. Dutch defense 12.2. Ilyin-Genevsky system 12.3. Leningrad system 12.4. Staunton gambit 12.5. Stonewall variation 13. English opening 14. Evans gambit 15. Four knights' game 16. French defense 16.1. French defense 17. Grünfeld defense 18. Italian game & Hungarian defense 19. King's Indian defense 20. Latvian gambit 21. Nimzo-Indian defense 22. Nimzowitsch defense 23. Old Indian defense 24. Philidor's defense 25. Pirc-Robatsch defense 26. Queen's gambit 27. Queen's Indian defense 28. Queen's pawn game 29. Reti opening 30. Petrov's defense 31. Ruy Lopez 32. Scandinavian defense 33. Scotch gambit & Ponziani's opening 34. Scotch game 35. Sicilian defense 36. Three knights' game 37. Two knights' defense 38. Vienna game 39. Volga-Benko gambit 40. The complete course of openings

About

ChessBase Mobile Chess

Access a vast chess game database, save and analyze your own games, and practice openings. This app offers advanced notation and sharing features, with a free tier and optional premium upgrades for more extensive cloud storage and search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Access 13+ million chess games
  • Save and sync personal game databases
  • Analyze games with built-in engine
  • Live opening book statistics
  • Create and practice opening repertoires
  • Advanced game notation and sharing
  • PGN file compatibility
Features
Read full description

ChessBase Mobile is the training, playing, and analysis platform for chess players who track their progress by the numbers. ChessBase Mobile is built by ChessBase, the company behind the standard desktop software used by world champions and club players alike for over 30 years. Solve tactics puzzles rated by difficulty and watch your Elo rise or fall with every attempt. No participation trophies, your rating reflects exactly where you stand. The tactics database draws from positions in real games, not synthetic exercises, so the patterns you train are the patterns you encounter at the board. Puzzle Fight puts you head-to-head against another player in a timed series of 24 tactical positions. Both players solve the same puzzles simultaneously. The one who solves more, faster, wins - and gains Elo. Structured competition, not a casual minigame. Play live games in Blitz and Rapid formats against opponents worldwide. Premove support, clean interface, no clutter. The ChessBase Online Database contains over 14 million games. Search by player, position, or opening. Review grandmaster games, study endgame structures, track opening trends - the same database used by professionals, accessible from your phone. Cloud analysis with several engines, including Fritz and Lc0. Basic cloud analysis with Fritz is free. For deeper analysis, scalable cloud servers are available, from Large to Gargantuan, paid per minute in ducats. Lc0 brings neural network evaluation for positions where classical engines struggle. The engine panel shows evaluation, depth, and principal variation. Build and maintain your opening repertoire in the cloud. 300 opening overviews with repertoire suggestions help you get started with new systems. A live opening book provides up-to-date statistics for every position. Three practice modes let you drill your variations until they stick. Annotate your games with comments, symbols, variations, arrows, and markings. Save games and analyses in cloud databases that synchronise across all your devices. Share positions and games via link, image, GIF, FEN, QR code, or PGN. Upload and download PGN files for full compatibility with desktop software. AI Kibitzer provides live commentary during games and puzzles — with personality. Chess-legend anecdotes, opinions, the occasional bad joke. Like a friend with too much chess trivia sitting next to you. Audio output included. Available in 27 languages. Customisable board colours, piece sets, and notation display. Light and dark mode across all screens, or set to follow your device preference. No ads. No energy systems. No artificial gating. Open the app, train, close the app. Free to use, all functions are available at no cost. ChessBase Premium unlocks expanded cloud storage and unlimited database search results. Free: search the online database (max 50 games displayed), up to 10 cloud databases (10 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 10 games. Premium: unlimited database search, up to 200 cloud databases (500 MB total), cloud clipping for up to 400 games. Privacy policy: https://en.chessbase.com/pages/security Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Chess Opening Lab (14004 screens
ChessBase Mobile Chess4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Chess Opening Lab (1400 at 4.7 against ChessBase Mobile Chess's 2.9. Chess Opening Lab (1400 also leads on review sentiment (66% vs 41%) and ratings volume (593 vs 18). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Chess Opening Lab (1400 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ChessBase Mobile Chess sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Opening Lab (1400 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Opening Lab (1400 has 593 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of Chess Opening Lab (1400's written reviews are positive against 41% of ChessBase Mobile Chess's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Opening Lab (1400 ships an update every 3 months, ChessBase Mobile Chess every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Chess Opening Lab (1400 versus ChessBase Mobile Chess: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Opening Lab (1400ChessBase Mobile Chess
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (593 ratings) — better2.9 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews65.5% of reviews — better40.6% of reviews
Number of ratings593 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingChessBase GmbH

Customer experience

Chess Opening Lab (1400

All ratings591 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive65.5%
Neutral6.9%
Negative27.6%

ChessBase Mobile Chess

All ratings18 ratings
Positive44.4%
Neutral5.6%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive40.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative59.4%

Bugs and requests

Chess Opening Lab (1400

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Recorded moves not highlighted or disappear
  • White spot instead of recorded move
  • Have to buy full course multiple times
  • App forgets purchase
  • Animation speed doesn't decrease
Show 4 more
  • Cannot skip or save variations
  • Too many variations distract from main line
  • Cannot replay exercise from beginning
  • App deletes and asks for repurchase

Requested features

9 requests
  • More exercises for different openings
  • More examples of opening systems
  • Give 20 or more examples of different openings
  • Explanations in French
  • Reference books
Show 4 more
  • Translation to Spanish
  • Translation to Turkish
  • Show colorful lines in animation
  • Include lines for Sicilian defense gambits

ChessBase Mobile Chess

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Chess Opening Lab (1400

One-time1
  • Full course$12.99
1 purchases

ChessBase Mobile Chess

Subscriptions1
  • ChessBase Premium (Monthly)$3.991 Month

Questions

Is Chess Opening Lab (1400 free?
Chess Opening Lab (1400 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChessBase Mobile Chess free?
ChessBase Mobile Chess is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Opening Lab (1400 or ChessBase Mobile Chess?
Chess Opening Lab (1400 is rated higher. Chess Opening Lab (1400 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 593 ratings, while ChessBase Mobile Chess averages 2.9 from 18 ratings.
Do Chess Opening Lab (1400 or ChessBase Mobile Chess have ads?
Neither Chess Opening Lab (1400 nor ChessBase Mobile Chess shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Opening Lab (1400 or ChessBase Mobile Chess?
Chess Opening Lab (1400 ships an update every 3 months, and ChessBase Mobile Chess every 6 months. Most recently, Chess Opening Lab (1400 was updated on October 24, 2026 and ChessBase Mobile Chess on October 28, 2026.

Other comparisons