Chess Combinations Vol. 1 vs Openings Mastermind
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Combinations Vol. 1
Master chess tactics with over 1300 exercises and interactive lessons. This program acts as a personal coach, providing hints, explanations, and refutations to improve your game. It tracks your ELO rating and offers a free section to test its capabilities.
- Over 1300 chess exercises
- 40 tactical methods and motifs
- Interactive theoretical lessons
- Hints and explanations
- Refutation of mistakes
- ELO rating tracking
- Offline functionality
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The fundamental chess program for club players. This first part includes more than 1300 exercises (more than 200 examples to explore and 1100 to solve), classified in 40 tactical methods and motifs. 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. Win 1.1. Mate in 1 1.2. Double attack 1.3. Simultaneous attack 1.4. Discovered attack 1.5. Discovered attack with check 1.6. Discovered check 1.7. Mill 1.8. Double check 1.9. Linear attack 1.10. Absolute pin 1.11. Relative pin A 1.12. Relative pin B 1.13. Trap in the opening 1.14. Passed pawn 1.15. Intermediate move 1.16. Intermediate check 1.17. Counter attacking move 1.18. Zugzwang 1.19. Invasion 1.20. Irrefutable threat 1.21. Ambush 1.22. X-Ray 1.23. Gaining tempo 2. Draw 2.1. Theoretical draw 2.2. Stalemate 2.3. Desperado 2.4. Perpetual check 2.5. Perpetual attack 2.6. Perpetual threat 2.7. Positional draw 2.8. Fortress 2.9. Blocade 3. Combining tactical devices 3.1. Combining tactical devices 3.2. Exercises 1 3.3. Exercises 2 3.4. Exercises 3
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.
- Import Lichess Studies or PGNs
- Explore openings with Stockfish 15
- Practice openings by repetition
- Smart practice queue
- Track learning progress
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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
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Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chess Combinations Vol. 1 at 100% against Openings Mastermind's 50%. Chess Combinations Vol. 1 also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (91 vs 6). Openings Mastermind's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 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
Both are free to download. Chess Combinations Vol. 1 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Openings Mastermind asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Combinations Vol. 1 has 91 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Chess Combinations Vol. 1's written reviews are positive against 50% of Openings Mastermind's.
Chess Combinations Vol. 1 ships an update every 3 months, Openings Mastermind fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Combinations Vol. 1 | Openings Mastermind |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (91 ratings) — better | 4.3 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 91 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 88 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chess King | Christian Heise |
Customer experience
Chess Combinations Vol. 1
Openings Mastermind
In-app purchases
Chess Combinations Vol. 1
- Full course$12.99
Openings Mastermind
No in-app purchases
Questions
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Which has better reviews, Chess Combinations Vol. 1 or Openings Mastermind?
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