Comparison

Chess Combinations Vol. 2 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

Chess Combinations Vol. 2

This app offers over 2600 chess exercises and examples, categorized by tactical methods. It acts as a personal coach, providing hints, explanations, and refutations to help improve your chess skills and learn new combinations.

Highlights
  • Over 2600 chess exercises
  • 60 tactical methods and motifs
  • Interactive theoretical lessons
  • Personalized coaching with hints
  • Refutations for common mistakes
  • Offline play capability
  • Rating (ELO) monitoring
Features
Read full description

The fundamental chess program for club players. This second part includes more than 2600 exercises (more than 400 examples to explore and 2200 to solve), classified in 60 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. Forcing moves 1.1. Forced checkmate 1.2. Double attack 1.3. Linear attack 1.4. Discovered attack 1.5. Pin 1.6. Elimination of defense 1.7. Conjunction of several themes 2. Deflection 2.1. Deflection checkmate 2.2. Deflection of a piece 2.3. Diversion from the invasion square 2.4. Piece on a critical square 2.5. Diversion in conjunction with a double attack 2.6. Diversion from defending square 2.7. Diversion from the promotion square 2.8. Diversion from the advance square 2.9. Diversion of a pinning piece 2.10. Deflection blocking piece 2.11. Diversion from a key square 2.12. Diverting a defending piece 2.13. Diversion in conjunction with a linear attack 3. Decoying 3.1. Decoying mate 3.2. Decoying a king in conjunction with a chase 3.3. Decoying into a mating net 3.4. Decoying under a double attack 3.5. Decoying under a linear attack 3.6. Decoying under a discovered attack 3.7. Decoying under a discovered attack with check 3.8. Decoying discovered check 3.9. Decoying under a double check 3.10. Decoying to a critical square 3.11. Decoying under pin 3.12. Decoying into a trap 3.13. Decoy in conjunction with promoting pawn 3.14. Decoying under check 3.15. Decoying for the gain of tempo 3.16. Decoying onto an unfavourable line 3.17. Decoying into a stalemate position 3.18. Decoying under perpetual check 3.19. Miscellaneous decoying 4. Exercises with conjunction of several themes 4.1. Exercises with conjunction of several themes 4.2. Exercises 1 4.3. Exercises 2 5. Elimination of defense 6. Blockade 7. Clearing the checkmating square 8. Interception 9. Clearing the line 10. Opening the line 11. Pin 12. Restricting 13. Threat 14. Conquering a square 15. Exercises. Сonjunction of tactical devices

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

Chess Combinations Vol. 24 screens
Openings Mastermind4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chess Combinations Vol. 2 at 100% against Openings Mastermind's 50%. Chess Combinations Vol. 2 also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (28 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Chess Combinations Vol. 2 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Openings Mastermind asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chess Combinations Vol. 2 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 28 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Chess Combinations Vol. 2's written reviews are positive against 50% of Openings Mastermind's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Combinations Vol. 2 ships an update every 3 months, Openings Mastermind fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Chess Combinations Vol. 2 versus Openings Mastermind: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Combinations Vol. 2Openings Mastermind
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (28 ratings) — better4.3 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings28 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB88 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChess KingChristian Heise

Customer experience

Chess Combinations Vol. 2

All ratings28 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral14.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Chess Combinations Vol. 2

One-time1
  • Full course$12.99
None

Openings Mastermind

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chess Combinations Vol. 2 free?
Chess Combinations Vol. 2 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, Chess Combinations Vol. 2 or Openings Mastermind?
Chess Combinations Vol. 2 is rated higher. Chess Combinations Vol. 2 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Openings Mastermind averages 4.3 from 6 ratings.
Do Chess Combinations Vol. 2 or Openings Mastermind have ads?
Neither Chess Combinations Vol. 2 nor Openings Mastermind shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Combinations Vol. 2 or Openings Mastermind?
Chess Combinations Vol. 2 ships an update every 3 months, and Openings Mastermind fortnightly. Most recently, Chess Combinations Vol. 2 was updated on October 21, 2026 and Openings Mastermind on October 24, 2026.

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