Comparison

Elementary Chess Tactics I 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

Elementary Chess Tactics I

Master fundamental chess tactics with over 4300 exercises designed for beginners and club players. Learn to identify and exploit common tactical patterns like forks, pins, and discovered checks. Improve your game quality and never miss an elementary combination again.

Highlights
  • Over 4300 tactical exercises
  • Covers forks, pins, discovered checks, and more
  • Interactive lessons with hints and explanations
  • Monitors ELO rating changes
  • Offline play capability
  • Tablet optimized
Features
Read full description

If you are a beginner, it is necessary for you to study simple tactical methods and learn how to employ them! This course includes more than 4300 exercises for beginners on the following tactical methods: Fork, pin, double check, discovered check, annihilation of the opponent's king defense, exploiting a back (1st) rank weakness. If you are a beginner or a club player, this is the program for you! After going through this course you will never miss an elementary combination in a practical game of your own and will be able to improve the quality of your play considerably. 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. The fork 1.1. Pawn 1.2. Knight 1.3. Bishop 2. Pin or skewer 2.1. Bishop 2.2. Rook 3. Double check 3.1. Level 5 3.2. Level 6 3.3. Level 7 3.4. Level 8 3.5. Level 9 3.6. Level 10 3.7. Level 11 3.8. Level 12 3.9. Level 13 3.10. Level 14 4. Discovered check 4.1. Level 3 4.2. Level 4 4.3. Level 5 4.4. Level 6 4.5. Level 7 4.6. Level 8 4.7. Level 9 4.8. Level 10 4.9. Level 11 5. Annihilation of defence of a king 5.1. Level 8 5.2. Level 9 5.3. Level 10 5.4. Level 11 5.5. Level 12 5.6. Level 13 5.7. Level 14 5.8. Level 15 5.9. Level 16 5.10. Level 17 5.11. Level 18 5.12. Level 19 5.13. Level 20 5.14. Level 21 5.15. Level 22 5.16. Level 23 6. Annihilation of the back rank defence 6.1. Level 7 6.2. Level 9 6.3. Level 10 6.4. Level 11 6.5. Level 12 6.6. Level 13 6.7. Level 14 6.8. Level 15 6.9. Level 16 6.10. Level 17 6.11. Level 18 6.12. Level 19 6.13. Level 20

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

Elementary Chess Tactics I4 screens
Openings Mastermind4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Elementary Chess Tactics I at 100% against Openings Mastermind's 50%. Elementary Chess Tactics I also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (148 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. Elementary Chess Tactics I sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Openings Mastermind asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Elementary Chess Tactics I holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Elementary Chess Tactics I has 148 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Elementary Chess Tactics I's written reviews are positive against 50% of Openings Mastermind's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Elementary Chess Tactics I ships an update every 3 months, Openings Mastermind fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Elementary Chess Tactics I versus Openings Mastermind: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElementary Chess Tactics IOpenings Mastermind
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (148 ratings) — better4.3 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings148 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 3 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

Elementary Chess Tactics I

All ratings147 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.4%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews4 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

Elementary Chess Tactics I

One-time1
  • Full course$3.99
None

Openings Mastermind

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Elementary Chess Tactics I free?
Elementary Chess Tactics I 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, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Openings Mastermind?
Elementary Chess Tactics I is rated higher. Elementary Chess Tactics I averages 4.8 out of 5 from 148 ratings, while Openings Mastermind averages 4.3 from 6 ratings.
Do Elementary Chess Tactics I or Openings Mastermind have ads?
Neither Elementary Chess Tactics I nor Openings Mastermind shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elementary Chess Tactics I or Openings Mastermind?
Elementary Chess Tactics I ships an update every 3 months, and Openings Mastermind fortnightly. Most recently, Elementary Chess Tactics I was updated on October 24, 2026 and Openings Mastermind on October 24, 2026.

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