Shredder Chess Lite vs Openings Mastermind
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shredder Chess Lite
Play chess against a world champion program that mimics human play and makes mistakes at lower levels. Solve puzzles, track your progress, and get advice to improve your game. Features adjustable difficulty and a built-in coach.
- Adjustable playing strength
- 100 built-in chess puzzles
- Coach warns of mistakes
- Elo rating calculation
- Opening book with over 1 million moves
- Two player mode
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Shredder, the most successful chess program ever, is now also available for the iPhone. You can play against Shredder and solve chess puzzles. It offers the usual Shredder standard for your pocket. The 12 times computer chess world champion Shredder is able to mimic the play of a human chess player with any playing strength. He even deliberately makes typical human mistakes in those levels. Solve 100 built in chess puzzles. Shredder keeps track of your performance and offers advice if needed. You can adjust Shredder’s playing strength and, if you like, Shredder automatically adjusts his strength to yours. He even calculates an Elo rating for you. This is how the playing strength of chess players is typically measured. During the game a coach is watching your moves and warns you if you are about to make a mistake. See how you are getting better and better the more games you play and the more chess puzzles you solve. Shredder Chess Lite features: * Adjustable playing strength * Intuitive and very easy to operate * 100 built in chess puzzles * See your rating in a diagram * Coach shows your mistakes * Great variety: opening book with more than one million moves * Load and save games (incl. names, date, etc.) * Different chess boards and pieces * two player mode / enter moves * Learn the name of the opening you are playing * Accessibility / VoiceOver support * Improve your play whenever and wherever you like 'Shredder Chess Lite' is a fully-functional version of 'Shredder Chess' for casual chess players. If you are an active player, need more features or simply want the best you should take a look at our pro version 'Shredder Chess'. Here is what you will additionally get in our pro version: * The strongest chess engine for the iPhone * Can be set to outstanding playing strength * 1000 built in chess puzzles * Send games via email * Different playing styles from passive to aggressive * Enter and analyze any position you like * Analyse your games with Shredder, find your mistakes and improve your play * 10 USD discount coupon for Shredder 13 Mac/Win on shredderchess.com
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
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Openings Mastermind at fortnightly against Shredder Chess Lite's every 7 months. Openings Mastermind also leads on rating (4.3 vs 4.0). Shredder Chess Lite's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 50%) and ratings volume (20 vs 6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Openings Mastermind holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 6 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of Shredder Chess Lite's written reviews are positive against 50% of Openings Mastermind's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Shredder Chess Lite ships an update every 7 months, Openings Mastermind fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shredder Chess Lite | Openings Mastermind |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (20 ratings) | 4.3 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.9% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 20 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 88 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Eiko Bleicher, Skizzix.com | Christian Heise |
Customer experience
Shredder Chess Lite
Openings Mastermind
Bugs and requests
Shredder Chess Lite
Reported bugs
11 issues- Pawns moving sideways or diagonally without capturing
- Pawns captured by opponent pawns when not adjacent
- Illegal moves allowed by computer player
- App crashes on iOS 8 and later versions
- App won't open or load on startup
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- Freezing after puzzle completion
- Crashes when accessing advanced settings
- Game crashes every second or third game on OS4
- Incompatibility with iPhone 3GS and older devices
- Checkmate detection errors
- Puzzle mode incorrectly marking valid moves as invalid
Requested features
10 requests- Full screen optimization for modern iPhones
- Time delay option before computer moves
- Multiplayer mode for human vs human play
- HD/universal app for iPad compatibility
- Detailed explanations for puzzle solutions
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- Higher difficulty levels in free version
- Alternative board colors (red pieces option)
- Dynamic hints like Fritz offers
- Better endgame analysis
- Improved board and piece design for clarity
Openings Mastermind
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Shredder Chess Lite
No in-app purchases
Openings Mastermind
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Shredder Chess Lite free?
Is Openings Mastermind free?
Which has better reviews, Shredder Chess Lite or Openings Mastermind?
Do Shredder Chess Lite or Openings Mastermind have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shredder Chess Lite or Openings Mastermind?
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