Comparison

Chess Tactics and Lessons vs Chess Opening Lab (1400

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

Head to head
About

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Master chess strategy and openings with this app. Practice unlimited tactics, follow detailed lessons, and save your favorite openings. Create your own content and learn from a supportive community.

Highlights
  • Unlimited tactics practice
  • Detailed chess lessons
  • Opening practice and saving
  • Create custom tactics and lessons
  • Learn from mistakes with explanations
  • Community comments and discussion
  • Customizable board design
Features
Read full description

“Chess is 99% tactics” (R. Teichmann.) From beginner to expert, practicing tactics is hands-down the best way to master the game. Play 30,000+ tactics, lessons, and openings while the app adjusts to your ability as you play. Join thousands of users who improve their game with daily tactics. Beginner-friendly, even if you don't know the rules of chess yet. "This app is a must have for any chess player - student or master." -Tom Taylor, USA "This is easily the best purchase I've made since owning a smartphone." -Miles C. Samuels, USA "This app has improved my game tremendously!" - anonymous fandom on the App Store FEATURES - Tactics: Play as many tactics as you want, for free. - Lessons: Get deeper into strategy with detailed lessons including positions from Netflix's 'The Queen's Gambit' and the World Championship. - Openings: Practice makes perfect! Save and practice openings from the Grandmasters and more. - Create your own tactics, lessons, and openings for others to try. - Learn from your mistakes with solutions, explanations, and chess engine analysis. - Join the community: comment on tactics and learn from other users. New tactics are added every day, so you'll never run out. ------ Chess Tactics PRO subscriptions will be charged to your iTunes account upon purchase. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. See Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for more information. Privacy Policy: https://chesstacticsapp.com/privacy.html Terms of Service: https://chesstacticsapp.com/terms.html Acknowledgements: Chess Pieces by jurgenwesterhof on WikiCommons (adapted from work of Cburnett) Icons by bezier master, Cutiecon, and Shawn Wong from the Noun Project.

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

Screenshots

Chess Tactics and Lessons4 screens
Chess Opening Lab (14004 screens

Verdict

The call

Chess Tactics and Lessons and Chess Opening Lab (1400 both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 85% of Chess Tactics and Lessons's written reviews are positive against 66% of Chess Opening Lab (1400's. Chess Tactics and Lessons also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (5.1K vs 593). Chess Opening Lab (1400's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, 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 Tactics and Lessons sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Chess Opening Lab (1400 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Chess Tactics and Lessons against 4.7 for Chess Opening Lab (1400. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Chess Tactics and Lessons has 5.1K ratings behind it against 593, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 85% of Chess Tactics and Lessons's written reviews are positive against 66% of Chess Opening Lab (1400's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chess Tactics and Lessons ships an update every 5 weeks, Chess Opening Lab (1400 every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Chess Tactics and Lessons versus Chess Opening Lab (1400: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChess Tactics and LessonsChess Opening Lab (1400
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (5.1K ratings) — better4.7 (593 ratings)
Positive reviews85.2% of reviews — better65.5% of reviews
Number of ratings5.1K — better593
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size114 MB45 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLockwood Productions, LLCChess King

Customer experience

Chess Tactics and Lessons

All ratings4,985 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral3.0%
Negative1.7%
Written reviews283 reviews
Positive85.2%
Neutral4.6%
Negative10.2%

Chess Opening Lab (1400

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

User reviews

Chess Tactics and Lessons

From 5.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 😃 Great for learning tactics
  • 👍 Enjoyable and addictive
  • 🚀 Excellent training tool
  • 🤗 Helpful for improving chess skills
  • 💯 Best tactics app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy after updates
  • 💰 Subscription model too expensive
  • 🤔 Some tactics are questionable
  • 🙄 Too many queen sacrifices
  • 😣 Difficult to navigate

Chess Opening Lab (1400

From 593 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Very convenient app
  • 👍 Ideal for practicing openings
  • 👍 Great for chess studies
  • 👍 Fantastic teaching tool
  • 👍 Excellent teacher

Room to improve

  • 😞 Barely any information
  • 😞 Difficult and confusing to work
  • 😞 No content
  • 😞 Useless
  • 😞 Scam

Bugs and requests

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Server connection issues
  • White screen after updates
  • Inability to delete account
  • Incorrect move explanations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to save tactics
  • Offline mode
  • Difficulty filtering
  • Improved user interface
  • More comprehensive lessons

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

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Chess Tactics and Lessons

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly PRO Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Annual Pro Subscription$29.991 Year
One-time5
  • Marble Chess Board$0.99
  • Orange Chess Board$0.99
  • Remove ads$0.99
Show 2 more
  • Green Chess Board$0.99
  • Enable Saved Puzzles$1.99
1 purchases

Chess Opening Lab (1400

One-time1
  • Full course$12.99

Questions

Is Chess Tactics and Lessons free?
Chess Tactics and Lessons is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chess Opening Lab (1400 free?
Chess Opening Lab (1400 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Opening Lab (1400?
Chess Tactics and Lessons is rated higher. Chess Tactics and Lessons averages 4.8 out of 5 from 5.1K ratings, while Chess Opening Lab (1400 averages 4.7 from 593 ratings.
Do Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Opening Lab (1400 have ads?
Neither Chess Tactics and Lessons nor Chess Opening Lab (1400 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chess Tactics and Lessons or Chess Opening Lab (1400?
Chess Tactics and Lessons ships an update every 5 weeks, and Chess Opening Lab (1400 every 3 months. Most recently, Chess Tactics and Lessons was updated on October 26, 2026 and Chess Opening Lab (1400 on October 24, 2026.

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