OpenChess vs ChessBased
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
OpenChess
Master chess openings by playing against a specialized AI. Explore specific defenses or move sequences, and gain insights into positional advantages and piece values. Improve your game from the very first moves.
- Learn specific chess openings
- Play against AI focused on opening lines
- Analyze positional advantages
- Evaluate piece values and mobility
- Understand pawn structure
- Track defended and attacked pieces
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Learn chess openings with OpenChess: An Opening Explorer. Play against the computer, or play as both sides, and be shown the lines that are within any opening that you are interested in learning. Want to learn the Sicilian Defense or the Queen’s Gambit? Choose that category and play against that a computer that only follows lines within that opening category. Wany to focus on learning all of the openings that start with a specific move, such as pawn to “e4”? This category can also be selected, and you can play against a computer that only plays lines that start with “e4”. The chess engine in this app is not Stockfish, and it does not look very far ahead. It is meant to provide a decent base evaluation and allow the majority of the reason behind the evaluation of the current position to be shown to the user. The following information can be shown to the user: • Positional advantages for each piece type (pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen and king) • Piece value advantages for each color • Mobility scores for each piece where mobility plays a big role (bishop, rook, queen, king) • Pawn advantages and disadvantages (passed pawns, isolated pawns, backwards pawns, doubled pawns) • Total value of pieces attacked by each color as well as total value of pieces defended by each color A lot of chess games are won and lost within the opening moves, this app was designed to help players learn solid openings that either help them gain a winning advantage out of the opening, or at the very least help them not lose due to the opening moves played. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
ChessBased
Analyze chess openings with millions of games and advanced engine evaluations. Prepare like a grandmaster with a seamless interface, win-loss statistics, and move-by-move exploration. Save your favorite lines for later study on your iPhone or iPad.
- Millions of games database
- Stockfish 18 engine evaluations
- Win-loss statistics
- Move-by-move exploration
- Save favorite lines
- Seamless UI
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Now with Stockfish 19!! The only chess app with the strongest chess player on the planet in your pocket. ChessBased:Stockfish 19 takes opening analysis to a whole new level. At a glance, users see a seamless UI of openings databases with millions of games, win-loss statistics, and depth 60+ (!!) Stockfish 19 evaluations. That's right. With trillions of positions in the engine database, we did the hard work for you when it comes to looking at evals in your favorite chess openings. Now you can prepare like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, without having to spend thousands on expensive hardware. Explore openings move by move, compare master-game trends, review engine-backed recommendations, and save your favorite lines in Lichess-like fashion for later study. ChessBased is built for fast, focused preparation on iPhone and iPad, whether you’re checking a tournament line, building a repertoire, or just curious what a depth 60+, 192 core engine thinks. Simple UI. Powerful engine. Better prep.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: OpenChess at 5.0 against ChessBased's 4.0. OpenChess also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. OpenChess sells 10 one-off in-app purchases and ChessBased sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
OpenChess holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
OpenChess ships an update fortnightly, ChessBased every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | OpenChess | ChessBased |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Bryant | ENVISIONAIRY LLC |
Customer experience
OpenChess
ChessBased
In-app purchases
OpenChess
- Tarrasch Defense Opening$0.99
- Trompowsky Attack Opening$0.99
- Scandinavian Defense Opening$0.99
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- Three Knights Opening$0.99
- Zukertort Opening$0.99
- Van't Kruijs Opening$0.99
- Vienna Game Opening$0.99
- Ware Opening$0.99
- Opening Explorer$4.99
- OpenChess Premium$19.99
ChessBased
- ChessBased: Stockfish 18$4.99








