OpenMate vs Play Chess & Master Games
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
OpenMate
Master chess openings and play against a powerful engine with integrated coaching. This app offers a private, offline experience with visual guidance and strategy tips to improve your game. Enjoy uninterrupted play with no ads or distractions.
- Strong, fast chess engine
- Fully offline functionality
- Visual coaching with move suggestions
- Built-in opening knowledge
- Strategy tips and explanations
- Play at your own pace, no clock
- Undo moves freely
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Learn chess openings, or play chess against a strong, fast engine with built-in coaching and analysis tools. OpenMate runs entirely on your device. No internet connection, no accounts, and no data collection. Everything is local, private, and instant. Designed for both play and improvement, OpenMate combines engine strength with visual guidance and practical coaching to help you understand the game as you play. Features: • Strong, fast engine with instant responses: ~4M nodes per second on an iPhone 16 (half on Low Power Mode), ~2800 ELO at 3s/move! • Fully offline: no network access required • Hint mode with visual coaching: - Opening guidance with move suggestions and lists (multicolor arrows) - Engine-recommended moves (green arrows) - Threat visualization (red arrows) • Built-in opening knowledge to guide early play • Strategy tips with both chess terminology and plain-English explanations • Play as White or Black • Flip the board anytime • Undo moves freely at any point • No clock: play at your own pace without time pressure OpenMate is designed to remove friction and distractions. There are no ads, no sign-ups, and no interruptions. Just chess. Whether you want to practice openings, analyze positions, or simply play strong games offline, OpenMate gives you a focused and responsive experience. Built for iPhone and iPad, tested across devices, and optimized for smooth performance.
Play Chess & Master Games
Play chess against a customizable engine or study the games of chess legends. Features include engine analysis, an opening explorer, and offline play. Unlock unlimited access with a one-time purchase.
- Play against 8 skill levels of Pulsar engine
- Study games of 20 chess masters
- Over 800 World Championship games
- Engine analysis and opening explorer
- Offline play, no sign-up required
- Searchable game lists
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Play chess against the custom Pulsar engine with 8 skill levels (approximately 1200–2100). Explore the games of 20 of history's greatest chess masters during their peak years, including over 800 World Championship games. Includes engine analysis, an opening explorer, searchable game lists, and autoplay. No sign-up, no ads, and works offline. The playing program is one i've designed and tested at different levels on internet chess servers in order to come up with the ratings on the board. Users get 12 plays and can view 30 chess games for free. These are separate counters. There is a single one time in-app purchase to unlock both unlimited chess play and viewing. There are about 400 games per player on average with fully searchable lists. Just search world when viewing a player for the world championships. Chess masters included are Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Kapsparov, Karpov, Korchnoi, Fischer, Spassky Petrosian, Smyslov, Tal, Keres, Botvinnik, Fine, Alekhine, Capablanca, Lasker, Pillsbury, Steinitz and Morphy. Played games are logged and can also be viewed/analyzed. When reviewing master or player's games, users can override the moves and start making their own moves. The engine analysis has a move now option for users to test their moves against the engine. Back up to main line to undo. After a few moves, the opening name is given. When reviewing there is an opening explorer and engine analysis options on the board. The explorer is built from over 600k high rated, mostly over the board games. The full game's text/moves can be seen and copied to the clipboard to share with others apps when viewing Moves.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: OpenMate at 5.0 against Play Chess & Master Games's 4.0. OpenMate also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (8 vs 1). Play Chess & Master Games's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Play Chess & Master Games sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. OpenMate asks for nothing beyond the download.
OpenMate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OpenMate has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
OpenMate ships an update every 6 days, Play Chess & Master Games every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | OpenMate | Play Chess & Master Games |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RAMINE ROANE | Michael Adams |
Customer experience
OpenMate
Play Chess & Master Games
In-app purchases
OpenMate
No in-app purchases
Play Chess & Master Games
- Play-Watch-Unlimited$3.99
Questions
Is OpenMate free?
Is Play Chess & Master Games free?
Which has better reviews, OpenMate or Play Chess & Master Games?
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