Chess Openings vs ChessFlow
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Chess Openings
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Chess Openings โ learn the 113 most important chess openings with a beautiful, focused app. โข 113 opening lines classified by ECO codes, with first-move and attack/defense filters โข Interactive replay โ move by move, auto-play โข Continue an opening vs the robot โข Play vs Robot โ 8 difficulty levels (800-2400 ELO) โข Robot (non-Stockfish) fully customizable โข Opening quizzes โ test your knowledge โข Practice mode โ move-by-move learning with feedback โข Stockfish game analysis โ accuracy, blunder detection, best move โข Live evaluation bar โข 27 languages No ads. Anonymous usage analytics only. Works offline. Perfect for beginners and amateurs looking to build a solid repertoire. Free version and Premium (optional in-app purchase) Free: play vs the robot, plus a limited number of opening lessons, quizzes, Stockfish analyses and "Continue vs Robot" sessions every day. Premium removes all daily limits: unlimited opening lessons, unlimited quizzes, unlimited Stockfish analysis, unlimited "Continue vs Robot" and full progress tracking. Premium requires a purchase inside the app โ an auto-renewable annual subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. The price is shown in the app before any purchase. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
ChessFlow
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ChessFlow is the training app built for tournament players - openings, middlegames and endgames - and the only one that lets you drill them on a real electronic chessboard. Train your lines on screen, or connect your Chessnut board over Bluetooth and practice with real pieces in hand, guided by the board's LEDs. Then let spaced repetition bring each line back right before you'd forget it, so your prep actually sticks. TRAIN ON A REAL ELECTRONIC BOARD Connect your Chessnut (Go, Air, Air+, Pro) and train with the pieces in your hands. The LEDs guide you - steady light for your opponent's move, a blink for a hint, a fast blink when the app plays the move for you. Make a mistake? Retry, ask for a hint, or let the app show you. REMEMBER YOUR OPENINGS WITH SPACED REPETITION ChessFlow uses an SM-2 algorithm adapted for chess openings: every line returns right before you're likely to forget it. Only a perfect run speeds up the schedule; anything shaky comes back tomorrow. No line ever disappears for months. A seven-day forecast shows how many lines come due each day, so you always know when a backlog clears. DRILL YOUR WEAK SPOTS ChessFlow tracks the positions where you go wrong most often and serves them back as targeted puzzles. Turn on Drill random positions for an endless stream of positions from the lines you've trained in the open repertoire - a fast way to keep it sharp. PRACTICE ANYWHERE ON THE VIRTUAL BOARD No hardware needed. Train on screen with tap-to-move and premove, just like chess.com and lichess. Your iPad becomes a training station; your iPhone keeps your repertoire in your pocket. PLAY IT OUT AGAINST STOCKFISH Stop anywhere in a line and play the position out against Stockfish 19, at a strength you choose. Explore variations in free analysis, with a slim evaluation bar beside the board, and export them. With ChessTools, our free clock app, on your iPhone, ChessFlow presses the clock for you. YOUR REPERTOIRE, FROM ANY SOURCE Keep building your repertoire in the chess app you already use - Chess Studio, for example. Link its iCloud folder and ChessFlow reads those PGN files without ever changing them: you study and edit there, you train here. Add a variation there and it's waiting the next time you open the file, with all your progress kept. You can also import single PGN files or paste FEN positions. Attach a course PDF or your notes to any repertoire; PDFs even reopen at the page you left, on every device. BUILT TO KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE Everything syncs across your iPhone and iPad via iCloud - lines, progress and colors. Training progress is merged across devices, never overwritten. Automatic daily backups, plus manual export and import. EXPORT & SHARE Copy or share your lines as PGN for lichess and chess.com. Export your games versus the computer as PGN or a tournament-style PDF scoresheet. Free to try, with a 14-day full-access trial. Subscriptions unlock unlimited training on the virtual board, or everything including the physical board. Requires iOS 17 or later. iPhone and iPad, one app. Questions or feedback? developer@chesstools.it Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.chesstools.it/chessflow/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: ChessFlow at every 3 days against Chess Openings's every 9 days. Chess Openings's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Chess Openings sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per year and ChessFlow sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Chess Openings ships an update every 9 days, ChessFlow every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chess Openings | ChessFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 3 days โ better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod โ better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 โ better | 17.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 202 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | GanSoft SARL | Giorgio Donnoli |
In-app purchases
Chess Openings
- Premium Annual$9.001 Year
- Premium Lifetime$45.00
ChessFlow
- ChessFlow Virtual$4.991 Month
- ChessFlow Premium$8.991 Month
- ChessFlow Virtual$29.991 Year
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- ChessFlow Premium$49.991 Year
Questions
Is Chess Openings free?
Is ChessFlow free?
Do Chess Openings or ChessFlow have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chess Openings or ChessFlow?
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