Chess Openings Wizard

Name: Chess Openings Wizard
Rating: 4.05556 (18 reviews)

Education

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Chess Openings Wizard

Education

4.1

18 ratings

Age Rating

Seller

Bookup Corp.

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User Reviews for Chess Openings Wizard

Broken interface with newest update

Unusable since the newest update. The interface was never good, but now it is also broken.

_NM_, May 02, 2023

I am so happy that Bookup is finally available on Apple devices

I have used it since it first came out decades ago. It was great then and it is even better today!Mike thanks for always working to make it better and better. It is the best way to put your opening repertoires online and play them over and over to get them locked in you memory.Add to that opening hooks you can buy like the London System and you have everything you need to be a better chess player.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

1800Danno, Jan 27, 2020

A convenient version of a favorite

I’ve been using Chess Openings Wizard (previously Bookup) since 1991. There really is no other solution for learning your openings. This is my 3rd platform with this app - Windows, Mac, and now iPad.I haven’t experienced any crashes. I was able to copy over my files using dropbox. I also set up remote engine server. No crashes and my repertoire files worked perfect.I did run into a problem where jump to a named position left me unable to get back to the starting position. I added a new named position in my white and black repertoire files called Starting Position to prevent that from happening again.I’d suggest making copies of your files and copying back very carefully. Not a lot of visual cues available that you might be overwriting the wrong direction. I really think I’ll train more with the convenience of the iPad.

airplane42, Dec 24, 2018

Easy way to improve opening, middle game and endgames

Not only do I make my opening books, I also make data bases for combinations and endgames and transfer from Mac. I keep them small so they only take about ten minutes in training mode. That way I can do them on break. It is a good way to stay sharp when you can’t play games. It is also a good way to keep track of the off beat openings that seem to be played more often to stay out of book. It is also a great way to keep track of your correspondence games.

Bodnar, May 10, 2020

Wonderful!

It’s fast. Has made studying my chess repertoire convenient and easy!

BomberBuck, Dec 23, 2018

Want to be A Strong Chess Player?

This app is perfect for studying openings and other aspects of the game. A strong chess player must be good at all stages of the game. Endgames, Middle games, tactics and Openings. Bookup has been improving players chess for a long time. It is very nice to see this app on the iPad. There is no other app like this for the iPad. Yes this app is worth the money. In fact it is a bargain at this price. Buy this app and start improving. I plan to use it to make Master someday. Current rating USCF 2115, FIDE 2101. Thanks to the developer for the great app!!

Chessbud, Dec 28, 2018

Very happy with functionality; look & feel needs improvement

I’ve had trouble deciding whether this should be rated four or five stars. The case for five stars is that it does exactly what I need it to do and very well. It’s the ideal coach for someone trying to improve at chess. I’ve bought one of the ebooks and been adding variations to it. I like the training that it offers, and I think it’s helpful that it can access a chess engine running on a Mac or PC and show results.The case against five stars is that I’m dissatisfied with the overall look and feel. I’ve written to the developer with feedback and suggestions, and I’m encouraged that he’s not trying to defend how it looks. He agrees with the feedback and asked me to watch for future versions that will become more iPad-like; he was concentrating on functionality for this first version.

chuckbo, Jan 17, 2019

Good functionality, but a bit crusty

The basic functionality of this is fine. It does what it’s supposed to do, and does it better than most other apps you’ll find. The biggest advantage it has is in how all the notes and evaluations you have are attached to the actual position, not the move list. This means it doesn’t matter if you arrive at the position from a different move order, it will connect you to all the notes you previously made about that position.But there are gotchas:There’s no flexibility in the layout. Among other things, this means if you want to write a text note about the position, the edit box it opens obscures most of the position you want to write about. Being able to do simple things like resize and/or relocate the board (or edit box) on screen would fix that.It fails to take real advantage of the cloud. You can’t work with or directly store files in the cloud. You have to pass everything through Dropbox. This adds an extra process that complicates sharing data between phone and tablet, for example. (“Did I upload those changes to Dropbox from my phone? Is the latest version on my tablet or my phone, or in Dropbox?”) just giving it the normal iOS files interface would fix that.It’s a useful tool, made a little less useful by some less than optimal design decisions. But if you don’t mind having to create a Dropbox account just to transfer data between devices (my biggest issue with it) and you can work effectively with the developer’s choice for screen layout, it’ll help you succeed.

MoreDisgusted, Sep 10, 2022

Bad use of my $34

I will revise this review if I find a way to make this app useful but I am very disappointed in having spent $34 on it. First, this is a port of an existing PC application and looks like it. Scrolling text opens a dialog box that covers the board that the text talks about. Opening a new “eBook” and simply one touching it wont work you will then need to click ok just like a windows app. The app does not make good use of the viewable area of my iPad Pro. Second, if you are expecting some prebuilt “eBooks” that will teach you an opening I don’t see that anywhere. The video introducing the app on the web site talks about modifying existing books but not sure how that helps me. It is clear that the developer was able to take a collection of games and create an eBook but I don’t see where to do that. The 5 star reviews are all from long time existing users and they will already have been using the PC application. The PC application might fill all my needs and this is designed to work with that but as a stand alone app this is a lot of money for what you are getting.

Munnin, Dec 25, 2018

Poor design / not useful as stand alone app

This a waste of money unless you buy the Windows or Mac programs. The interface is poorly designed and it looks like a bad Windows program brought to the iOS.

Setne007, Feb 24, 2020

Description

Chess Openings Wizard is where tournament players go to work on their openings. The app is based on the Bookup program that first came out in 1984. It has full editing and training power like its brethren apps on Macintosh and Windows.

Openings can be moved back and forth to the Macintosh and Windows versions. Chess Openings Wizard does not play chess, nor does it come with a game collection. It is meant for designing openings for White and defenses for Black, and then testing the player's knowledge of the lines by playing mock games. Sample ebooks include an opening guide (thousands of named and categorized opening positions accessible through any move order), an ECO master framework, and the White and Black repertoires of Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Robert Fischer. It also includes a demo ebook with excerpts from a highly annotated repertoire in the Open Game. A free chess engine server program can be run on Macintosh or Windows. That allows the iPad and iPhone to use the latest and strongest UCI engines for live analysis. (The server must share the same WiFi connection.) The Pedigree ribbon shows the results of games in each opening position but uses only games between two super GMs. That way you know if the move is trusted by the best players. (And it's important to know if a move has never been played by a super GM when facing another super GM.) This is the same feature found in Chess Openings Wizard Professional for Macintosh and Windows. The short version is: if you are designing an opening with a game database app or with a playing program, you're working too hard. Chess Openings Wizard contains 40 years of refinements, with precisely the tools that a serious tournament player requires to prepare openings fast.