Chess Openings Wizard91 - App Store

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. The app has full editing and training power like its brethren apps on Macintosh and Windows.

Openings can be moved back and forth to the Macintosh, Windows, and Android 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.

Chess Openings Wizard has a dedicated PocketGM server giving you full speed Stockfish analysis. (Internet connection required.)

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 42 years of refinements, with precisely the tools that a tournament player requires to prepare openings fast.

Version History This version adds an optional way for the training wizard to test you on multiple lines in your opening. For example, you might want to play one line against stronger opponents and another against weaker players. Previous versions would give you full training credit if you played either move. COW build 91 Mar 29 Build 88 behaves properly when you are training and play a move where you have two (or more) moves for your side of the repertoire.

And look at you, preparing more than one line in your opening! Who do you think you are? Magnus Carlsen? :) COW build 88 Mar 25 This build corrects a bug that hung the app when choosing Blue Genius or Brown Personal diagram styles. It also adds updated support for cloud storage (Google Drive and free Dropbox accounts). COW build 87 Mar 24 Build 85 fixes an issue that can cause the app to quit immediately after it starts up. COW build 85 Mar 7 Build 84 updates the connection to the cloud (Google Drive, free Dropbox accounts) so that you can make backups of your work. You may lose your phone but you'll never lose your openings.

The cloud is also used to move your openings to and from your desktop computer (Windows or Macintosh) or Android phone.

It accesses an updated Stockfish server for full speed analysis. COW build 84 Feb 4 Build 76 lets you use the Macintosh Finder to update ebooks. A new Stockfish server has been added. iOS App Version COW build 76 07/25/2025 Build 71 adds access to the PocketGM server giving Stockfish 16.1 analysis without running an engine on the iPhone or iPad.

Build 71 has the updated Training Wizard with blindfold mode and the ability to reset training only for the current line. (Previous versions would reset all training.) COW build 71 07/01/2024 Chess Openings Wizard build 65 fixes bugs with promoting pawns on recent versions of iOS. COW build 65 11/06/2023 Build 64 adds support for Google Drive. You can now move your ebooks into your Google Drive (similar to Dropbox) for backup and for passing your ebooks to the Windows and Macintosh versions.

A bug when renaming ebooks has been fixed.

Updates were made for the newer iOS. COW build 64 11/02/2023 COW build 60 fixes issues with dark mode. The Dropbox integration now handles files larger than 150MB. It opens files made by the new multimedia versions for Windows and Macintosh. Ebooks can be renamed. Updates for iOS 16 are included. COW build 60 06/28/2023 This update (build 58) adds the ability to rename ebooks.

The Dropbox limitation of 140MB has been lifted.

The app now opens the latest ebooks made by the Windows and Macintosh versions. COW build 58 05/02/2023 Dark mode and iPhone are now supported. The chess diagram includes (optional) algebraic hints and arrows showing the last move played. The list of ebooks is sorted by name. A speed button for editing comments allows the comments to be scrolled without triggering editing mode.

Two new functions have been added. The first adds any moves to a position that transpose to any other position. The second adds any moves that reach positions in the Pedigree database.

The Pedigree database is made up of the opening positions of all games where a super GM (extremely strong grandmaster) is paired against another super GM. If a move reaches one of these positions, a ribbon next to the move shows the relative wins for White, draws, and wins for Black. COW build 50 02/29/2020 The iPhone is now supported. The chess diagram includes (optional) algebraic hints and arrows showing the last move played. The list of ebooks is sorted by name. A speed button for editing comments allows the comments to be scrolled without triggering editing mode. 1.0.49 01/26/2020 1.0.43 12/22/2018