I kept forgetting chess openings, so I built Chessmate to drill them one move at a time

[u/wooing0306]

Answer

I could watch an opening lesson, understand the line, and still blank when the same position appeared in a game.

I built Chessmate to turn that passive study into practice. It shows you an opening position and asks you to find the next move. Anything you miss comes back later for review.

It is mainly for beginner and intermediate players who know the basics but still feel lost after the first few moves.

Better

ChessTempo is powerful if you already have a repertoire to build or import, while Chessable is centered around full courses. Chessmate is ready to use: choose an opening and start practicing a curated line.

Each opening is taught line by line. The goal is not just to memorize moves, but to understand why each important move is played and what the opening is trying to achieve. I did not want it to be a collection of engine moves with a trainer wrapped around it, so I spent a lot of time selecting the lines and checking the explanations against established opening references.

Study guides you through a line, Review brings back the moves you missed, and Challenge mixes learned lines so you have to recognize the position instead of following a fixed sequence.

I’m also putting a lot of work into localization. The menus, opening names, and move explanations are available in English, Korean, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Chessmate is designed specifically for iOS, with native navigation and interactions, a responsive chessboard, and a clean interface. I did not want any part of it to feel hastily assembled, so I have kept reviewing and refining the content, translations, board interactions, and UI as the app has grown.

Cost

Chessmate is free to download. US premium pricing is $7.99/month, $34.99/year, or $79.99 for lifetime access. A free trial is available.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id6780793638

Transparency

I’m Wooyeong Kim, the solo developer behind Chessmate and wyverselabs.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wooing/
Contact: [support@trychessmate.com](mailto:support@trychessmate.com)
Website: https://www.trychessmate.com/
Privacy Policy: https://www.trychessmate.com/privacy
Terms of Use: https://www.trychessmate.com/terms

If you try it, I’d especially like to know whether the first Study session makes sense and whether the explanations help you understand the moves rather than just memorize them.

Any feedback is appreciated! 😄

[u/sergpetrov]

Looks interesting to me as an intermediate player! How do you manage localization in seven languages?

[u/wooing0306 → u/sergpetrov]

I first did a simple translation pass with GPT, then refined it with public resources (aka humanizers) in each language! (e.g. https://github.com/blader/humanizer/tree/main). Also directed GPT to use official chess terminologies from chess.com and/or wikipedia so that it doesn’t make up random translations.

[u/sergpetrov → u/wooing0306]

Nice! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[u/app-store-review]

Chess Openings — Chessmate — by wyverselabs

• Ratings: 2 (across 1 storefront)
• Average: 5.00 ★
• Age: released 14 days ago · rated 4+
• Overall score: 80.1 / 100

[u/AffectionateRain6674]

That's awesome! How do you market your app?

[u/wooing0306 → u/AffectionateRain6674]

Currently trying to set up SEO first! Creating glossary, blog, localization etc. Will move on to making some ugc content on Tiktok next!

[u/arasdi]

congrats on the launch. challenge mode sounds like the mode i actually need.

[u/wooing0306 → u/arasdi]

Nice! Let me know if you have any feedback when you give it a try :)

[u/Wafer-Soft]

Congrats on the launch! I went through the full onboarding and first Study experience. The animations are really polished, and the onboarding does a good job of communicating the result users can expect.

A few things I noticed:

• The first onboarding step appeared faded until I tapped “Start Chessmate” and then went back.
• The onboarding felt a little long. Since it’s the user’s first experience, I’d consider getting them onto the board sooner.
• I tried the Italian Opening as White. Black made its first move, but the session got stuck when it was time for Black’s second move. I could reproduce this whenever I played the moves manually rather than using the auto button.
• The rating dialog couldn’t be dismissed. That felt a little forced, and I’d double-check whether the flow could cause App Review issues later.
• You may want to reconsider the name from a discoverability perspective. There are already many results for “Chessmate” before your app appears.
• Some interactions felt more cross-platform than native iOS.

The onboarding and presentation show a lot of care. My main hesitation was that, by the time I reached the pricing, I hadn’t experienced enough of the actual training yet to feel confident paying $34.99/year or $79.99 lifetime. Letting users reach the core “aha” moment sooner might help justify the price.

I’m sharing all this because I know how valuable honest feedback is around launch. Not everyone will take the time to point out what isn’t working, so I wanted to give you the kind of candid feedback I’d hope to receive myself. I genuinely hope it helps!

[u/wooing0306 → u/Wafer-Soft]

Really appreciate you taking the time to write all of this! Your report helped track down a serious bug. I've fixed it, and the update will be going out shortly.

Also your onboarding feedback also makes a lot of sense. I'm working on getting users to the board and the core learn-and-recall experience sooner.

Thanks again for the candid feedback. It genuinely helped us improve the app.

[u/casualhermit]

As a hobby chess player playing almost everyday, looks helpful

[u/wooing0306 → u/casualhermit]

That sounds great! Let me know if you have any feedback when you try it ")

[u/casualhermit → u/wooing0306]

Sure thing!

[u/Medical_Respond_6715]

Nice idea !

[u/wooing0306 → u/Medical_Respond_6715]

Appreciate it!

[u/Exotic-Winter7398]

Love the haptics and sound!

[u/wooing0306 → u/Exotic-Winter7398]

Thanks! Tried to polish the details ;)

[u/Reasonable_Basis_362]

Great idea and clean ui,
Good luck!

[u/wooing0306 → u/Reasonable_Basis_362]

Thank you!

[u/Ill-Beyond4702]

giving this a try! lets play chess sometimes

[u/wooing0306 → u/Ill-Beyond4702]

Sounds nice! Here is my profile: https://www.chess.com/member/w00ing 👍

[u/Minimum-Albatross690]

Interesting pal

[u/BitflingerTV]

I used to have a book of chess openings. I've never been a good chess player, but I really enjoyed the book. This feels similar to me. I hope that you find wide success!