My grandfather who taught me how to play as a 6 year old lass recently passed away. I’m his honor I was drawn back to the board. But I haven’t played since college, and if I’m super honest, my adhd made 3+ move strategies hard to keep going so - feeling dejected - I stopped playing. This little app is awesome. It was just like my grandfather ‘you suuuuure want to make that move?’, haha. I’m playing coached games interspersed with the lessons and finally have names for moves that I had completely forgotten I’d known. I’m also realizing that I’m an aggressive player so I’m not entirely certain how helpful this app will be in the long run but I absolutely recommend it for younger folks, newbies, and those like me who forgot how to play. Literally my only complaint is the background music. *** Edit: actually I do have more feedback (sorry devs!). I love the Hint function, it’s brilliant. BUT, it could be great if we got an explanation of *why* a particular move is preferred, it would help with the fundamentals. For instance, I’m learning that I’m a more aggressive player, so when the coach gives me a hint that goes directly against my strategy, without a reason why, it feels like it’s discouraging me from taking risks/initiative.

So I've been playing on this app for over a year I believe. I have it set to a certain level. The game is adjusting far beyond the level almost like it's learning and adapting using AI. I'll get into positions where I'm dominating, and it'll pull some grand master moves to rip the game away. It's making it not fun. If I improve but the game adjusts to my level of play making extremely advanced moves passed the difficulty level I've set, then I'm not learning anything. I can't use strategy and techniques at my level, just for it to pull a Bobby Fisher in two moves. Now this isn't the run of the mill "i'm just not that good". If you want it to be advanced, make that the advanced level. If the gsme is actively use AI to adapt to my level of play without me increasing the difficulty than it's pointless. You can see one played thousands of games. Nearly daily. It's really discouraging when I play a perfect game, leave no holes that a normal person at my level would recognize, just for the game to think 12 moves ahead and run diagnostics to go through 18,000 scenarios to find the one move that works. It's kinda dumb. I've been playing my entire life. As you can see I've won 800 plus games and lost over 2000. I don't mind losing. It's part of learning. But at a point it's getting unrealistically difficult and as I stated going from intermediate to grand master level when I start to win a few times in a row.

Dr. Wolf at expert level is no more than a version of the advanced level that makes almost just as many mistakes, albeit less embarrassing ones. When I launch a legitimate attack on “expert” Dr. Wolf, he often makes ridiculous blunders that beckons checkmate in less than 5 moves, leaving me feeling snubbed by the end. There are obviously somewhat educational purposes to his sudden weaknesses, but a difficulty level named as it is should be a platform where highly advanced players can feel consistently challenged. I believe having a more formidable opponent that can still act as a guide through more complicated variations retains more educational value than an opponent who plays with enticing inaccuracy. The latter is, after all, not an ideal role model for the more perceptive amateurs. Also, the concept of “strong moves” are based on very short-sighted standards, evaluating my moves just in light of incidental guiding principles and not the overall strategy of the game. Not expert teaching, I guess. If the nature of the app’s chess advice would be more refined and flexible, this app would become more competitive. And if learning opportunities and consistency of computer strength could be reconciled in an exceptional way, this app would become my favorite for chess.

This app is fantastic, but I feel I can’t give it 5 stars for two reasons. If a future update fixes these, then I’ll happily change my review. First, when asking for a hint on what to do, it doesn’t often say why we should move this piece there, and it isn’t always apparent (though he might explain why he moved a certain piece or congratulate you on finding an attacking or defensive position). The second is that the level difference between “Advanced” and “Expert” is astronomical. I can easily win against Dr. Wolf’s advanced-level games, but the expert level demolishes me every single time. I’m not suggesting to make the app easier; however, adding more levels after advanced and before expert would be a great addition. Being stuck at a level that I can beat over and over provides a steeper learning curve when the next one is near impossible for my skill level. I’m not sure if I’m the only one with this issue, but for my own personal benefit after buying the pro version (definitely recommend), I wish it had this feature. Note: I have not also tried out other teachers yet, was hoping to beat Dr. Wolf first.