FollowChess App Review (Free vs Paid)

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Chess apps are a convenient way to learn and improve our knowledge about chess. They offer a variety of functions – some allow you to play with another player anywhere in the world, some help you watch live games of various tournaments, while some help you analyse your games.

FollowChess is a one of a kind app that helps you view live or past games of tournaments that have happened worldwide. It is useful to follow the moves of top players while they play in real-time. The app is available on all web browsers. It is both Android and iOS friendly.

Why is this app useful?

FollowChess covers almost all tournaments all over the world that have a DGT Chess board. From the Candidates tournament to the World Championship matches, from the Champions Showdown to Bundesliga and many other international & national tournaments, FollowChess covers it all!

Many top GMs and IMs like Magnus Carlsen, Vishwanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Jonathan Tisdall, Tania Sachdev etc like the App and are known to use it frequently.

Allowing people to follow the games of their favourite players, FollowChess offers a plethora of options while doing so. One can choose to follow players from a particular country or a specific player or a certain opening. This can be done by applying the respective filter or using the search bar.

The app allows the user to watch multiple live games in a single screen, which reduces the hassle of going back to the main menu and opening a new game. The new watchlist feature lets you watch multiple games from different tournaments – all in one screen! The option of watching live broadcasts and seeing the game on the same screen is also available.

The interface of FollowChess is extremely user friendly and simple to understand. The app allows the user to enter moves on the board, even during live games, and seek engine assistance to understand the games better (Analyze This is a free app that needs to be downloaded for this feature). The board gets auto updated whenever a new move is played in real time.

One can make a setting that directs the app to send a notification when the round of your favorite tournament starts. The free version has access to do so only for a single tournament, whereas the paid version can do so for multiple tournaments. The user can also view the standings of the players in any tournament and track the same.

The App displays the starting time of the next round of a tournament in the user’s local time which is very useful for any chess enthusiast.

FollowChess also offers the opportunity to chat with fellow chess lovers all over the globe. This helps in connecting more people, leading to healthy discussions and exchange of ideas related to various games.

Comparison – Free Version versus Paid Version

• Users having paid for the Pro version can download all games in .pgn format, whereas such an option is not available in the free version.

• You can access all games from previous rounds in the Pro version, while in the free one, you can only access the drawn games.

• Paying for the Pro version allows the user to watch upto 8 games in Watchlist. However, in the Free version one can only watch upto 3 games. Also, the pro version gets rid of all the advertisements in the app.

• In the Pro version you can view all standings of all tournaments, whereas in the Free version you can view standings of the top tables only.

One can purchase the Pro version of the App with a monthly or yearly subscription. Monthly subscription is priced at $0.99, while yearly subscription is priced at $5.99.

Conclusion

The FollowChess app is excellent for those who want to watch live or past games from their mobile without the hassle of starting a laptop or PC. It is useful in helping people learn chess as they can evaluate the games, analyse variations and can even check if they are able to accurately guess the moves of top Grandmasters. Due to its user-friendly interface and diverse features, this app has been a go-to for many professional and amateur chess players all over the world.