Learn Chess with Dr Wolf Reviews

I am not a great chess player. I would like to be… so I paid for LearnChesswithDrWolf. $40 later, and when it’s working the problems, it’ll take a move that you made from one of the games that it’s decided was a blunder, and let you find the “best move”.

“You have the game winning advantage here. Can you find the best move?”, it says. So you you find it, and it gives you the option to go to the next problem or “Play from here”….. and I lose. Every time. Now think about this… it takes a move from a game that *YOU WON* and turns the game to a loss. That doesn’t make sense…. Ok… so maybe I’m just missing something… so after a month of frustration, I decided to go from the “play from here” and take the hint for the best move for every turn to see what I’m missing…. Here’s the hint. Nothing. I am missing *nothing*. I take the hint for the best move all the way to a loss… 83 games in a row… but when I play on my own…. I win almost every single game.

Biggest waste of $40 I have ever spent on a game…. Well… other than Candy Crush.

This is nothing but a gimmick and a flawed concept. Playing a game against a handicapped engine is definitely fun, but the main function is supposed to be coaching, where the program utterly fails. You are shown moves from previous games that you get to play, but it does not provide you any means to properly determine why the suggestion was made. When you try to explore from the point of reference, The engine does not necessarily play the appropriate moves, and the recommendations are often confusing, while a refutation of other ideas is not provided. The situation is further confounded by the program's lack of basic functions to export games or positions as PGN, FEN, respectively. Do yourself a favor and get a chess graphical user interface that allows you to analyze games, enter variations, annotate the game, etc. If you want to improve your chess, you can own Chess Studio Pro by Giordano Vicoli for a fraction of the price you'd pay for one year of Dr. Wolf.

I like the idea of LearnChesswithDrWolf. There is a few
Things I would change. Like the “stalemate” feature. This could be something that I can turn on or off if I want to. Many times I’ve found myself frustrated that it would come up without me being able to turn it off. I would have to find another way to get the king and it’s annoying. I imagen if I play against a human he will just keep going until I checkmate his king. It felt annoying and made me
Regret downloading LearnChesswithDrWolf at times. Other then that, I like it. I would of also liked that they put an actual voice in the text lessons and training. It gets boring to read, it would be nice to have it verbalized so I don’t have to read. After while it becomes a chore to read the lessons and I lost interest in engaging with it. That’s the only feedback I have with app. Other then that, I like it. If there is any upgrades in the future, it would be nice to also have more lessons and training with an actual voice. Maybe have courses within LearnChesswithDrWolf that are aside from the basic lessons and training to go more in-depth in becoming good with just knights, rooks and etc.

LearnChesswithDrWolf has great lessons, my chess game has already improved significantly with the free ones! Playing actual chess games against the AI is a different story however. I have yet to find an AI that doesn't cheat, or refuse to lose. I tried to win many games against the AI here, and only won once. One game I had a rook, a queen, a knight, and a bishop and the AI only had the king. I should've been able to win that one, right? Everytime I made a move with any of these that would put its king in check with it cornered the AI would call a draw. I took back the move and tried to win with many different moves and angles, and got the same results. I am, however, able to beat the AI of other chess apps with strategies from this one, when they don't cheat that is.

Edit: (In response to developers response.) Ty for letting me know that, As a beginner I did not know that rule about chess. I probably just missed it. Some of the other chess apps out there don't always enforce that one as much. Maybe you could have Dr. Wolf explain that more often? I'll be sure to send in screenshots of anything that I have questions about.

The drills are worth the subscription price, although I’ve never compared to other apps. The game coaching isn’t effective. Seems like they spent all their time developing film-quality dialogue and dialogue trees, but forgot critical basics like the forward button on game analysis. The excessive dialogue only gets in the way. I don’t need you to have a canned reply such as “back we go” or “as you wish” when I undo a move, yet have no way to re-do the move. And for all the dialogue, it will “coach” you to make a terrible move that causes you to lose the game. It’s like it assumes that you are 5 years old, and then assumes you are a grand master, randomly. Basically it uses the excessively poetic dialogue to cover up issues with core approaches and design philosophy.

I'm merely pretty terrible! I progressed pretty quickly to "strong intermediate" thanks to the guided review of mistakes, well structured lessons, and the way LearnChesswithDrWolf encourages consistent practice. For this, it is VERY good. My only two issues with it are 1.) There is a huge step up in difficulty from intermediate to strong intermediate - while this may just be my lack of cognitive ability, it took me 35 losses and 6 draws to get to 25 wins, and none of those with fewer than 3 undos. 2.) There are times when Dr. Wolf says "Not the move I expected," or "Not your best move," and it would be very helpful to be able to know what the correct move was. There are other times when I simply want to know WHY - e.g.: on what premise or lesson is he leaning for a particular suggestion?

It would also be very helpful to review my wins. How did I checkmate in 10 moves on strong intermediate TWICE? Why did those times feel so easy when he's constantly wiping the board with me?!

Devs: Kudos on such an entertaining and educational platform! Keep going!

This is a great teaching tool for sure. I’m learning stuff I’ve never known about on top of the fact that I haven’t played chess since I was an early teen. But watching you tube chess games this last month has inspired my desire to learn.

What seems to be lacking for me in this tutorial is that I can’t back things up after checkmate. And during the Training I can’t back up or move forward to see where my blunder was if I were to move forward. I’ve found in playing the game here I’m making a move that the software is telling me it’s a bad move yet I continue anyway and find that I did exactly what I had planned to do and won. Although there may have been a better play but it didn’t fit my ultimate plane. If there were an option to click a button to show the better move or even moves that would help me a lot. I’m a very visual learner and that would be fantastic.

I have a long way to go in learning this game and this software is great. I haven’t used any other software out there to know of anything different but here’s my 2 cents. Thank you again!!!

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 LearnChesswithDrWolf ’s chess advice would be more refined and flexible, LearnChesswithDrWolf would become more competitive. And if learning opportunities and consistency of computer strength could be reconciled in an exceptional way, LearnChesswithDrWolf would become my favorite for chess.

A very nice and classic looking chess set up, but the teaching is where LearnChesswithDrWolf really shines. The Dr Wolf character is polite, kind, and (at least for me) uses very good methods of teaching the moves and rules of the game. I especially enjoy how after playing a full game with him, he will go back and review the mistakes you made. Even more so that he will do this for multiple games. The only thing I dont like, and is my reason for a four instead of five star review, is the subscription system. I strongly dislike how many apps are switching to the subscription system as opposed to simply making and selling a product. I wont be subscribing for a game, but should there ever be a one time payment option to gain the lessons then I would very strongly consider paying that. However, I will still enjoy the free games with Dr Wolf as he is quite an enjoyable opponent. :)

It’s a good app, but don’t plan on practicing openings, this guy never has any type of traditional opening. Always opens like c6 or a6 or something crazy. He plays well but it would be nice if you could plan his style so you could practice openings. You start 10 games and rewind after every first move, he’s going to have 10 different openings. This guy absolutely never starts the first of second moves with a knight either like 99% of the people your going to play in real life. Out of about 50 openings i tried just to see, almost forty had double pawn openings and most were like bishop pawn or rook pawn openings. You just don’t see those playing the people i play. I would fall over dead if this guy had a pawn knight knight bishop opening one single time. He may in there somewhere, but I’ve never seen it

Game recommends moves, often correcting moves I’ve made, but without explanation of why my move was bad or why the suggested move is better. Last night it suggested a move which would have allowed my pawn to be promoted, only to be immediately captured by my opponent’s rook. I found a better move which put his king in check, forcing his rook to move to block, followed by a another check, forcing his rook far enough away to allow my pawn to be promoted and not captured.

Overall, I enjoy LearnChesswithDrWolf and find it helpful. I am an ‘advanced beginner’ hoping to improve my skills. Again, explanations of recommended moves would be helpful, perhaps even having the computer play through several moves from your error to demonstrate why it is a blunder, then return the board to a point immediately prior to the blunder.

LearnChesswithDrWolf 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 LearnChesswithDrWolf 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.

If you are looking at ways to improve your game and build upon your skills from beginner or imtermidate skill level, this is the chess app for you. I enjoy it and have been learning more than I was expecting from LearnChesswithDrWolf. The only down side is it doesn't synch across multiple devices. If you subscribe and down load LearnChesswithDrWolf on your iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, your progress isn't update across all devices (thus the four stars). However, when I brought this up to their support, I received a quick reply and was informed they are aware of the issue and are working to fix it (five stars and thank you Holly). Overall, I would highly recommend this chess app to family and friends and feel the cost of the subscrition is worth it.

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 LearnChesswithDrWolf 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.

I rarely write reviews but I honestly thank LearnChesswithDrWolf so much. I’d propose that there’s at least one psychologist in the developer team. I’d wanted to learn chess for a long time but the potential barrier were pretty tough. But this step-by-step break-down and humanistic encouragements (and even humor!) made learning exponentially faster and I finally found the feeling how learning a brain-demanding skill could be addictive. It’s like you had a real coach who watches over you and patiently points out where you needs to improve - the antidote to solitude and fear of humiliation, two of the greatest enemies of learning. The instruction style that LearnChesswithDrWolf uses is indeed the study-proved and tried-and-true best way to lead a student forward. I’ve been trying to search for apps that teach other intellectual skills with a similar style but have been in vain so far. I really wish there could be more apps of this sort. Well worth the money.

I downloaded LearnChesswithDrWolf with some skepticism, since I’ve tried numerous chess apps over the years but found them frustrating. This one, however, is in a league of its own (I have the paid version). My chess abilities have skyrocketed, and my only complaint is that it’s addictive! I would like to see some additional options as the developers continue to listen to feedback, as they so graciously do. Some suggestions: let the user see which pieces have been captured; add a forward button (for when we use the back button and then change our mind—sometimes Dr W plays differently when we do that); explain why he sometimes labels a move as a blunder (in the “learn from your mistakes” option after a game, which is generally very helpful). In that section, I’d also like to see exactly what I played when he shows me the board where I made a mistake. But for those of you wondering whether LearnChesswithDrWolf is worth it, I would say that its advantages are terrific!

Before getting LearnChesswithDrWolf, I only knew how the pieces moved. That’s it. I went through all the lessons for beginners and then played a game against the AI set at “strong beginner”. I was able to defeat it, albeit with my coach every once in a while nudging me in the right direction and the ability to take back some bad moves here and there. The amount I learned is astonishing.
I signed up for the $4.99/month which is just peanuts considering you get a “coach” that actually teaches you and sets up many exercises and problems when covering lessons. Much like a math or music tutor would do. If you do yearly instead of monthly you’ll get it for less than three bucks a month. This is such a no-brainer. I took the free trial and saw the value right away.

Not surprisingly, the bad reviews for this magnificent app come from people who want everything for free. That’s their main beef: “Waa waaaa it’s pay for play, waaa waaa”. How are they surprised that they have to pay for quality goods and services? Do these people go to a car dealership, enjoy their free test drive, and then complain that they have to pay if they actually want the car?

Anyway, the AI coaching here is nice. A patient and understanding experienced dude at your service 24/7. Exceptional for beginners.

I make educational games for a living and as such, I’m honestly really particular about any interactive game or app that tries to teach things. A lot of them are simply not very good at educating, long story short, LearnChesswithDrWolf is excellent and I have a better understanding of chess in one hour of practice than I had from friends trying to explain things for hours. I downloaded three or four chess apps at once to see which one I liked most, but haven’t needed another app besides this one at least while I learn. I like how it encourages trying moves in a learning mode and lets you undo those moves, and also gives real time feedback on your choices and your weaknesses in those moves. Great job!

I love LearnChesswithDrWolf. It’s informative for players at various skill levels, and the artwork and voiceovers are lovely.

I have a few ideas I wanted to share that could potentially improve the experience.

1. Skill test games without hints and undos.

Not everyone is coming in as a complete beginner. It would be great if I had the option to play a game without hints or undos, where LearnChesswithDrWolf evaluates my performance, regardless of win or lose, and makes a recommendation of a difficulty level for me to play against.

2. In settings, have the option to require you to verify a move by hitting a green checkmark or red x, or a similar formula.

This would solve the problem of those pesky mistaps. Sometimes I want to play a game without using hints or undos, but end up HAVING to undo a move, not because I consciously made a bad move, but because of a mistap, I accidentally made some move I didn’t want to.

3. It would be cool if we could ask Dr. Wolf to play a certain opening against us. This would allow us to actually utilize the openings we’re learning in real games.

I learned to play chess with LearnChesswithDrWolf. I promised myself after things shut down a few years ago that I’d try anyway. LearnChesswithDrWolf/game is great and I play quite often, so much so that I received a message after finishing a game last night asking if I was a developer. I’m not. I’m still at the beginner level and the only reason why I win is because LearnChesswithDrWolf lets me. I make plenty of mistakes and LearnChesswithDrWolf always asks if I’d like lessons. Really can’t afford them right now, but I’ve learned a lot just from watching what the computer does in the game. I know and understand what each piece is named & how it moves and advances on the chess board. Much appreciated for a great app.