I'd just like an App that can download PGNs and play through them.  I figure that would cover 2 things that I need to do: practice tactics, and play through Grandmaster games.

I really wish Deep Green had that ability, because I love the interface.  And I saw the topic about ChessDB, but apparently it can't load the starting position from a PGN, so it wouldn't work for tactics.

So, any suggestions?

Is there an iphone app that has an openings explorer?

@Apollo33,

There was a very similar question in another thread the other day, so please excuse this cut/paste:

Many of the apps people have mentioned here can export PGN (as email), and many can do analysis as well (although the visibility of that analysis varies a bit).

Most of the apps are challenged when it comes to getting PGN from elsewhere.  I can think of two exceptions:

Chess Genius ($9.99) - allows you to download PGN games (or databases) from the Internet to your iPhone/Touch.  To use this feature, you need to be able to store the relevant PGN somewhere on the web (for instance in a public Dropbox folder), so that you can give Genius a link to it.

tChess Pro ($7.99) - allows you cut-&-paste PGN text (i.e. from an email, etc.) into a special window that loads the game onto the board for analysis, etc.

It's a close call, but of the two, I'd probably recommend tChess Pro.  [It really depends how important it is for you to download a multiple-game database to your device; that's where Genius excels.]

Note that (as far as I can tell, anyway) there is no iPhone chess app that can handle annotated PGN or multiple lines/variations.  Both of the apps above, for instance, automatically parse out any commentary or variations as you load them into the game-view.

And yeah, Deep Green (not actually related to me ) isn't currently the most feature-rich of the apps, but its interface is brilliant.  If iPhones came with a built-in chess app, Deep Green would be it.

@barnettech,

tChess Pro has an Openings Library that allows you to see commonly played options (based on percentages in a selection of master-level games) from many book positions (the book is one "swipe" gesture from your game at all times).  It also allows you choose what opening you want to start with at the beginning of the game. 

As far as I can tell, no other app has anything quite like this, although apps like Hiarcs and Glaurung do have an option to make their own programmed books visible during play.   ...Here are some screens:

tChess Pro - Select your opening (includes name search):

tChess Pro - Select your next book move:

HIARCS - A tad less interactive, but note the line of candidate book moves just above the actual move list:

HIARCS shows preference to certain options with the "!" and finds other book lines questionable "?".  You don't actually see the name of the opening here until someone makes a non-book move, at which point the candidate move list is replaced by the title--which here would be "C10: French, Paulsen Variation."

Hope that helps.

By the way, Apollo33, there are a couple of great apps out there that are exclusively for tactics training & relatively cheap.  These two are my faves:

http://www.uquery.com/apps/303465637-chess-quest

http://www.uquery.com/apps/312686925-chess-problems

DeepGreene:

Thanks so much for the extensive response!  Unfortunately I still don't know what to do.  I think copying and pasting each game would be annoying, so tChess is out.  And I'm just not sure about Chess Genius since it hasn't been updated in almost a year and it's still $10.  I think I might just have to wait for ChessDB or Deep Green to get (fully supported) PGN importing.

No worries.  I hear that.  One of the things I like so much about tChess is that it's clearly very much in active development.  It might be quite the wait though, considering the rarity of this particular sub-set of features among current apps.  :-\

Fwiw, in my opinion, Genius was BY FAR the king of iPhone chess apps way back when it was last updated (its only real competition was Caissa Chess), but it's been quite a year and there are a lot more contenders now.  However, it's still a very excellent app--certainly one of the best, & its "analyze game" mode (combined with its ability to consume PGN databases from the 'net) might serve your needs pretty admirably.  Not sure if that gamble is worth $10.00.  :)

I've been using Shredder chess. I like it so far. It plays to your level fairly well. It also has 1000 chess puzzles. Interface seems intuitive and you can wiz through games as it automatically adjusts the computers level of play. It makes mistakes like a human and at my level 1400-1600 they seem to be believable mistakes. It's 10 dollars as well. and as I said it would be nice if it had an opening explorer or historical games....etc.

all in all it's  been worth the 10 dollars.