Why do players pay $297 for Chess Openings Wizard?

It all started 42 years ago when Mike Leahy was booking up for tournaments and reading the paperback version of Kotov’s Think Like a Grandmaster:

The book’s method is priceless. Super strong players have been swearing by it for 50 years.

In his last video course, GM Daniel Naroditsky quotes Kotov’s thinking directly from the book.

Mike created software for DOS computers in 1982 using Kotov’s method of analysis and he dubbed it Bookup.

(For the new kids, back in the day “booking up” meant memorizing opening lines from books.)

Decades later the app was renamed Chess Openings Wizard, and the latest version runs on Windows, Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Players are fascinated by collections of millions of master games. They pay hundreds of dollars for apps like ChessBase. The price is higher for even more games.

But Chess Openings Wizard comes with zero games.

Your job is to prepare your opening and that’s what you’ll be doing with COW the moment you install it.

You can obviously buy ready-to-learn opening repertoires which is a great short cut to prepare for a tournement.

But you’ve probably heard your chess coach tell you that you must choose openings and defenses that “fit your style.” That’s where COW comes in.

The work you’ll be doing is expanding the openings you already play until it is downright scary how deeply your opening preparation is.

And when it comes time to master more than one opening for White or Black? You will have an easy time while your opponents will find it even more difficult to prepare for you.

You’ll save time on the clock. You’ll avoid traps and other errors. You’ll have a plan for the middlegame because you understand your opening.

COW users also study endgames and puzzles with it, but as we know, that’s not nearly as sexy as opening prep. 🙂

All of the top correspondence players use COW because when the slightest inaccuracy in the opening means suffering through the rest of the game for a year or more, only the best tool will do.

The app is rock solid. It has to be because when a player has any difficulty with it, he gets Mike on the phone. (Do any app developers actually answer their phones these days?)

So unless you are okay with having the same rating and playing strength next year that you did last year, it’s time to pick up a power tool.

Get the Professional version for Windows.

Get the Professional version for Macintosh.

Get the Express version for Windows.

Get the Express version for Macintosh.

P.S. And if you still want a super powerful PGN game database like ChessBase but only the most important features and games – at a fraction of the price – then consider the game collection app by the maker of Chess Openings Wizard.