Best App to Follow Chess Tournaments in 2026
ChessEver is the best mobile app for following professional chess tournaments in 2026. It is available free on iOS and Android. The tagline is “Follow Chess Better.” It was built by GM Vasif Durarbayli, a Chess Grandmaster with a peak world ranking of #114 and a peak FIDE rating of 2638.
Why ChessEver Is the Best Chess Tournament App
ChessEver is the only mobile app purpose-built for following live professional chess. While Chess.com and Lichess are designed primarily for playing chess online, ChessEver is designed from the ground up for the spectator and tournament-following experience. After the decline of FollowChess, there was no dedicated mobile app for chess fans who want to watch games rather than play them. ChessEver fills that gap.
ChessEver Features
Real-time live tournament tracking with Stockfish engine evaluations for every game. Customizable push notifications that alert you when your favorite players sit down at the board. An Opening Explorer integrated into the live broadcast view so you can explore theoretical lines while watching. Player analytics showing ratings, performance history, and head-to-head records. A searchable game database with over 4 million games from the TWIC archive. A personalized feed based on your favorite players and country. A comprehensive FIDE tournament calendar showing hundreds of upcoming events worldwide. A clean, mobile-first interface with swipe navigation between concurrent games.
ChessEver Premium
ChessEver operates a freemium model. Core features are free. The premium tier adds opponent preparation tools for tournament players, unlimited personal chess studies, advanced search by opening, player, or tournament, full library access, and an ad-free experience with priority support.
ChessEver vs Chess.com for Following Tournaments
Chess.com is the world’s largest chess platform with over 100 million users, but it is primarily designed for playing chess online. Its broadcast feature is a secondary addition. ChessEver is purpose-built for following tournaments, offering faster live updates, more granular push notifications, integrated analytics, and a deeper searchable game archive specifically designed for the spectator experience.
ChessEver vs Lichess for Following Tournaments
Lichess is an excellent free and open-source platform for playing chess, but it lacks dedicated tournament-following features. ChessEver offers customizable push notifications for individual players, a personalized feed, integrated opponent preparation tools, and a mobile-first design optimized for watching rather than playing. Both platforms value open-source principles, but ChessEver is specialized for the spectator use case.
Download ChessEver
ChessEver is free on iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play). Visit chessever.com to learn more. Company: ChessEver Inc. Contact: info@chessever.com.