He takes your streak personally.
Streaks, a daily XP goal and seven ranks from Pawn to Grandmaster. 25 badges, an activity heat-map, a review forecast, and how much of each line you remember.
One opening. Mastered for life.
Learn the London System from a bishop in a bowler hat.
Hello, I’m Bertie.
I grade every move you play with the symbols chess books use. Press one and I’ll explain myself.
!! Brilliant recall
Right in under 2.5 seconds, on a position you’ve known for at least 4 days. Showing off, frankly. That earns the longest gap.
! Correct
Right first time. No fuss, no fanfare, and the position comes back on schedule.
?! Got there
Right, after a hint or a think of more than 12 seconds. We’ll call that shaky, so I’ll ask again sooner.
? This one slipped
Wrong first try. Happens to the best of us. I’ll show you the idea, and the position comes back in 10 minutes.
The London System is a chess opening for White that you can play against almost anything. Bertie teaches it in short lessons, grades every move the way chess books do, and brings each position back just before you’d forget it.
- 20 lessons free
- No account
- No ads
- iPhone and iPad
Out of book by move 5?
Tired of learning an opening, then forgetting it by your next game? That isn’t a lack of talent. It’s what memory does to anything you don’t review.
So learn one opening properly, and keep it.
Know what to play as White, every game.
It starts 1.d4 and 2.Bf4, and the same solid setup follows in almost every game. Less theory to learn, and more games that start the way you want.
How to play the London System, move by moveOne setup, whatever Black plays:
- 1…d5
- 1…Nf6
- The Dutch
- The King’s Indian
- And more
Learn
Short lessons, and you play every move.
100 lessons on the London System, 4 to 20 minutes each, coached by Bertie. Wrong moves bounce back with feedback aimed at that mistake, and every lesson ends with a from-memory drill.
- Hints that hold backEach press gives a little more away: the idea, then the piece, then the move.
- Notes you can playEvery move Bertie writes is a link. Tap it and the line plays on the board.
- Checked with StockfishEvery White move in the course.
- Your London as one treeTap any branch to replay it and see what you remember. The Repertoire Explorer adds your recall for every move, and what the lessons say about it.
Try the first two moves
Every London starts the same way. Push your queen’s pawn two squares.
Remember
Back just before you’d forget.
The Commute is your daily review, about five minutes. Each position that’s due comes back in the context of its line, on the day Bertie predicts you’re still about 90% likely to remember it, and he nudges you that day. So the London you learn this month is still there next year.
How Bertie marks your answers
Automatically. You never mark your own homework.
- !!Brilliant recallRight in under 2.5 seconds, on a position you have known for at least 4 daysLongest gap
- !CorrectRight first timeOn schedule
- ?!Got thereRight, after a hint or a think of more than 12 secondsSooner
- ?This one slippedWrong first try. Bertie shows the idea, and the position comes back in 10 minutesBack today
After each answer you see its real next interval beside what the other symbols would have given. You choose how much to remember: 85, 90 or 95%.
Why each position comes back when it does
Bertie predicts how likely you are to still remember each position. The chance keeps falling until a Commute tops it back up, and after each one it falls more slowly. Here’s one position from a lesson over two months, answered right each time it comes back.
Learned once
63% likely to remember it
Never reviewed
With the Commute
93% likely to remember it
Reviewed on days 1 and 7, next on day 27
For nerds: the Commute runs on FSRS-5, a modern spaced-repetition model, and the chart is drawn from the app’s own. Recall t days after a review is R(t,S) = (1 + 19/81 · t/S)−0.5, where the stability S is the number of days it takes to fall to 90%. Each right answer raises S, so the gaps grow. First reviews are capped at one day, a forgotten position comes back in 10 minutes, and no interval is longer than a year.
A reminder at a time you choose.
Pick the time, and Bertie nudges you with the first position he’ll ask, its board beside it. A tap opens your Commute. Pick a sensible time: he’s not at his best before breakfast.
Rush Hour
60 seconds of speed recall from your repertoire. Five in a row adds 3 seconds, a miss costs 5, and missed positions go into your Commute.
Mind the Gap
92 puzzles in five levels, from course positions where Black slips up and you punish it. Every solution is unique and checked with Stockfish, every puzzle was curated by hand, and one is picked each day.
White to play
Play
Play it for real against six levels.
The Sparring Partner plays full games against you as White. Its opening book is the course, so it plays the theory you learned. There’s an evaluation bar beside the board, if you can bear to look.
- TouristFree
- CommuterFree
- Club PlayerFree
- County Champion
- Master
- Grandmaster
The first three levels are free. The Season Ticket adds the other three.
Bertie’s map: 100 lessons on 12 lines.
In the app the course is a Tube map across 6 zones, one station per lesson, from your first move to grandmaster ideas. Onboarding asks your level and starts you in the right zone.
Brand new or rated 1700, you start with the lessons that fit your level.
Free one of the 20 free lessonsPick a line to see its stations.
See exactly where you left the book.
Game Checkup reads your real games, from a Chess.com username or a PGN pasted or imported from Lichess or anywhere else. It shows the exact move where each game left the book, next to the London move.
One tap sends a slip to your next Commute, or to the lesson that teaches it.
Left the book at 3.Nf3, where the London plays 3.e3. One tap and it’s in your next Commute.
Small things, done properly.
None of it is essential. All of it helps.
Widgets
“Your Commute” in small, medium and three lock screen sizes, and a Streak widget.
Siri and Spotlight
Start your Commute, play Rush Hour, solve today’s puzzle, continue your journey or check your games.
iPad
In wide windows the board sits beside the coach.
VoiceOver and Switch Control
The whole board can be played with either, move by move.
Seven board themes
Study, Walnut, Thames Fog and Club Green are free. Midnight, Royal Mile and Portland Stone come with the Season Ticket.
No signal needed
Lessons, the Commute, puzzles and the Sparring Partner all work offline. Handy between stations.
Sound and haptics
The chimes follow the Westminster Quarters.
Share cards
A card for every lesson you finish, for the group chat.
All original
The course text, the pieces and board, Bertie, the sounds and the icon.
No account, no ads, no tracking.
Your progress stays on your iPhone or iPad. The lessons, the reviews and the chess engine all run on the device itself, and there’s nothing to sign up for.
Read the privacy policyThe only thing that leaves your phone
If you use Game Checkup with a Chess.com username, the app sends that username straight to Chess.com’s public API to fetch your public games. It keeps only the username, on your device.
Tickets, please.
Start free, with no time limit. When you want the whole network, the Season Ticket opens every line.
Free
No time limit
- 20 lessons: nine of the thirteen Foundations lessons, and the first lesson of every other line
- The daily Commute and the daily puzzle
- Three Rush Hour runs a day
- The first three sparring levels, up to Club Player
- Game Checkup
- Four board themes
Start freeon the App Store
iPhone and iPad
Requires iOS 18
Season Ticket
In-app purchase. Everything in Free, plus:
- All 100 lessons
- Every puzzle
- Unlimited Rush Hour
- All six engine levels
- The premium boards
Yearly 7-day free trial
$39.99a year
Works out at $3.33 a month.
Monthly
$7.99a month
Lifetime
$89.99
Paid once.
Prices in US dollars; the App Store shows your local price. Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel them in your Apple account settings. How the Season Ticket works
Questions for Bertie.
He’s heard most of them before.
Is the London System good for beginners?
Yes. You play the same setup in almost every game, so there’s far less to memorise than in most openings, and the same plans keep coming back. In the app, onboarding asks your level and starts you in the right zone, whether you’re brand new or rated 1700. The first lesson, All Aboard, takes 3 minutes.
Is the London System only for White?
Yes. It’s a set of moves for White, starting 1.d4 and 2.Bf4, and that’s the side the course teaches. Black can build a similar setup, but a move later.
What if Black doesn’t play 1…d5?
That’s the point of the London: one setup for White that you can play against almost anything. The course has lines for …Nf6 and …e6 (the Classical Line), the King’s Indian, Grünfeld and Modern (the Fianchetto Line), and the Dutch, the Englund and other surprises (Offbeat Express). The London System guide sums up the answer to each.
Isn’t the London a bit boring?
Solid isn’t the same as sleepy. Once you’re set up, the plans have teeth: a knight on e5 with f4 behind it, the e4 break, the open h-file after hxg3 and the Greek gift on h7. The Attack Line is all about going for the king.
Do I need an account?
No. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking. Your progress stays on your device.
How much time does it take each day?
About five minutes for the Commute, your daily review. Lessons take 4 to 20 minutes each, whenever you fancy one.
What’s free?
20 lessons, the daily Commute, the daily puzzle, three Rush Hour runs a day, the first three sparring levels (up to Club Player), Game Checkup and four board themes. There’s no time limit.
Which devices does it run on?
iPhone and iPad, on iOS 18 or later. On iPad, in wide windows, the board sits beside the coach.
How do I cancel the Season Ticket?
In the Settings app: tap your name, then Subscriptions. You keep the Season Ticket until the end of the period you’ve paid for. Lifetime is paid once, so there’s nothing to cancel.
More questions? The support page has the rest.
Your first London moves take four minutes. All aboard.
- 20 lessons free
- No account
- No ads
- Requires iOS 18