Learn Chess Anywhere with Chessable

The innovative online learning platform makes improving your chess game easier than ever before.

Have you ever wanted to strengthen your chess game, but found yourself lacking the time, energy, or money to do anything about it? Do you look at the shelves and shelves of different chess books and software, unable to decide which ones are worth your while? Have you ever looked for a qualified chess coach in your area only to come up empty handed? Worse yet, have you ever actually gone through with a lesson plan, only to find yourself forgetting what you learned? If any of those things have happened to you, you might be excited to try out Chessable.

What Is Chessable?

Chessable is a new online learning platform that lets you deepen your knowledge of chess from anywhere with an internet connection. You could be studying opening moves at home in your pajamas or learning new endgame strategies at the airport terminal in between connections. Wherever you are, Chessable will be there for you, without the need to schedule a meeting with a busy chess coach or lug along bulky books or software during your travels.

This incredible program actually began as a private tool made by David Tenemaza Kramaley, one of the co-founders and CEO of the Chessable company. He used it to teach himself a variety of chess openings in a more efficient way than they were usually taught. Seeing how well this initial version of the program worked, he knew he was on to something and built a team to turn a simple, private learning tool into a powerful public product, Chessable.

The Chessable Team

That team began with IM John Bartholomew, a full time professional chess coach and current Chessable CCO and co-founder, and gradually grew to include more than 10 team members in total.

All of these people have dedicated their time and energy to working together to make Chessable a great product. Their effort and dedication really shines through in the finished product!

How Does Chessable Work?

Chessable works better than any other educational chess book or software on the market because it harnesses the psychological power of gamification and it is built upon powerful algorithms that keep you coming back to new ideas at the optimal intervals to make sure you learn them for good rather than just forgetting them after the first lesson.

The Power of Video Games, Harnessed for Your Benefit

The first secret to its success, gamification, may sound a little silly at first if you aren’t familiar with the term, but it is actually rooted in a deep understanding of human psychology. What it basically means is making the process of learning a bit more like a game. It draws on video game design and certain game elements that are so effective at keeping people coming back for more, and translates them into an educational tool. This method stays true to old wisdom that says learning should be fun, but it also taps into new science that shows us exactly why that approach works so well.

Researchers are now finding more and more concrete evidence on the link between dopamine release in the brain and improved learning. As you probably know, dopamine is released in response to certain stimuli, and produces an uplifting effect in the brain. Pinpointing these stimuli isn’t always easy, but video game developers have been able to root out many of them through trial and error over the last several decades of developing games that people want to play and keep playing. Now, educators can benefit from that knowledge by implementing dopamine inducing triggers like rewards, points, badges, titles, and other similar elements into their lessons. This is exactly what Chessable is doing, and it really works!

Algorithmic Reminders at Just the Right Moment

The second piece of what makes Chessable so effective is its unique algorithms that keep the knowledge you’ve gained fresh in your mind by cycling through it at just the right interval. The science behind this method is really nothing new. It began in the 19th century, when Hermann Ebbinghaus thoroughly tested it and became an early pioneer of the spaced repetition method.

The basic theory is that, to learn efficiently and retain that knowledge, you should review what you know not on a regular basis, but in a series of increasingly spaced out intervals. Now, this can be a difficult method to implement, since it requires a lot of dedication and, more importantly, organization! Keeping track of exactly what you learned when and calculating the next optimal interval is a lot to stay on top of. Luckily, Chessable handles all of that for you!

All of the intervals are handled by a specialized algorithm that keeps things running smoothly. As you go about your lessons on Chessable, you will periodically be prompted to review certain things that you’ve learned before. If you demonstrate that your knowledge is still fresh as a daisy, you won’t see questions on that topic until the next meticulously calculated interval. If you get a few questions wrong, though, the algorithm will know that you need a little refresher on that particular material and bring it up more frequently. This way, not only do you learn new information in the most efficient way possible, but you also retain it almost perfectly!

These are just two of the cutting edge, science-based learning methods that make Chessable so great. The program also takes advantage of additional psychological phenomena like the testing effect, which shows that testing improves learning even when you don’t answer correctly, and the enactment effect, which proves that you can learn well by imitation even when you don’t fully understand what you’re doing, but gamification and spaced repetition are the two things that we think have the biggest impact on learning and knowledge retention in this program.

What Can I Learn with Chessable?

Chessable began as a way to efficiently learn chess’s many and varied openings, but now it’s expanded and become so much more than that. Chessable has a large and always expanding library of lessons on different topics from openings to endings, and everything in between. You can also take lessons on certain strategies and tactics you’re specifically interested in, or more general lessons that give you a wider view of the game.

There are lessons available from FIDE titled players, from traditional chess publishers, and even from members of the Chessable community! There are lessons available for all levels of player, from absolute beginner to advanced, and even the casual player who wants to learn a bit more without too much of a time commitment.

There are even a few free lesson packs available so that you can try out the Chessable format and see if it works for you before you invest money in a course.

Chessable’s course database is being updated and expanded all the time, so even if you don’t see anything that captures your interest right now, if you check back frequently, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for sooner or later!

Our Final Thoughts on Chessable

There are thousands upon thousands of educational chess resources available out there, from books to software to coaches, and even many online learning platforms. However, the way that Chessable integrates the most cutting edge developments in educational science research into its lessons is extremely unique.

The gamification that makes the original learning process so much fun, along with the spaced repetition that keeps all that you’ve learned fresh in your mind really set Chessable apart from the rest of the pack. These are things that you may get from the best of the best chess coaches out there, but no chess book or simple software can offer it. Chessable’s algorithms make this efficient learning system available to anyone with an internet connection, and it comes at a much more affordable price than lessons from a top-quality chess coach!

With Chessable, you’ll learn the same techniques in a fraction of the time and retain that knowledge for longer, which will not only give you a better learning experience, but actually save you money in the long run! Whereas a chess coach will charge you for every lesson, once you pay for a course on Chessable, you can go back and revisit its lessons any time you like!

In addition to the savings of time and money, Chessable offers one more thing that traditional chess educational materials can’t match, and that’s access to an online community of other chess players! When you take a course on Chessable, you can converse with other players who have also taken that same course to discuss the lessons or just socialize. With all of these unique features you can’t find anywhere else, why wouldn’t you give Chessable a try?