Good stuff. Thanks for the informative post.
I have mainly used the "training" mode on ChessTempo as opposed to the "study" mode, so I found the blog post especially helpful.
But how do you balance your time between Chessable and ChessTempo? When I was beta-testing a couple of the orange Yusupov books on ChessTempo, my Chessable reviews built up to an unmanageable amount. And when I finished beta-testing, I focused on tackling my Chessable reviews and neglected any review or training on ChessTempo.
I'm a fan of both websites (and the Yusupov books), but I find that ChessTempo takes more clicks to find what I want to practice and lacks reference points in "training" mode. Like the "reading" and "study" modes, it keeps track of where I left off, but if I haven't trained in a while, I find it hard to know where I am or what theme I'm working on, because when I resume training the only reference help is a position title like "Ex. 5.4."
On Chessable, I like that I can easily learn or review by chapter. So on ChessTempo I began creating custom tags (yusupov tactics, yusupov endgames, etc.) and creating a training loop for review for each tag. It's not the same as reviewing by chapter, but at least I'm not looking for a tactic when it's a strategy puzzle.
I really want to use ChessTempo more often, but I suppose I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use the "training" mode for books on ChessTempo. I've been having to set the print book's table of contents by my side as a theme reference during my initial training of each book.
But how do you balance your time between Chessable and ChessTempo? When I was beta-testing a couple of the orange Yusupov books on ChessTempo, my Chessable reviews built up to an unmanageable amount. And when I finished beta-testing, I focused on tackling my Chessable reviews and neglected any review or training on ChessTempo.
I'm a fan of both websites (and the Yusupov books), but I find that ChessTempo takes more clicks to find what I want to practice and lacks reference points in "training" mode. Like the "reading" and "study" modes, it keeps track of where I left off, but if I haven't trained in a while, I find it hard to know where I am or what theme I'm working on, because when I resume training the only reference help is a position title like "Ex. 5.4."
On Chessable, I like that I can easily learn or review by chapter. So on ChessTempo I began creating custom tags (yusupov tactics, yusupov endgames, etc.) and creating a training loop for review for each tag. It's not the same as reviewing by chapter, but at least I'm not looking for a tactic when it's a strategy puzzle.
I really want to use ChessTempo more often, but I suppose I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use the "training" mode for books on ChessTempo. I've been having to set the print book's table of contents by my side as a theme reference during my initial training of each book.
@Petteia
This is good feedback for the site admin. I'm sure he will take it into consideration.
For me personally, I got a bit tired of training/reading & reviewing courses on Chessable, so when Yusupov's blue books (intended for my rating range) came to ChessTempo, using a different site was a breath of fresh air.
Even though I am a Chessable author, I have a personal philosophy of wanting to see the overall chess market produce better quality content & features. If ChessTempo can fix a major problem in their base mode that another site takes many years to address, that's noteworthy to me. It's still in beta, so I am a bit more forgiving of ChessTempo's issues.
This is good feedback for the site admin. I'm sure he will take it into consideration.
For me personally, I got a bit tired of training/reading & reviewing courses on Chessable, so when Yusupov's blue books (intended for my rating range) came to ChessTempo, using a different site was a breath of fresh air.
Even though I am a Chessable author, I have a personal philosophy of wanting to see the overall chess market produce better quality content & features. If ChessTempo can fix a major problem in their base mode that another site takes many years to address, that's noteworthy to me. It's still in beta, so I am a bit more forgiving of ChessTempo's issues.
@InfiniteFlash
I agree that the Chessable reviews can be burdensome, even when adjusting the settings for them to be less often. After several years, I'm still trying to figure out the best settings. I need to find a balance between reviewing important material and learning new material.
One thing I really like about ChessTempo is that it offers more depth: while Chessable only quizzes you on the main line of a puzzle, ChessTempo quizzes you on that plus all the subvariations. I found this especially helpful and eye-opening, especially after I thought I knew the Boost Your Chess positions from Chessable's spaced repetition and then made mistakes training those same positions on ChessTempo. It definitely makes it more serious training and improves calculation skills.
I also love that ChessTempo clearly shows your past solving time and past wrong moves as well as position comments from the community, all right on the page after you finish a puzzle in training mode. On Chessable, you have to click on the puzzle title and navigate to a particular move to see its stats.
There is so much to like about ChessTempo. I just have to figure out how best to use it.
I agree that the Chessable reviews can be burdensome, even when adjusting the settings for them to be less often. After several years, I'm still trying to figure out the best settings. I need to find a balance between reviewing important material and learning new material.
One thing I really like about ChessTempo is that it offers more depth: while Chessable only quizzes you on the main line of a puzzle, ChessTempo quizzes you on that plus all the subvariations. I found this especially helpful and eye-opening, especially after I thought I knew the Boost Your Chess positions from Chessable's spaced repetition and then made mistakes training those same positions on ChessTempo. It definitely makes it more serious training and improves calculation skills.
I also love that ChessTempo clearly shows your past solving time and past wrong moves as well as position comments from the community, all right on the page after you finish a puzzle in training mode. On Chessable, you have to click on the puzzle title and navigate to a particular move to see its stats.
There is so much to like about ChessTempo. I just have to figure out how best to use it.
@Petteia said in #5:
> One thing I really like about ChessTempo is that it offers more depth: while Chessable only quizzes you on the main line of a puzzle, ChessTempo quizzes you on that plus all the subvariations. I found this especially helpful and eye-opening, especially after I thought I knew the Boost Your Chess positions from Chessable's spaced repetition and then made mistakes training those same positions on ChessTempo. It definitely makes it more serious training and improves calculation skills.
Agreed, wholeheartedly. The time stats are useful. Also, I've been talking to Richard (ChessTempo site admin) and he plans to add a book comment section within various modes on ChessTempo (this addresses Site Suggestion #4 in the blog). I hope that further helps us.
FYI, the reason why Chessable is unable to effectively quiz users on puzzles lies in the site's functionality. Each exercise in Chessable is stored in a variation pgn and URL thereafter. Here is a bit of information about that process from the author's point of view:
If there are subvariation quizzes needing to be added on Chessable, then the author needs to manually import the quizzes separately somehow. There are ways to do this, but it is a pain for the author/pgn importer on Chessable. The author has to import the full pgn of each exercise, then curate the branching (through the subvariation "split") variations of the pgn for instructional value within Chessable's "chapter" view. Some subvariation quizzes are proper puzzles, while others are more informational. From there, the process of marking (informational, trainable, puzzle, alternative, etc) and labeling (the text of an individual in the chapter view) variations takes place within the edit pane of the "chapter" view.
God forbid you want to add clickable variations within trainable variation URLs on Chessable with text & formatting. It's cumbersome to include those into chessable formatted pgns. You have to use special formatting text "@@StartV@@", "@@StartFEN@@" symbols to designate what is a clickable on Chessable.
TLDR; Chessable pgn importing is mundane and course design is a pain. Not fun.
On ChessTempo, the author, as far as I know, does not need to do as much curation and the variations are not stored within individual URLs. ChessTempo takes in the full pgn and lets the author mark relevant variations as puzzles in a single editing pane/place. That's it. There is variation marking and labeling still, but it takes place in a single editor pane instead of the author having to curate & click on various links on Chessable.
On ChessTempo, there are no separate URLs per trainable. No variation text clickables (Clickables are automatically handled on ChessTempo). ChessTempo's author editing UI is still flawed and unintuitive in many ways currently, so it's not perfect either. The concept is there though.
TLDR; It's quicker to accomplish the same import on ChessTempo, but the editing process is largely unintuitive. I'm figuring out how it works still. UI is so messy.
> One thing I really like about ChessTempo is that it offers more depth: while Chessable only quizzes you on the main line of a puzzle, ChessTempo quizzes you on that plus all the subvariations. I found this especially helpful and eye-opening, especially after I thought I knew the Boost Your Chess positions from Chessable's spaced repetition and then made mistakes training those same positions on ChessTempo. It definitely makes it more serious training and improves calculation skills.
Agreed, wholeheartedly. The time stats are useful. Also, I've been talking to Richard (ChessTempo site admin) and he plans to add a book comment section within various modes on ChessTempo (this addresses Site Suggestion #4 in the blog). I hope that further helps us.
FYI, the reason why Chessable is unable to effectively quiz users on puzzles lies in the site's functionality. Each exercise in Chessable is stored in a variation pgn and URL thereafter. Here is a bit of information about that process from the author's point of view:
If there are subvariation quizzes needing to be added on Chessable, then the author needs to manually import the quizzes separately somehow. There are ways to do this, but it is a pain for the author/pgn importer on Chessable. The author has to import the full pgn of each exercise, then curate the branching (through the subvariation "split") variations of the pgn for instructional value within Chessable's "chapter" view. Some subvariation quizzes are proper puzzles, while others are more informational. From there, the process of marking (informational, trainable, puzzle, alternative, etc) and labeling (the text of an individual in the chapter view) variations takes place within the edit pane of the "chapter" view.
God forbid you want to add clickable variations within trainable variation URLs on Chessable with text & formatting. It's cumbersome to include those into chessable formatted pgns. You have to use special formatting text "@@StartV@@", "@@StartFEN@@" symbols to designate what is a clickable on Chessable.
TLDR; Chessable pgn importing is mundane and course design is a pain. Not fun.
On ChessTempo, the author, as far as I know, does not need to do as much curation and the variations are not stored within individual URLs. ChessTempo takes in the full pgn and lets the author mark relevant variations as puzzles in a single editing pane/place. That's it. There is variation marking and labeling still, but it takes place in a single editor pane instead of the author having to curate & click on various links on Chessable.
On ChessTempo, there are no separate URLs per trainable. No variation text clickables (Clickables are automatically handled on ChessTempo). ChessTempo's author editing UI is still flawed and unintuitive in many ways currently, so it's not perfect either. The concept is there though.
TLDR; It's quicker to accomplish the same import on ChessTempo, but the editing process is largely unintuitive. I'm figuring out how it works still. UI is so messy.