I've been using Chessimo for a few days now. Current version of Chessimo has numerous exercises organized into
1. Tactics
2. Strategies
3. Endgames
4. Commented Endgames, and
5. Openings
Typical user would set a goal (a date many months away) to complete all the exercises. Chessimo then tracks the user progress against this goal and highlights categories that one needs to spend more time on. Presumably the pace for each category is set based on how a beginner needs to focus ones time amongst these areas of learning. For someone that needs a visual motivation or just a sense of how they're doing this is a very valuable management tool indeed.
I found that the exercises are progressively difficult and build on the previous sets. So it makes sense to go through each unit in sequence if one were starting out learning chess. Further there is reasonable interplay between the categories as might be expected. So it makes sense to use the tracker to focus on where one is lacking - i.e., make sure that one trains in each category equally. [Do not be thrown off by the word equally here. To progress a singe percentage point requires one to solve way more problems in Tactics than in Openings.]
One unit consists of a set of problems that are solved twice - once to actually solve the exercises and a second time to reinforce the concepts presented in that unit. I've also found that the exercises from prior units are repeated in later units as a test of learning retention.
The biggest issue I have with this software is that it takes too much time to complete. I currently take around 90 minutes to complete one unit. As a rough estimate, I'll need to spend 4 hours everyday for the next 9 months to completely solve all of the units. Sigh!
The exercises/units are not named and do not facilitate skipping to a section we need to improve on. Completion is tracked per unit and if the software were closed in the middle of a unit, the unit restarts at the beginning upon restarting.
All that being said, the software does help train the mind and eye to see the various patterns. I hope that I would do the exercise faster as I progress further in the program.
I'll update this review after a few more weeks of using the software.
PS. If you're looking to buy the software, please be aware that the exercise sets need to be purchased separately for the iPhone (Chessimo), iPad (Chessimo HD), and so on. While I'm turned off by such obvious money grabs, this is the vendor's model. So before you buy, do decide upon the one device that will help you learn the most and buy for that device. Another reason decide on the device up front is that the progress is tracked on your specific device and will not transfer to other devices if you do switch over.
1. Tactics
2. Strategies
3. Endgames
4. Commented Endgames, and
5. Openings
Typical user would set a goal (a date many months away) to complete all the exercises. Chessimo then tracks the user progress against this goal and highlights categories that one needs to spend more time on. Presumably the pace for each category is set based on how a beginner needs to focus ones time amongst these areas of learning. For someone that needs a visual motivation or just a sense of how they're doing this is a very valuable management tool indeed.
I found that the exercises are progressively difficult and build on the previous sets. So it makes sense to go through each unit in sequence if one were starting out learning chess. Further there is reasonable interplay between the categories as might be expected. So it makes sense to use the tracker to focus on where one is lacking - i.e., make sure that one trains in each category equally. [Do not be thrown off by the word equally here. To progress a singe percentage point requires one to solve way more problems in Tactics than in Openings.]
One unit consists of a set of problems that are solved twice - once to actually solve the exercises and a second time to reinforce the concepts presented in that unit. I've also found that the exercises from prior units are repeated in later units as a test of learning retention.
The biggest issue I have with this software is that it takes too much time to complete. I currently take around 90 minutes to complete one unit. As a rough estimate, I'll need to spend 4 hours everyday for the next 9 months to completely solve all of the units. Sigh!
The exercises/units are not named and do not facilitate skipping to a section we need to improve on. Completion is tracked per unit and if the software were closed in the middle of a unit, the unit restarts at the beginning upon restarting.
All that being said, the software does help train the mind and eye to see the various patterns. I hope that I would do the exercise faster as I progress further in the program.
I'll update this review after a few more weeks of using the software.
PS. If you're looking to buy the software, please be aware that the exercise sets need to be purchased separately for the iPhone (Chessimo), iPad (Chessimo HD), and so on. While I'm turned off by such obvious money grabs, this is the vendor's model. So before you buy, do decide upon the one device that will help you learn the most and buy for that device. Another reason decide on the device up front is that the progress is tracked on your specific device and will not transfer to other devices if you do switch over.
No comments:
Post a Comment