Chessable MoveTrainer

A Spaced repetition memory system designed specifically for learning chess moves. It’s integrated with instructional material, alternating prose + visual explanation with quizzes, akin to how Execute Program’s lessons unfurl their prose in response to reader interaction.

Like Execute Program, the alternation of prose and activity creates an experience akin to the Mnemonic medium. But the granularity of this system is extremely fine-grained, much more so than even Execute Program: you read commentary on a single move, then you repeat the suggested move, then you read more commentary, then you repeat that move, and so on. At the end of a set of moves, you repeat them all as a sequence. Narrative arc isn’t much in play.

You can sign up for multiple courses, each of which is essentially the digitization of a chess book. You can then make your way through those courses incrementally, with the system remembering your progress and quizzing you on the material you’ve learned. This is a very simple form of Incremental reading system.

The input interface is a chess board, so responses can be auto-graded. In this way, it’s a bit like how the input interface to Execute Program is a REPL. Presumably, this creates a similar challenge: there’s no way to use this spaced repetition mechanism to reinforce conceptual knowledge (see Execute Program doesn’t have non-executable prompts).


Q. What’s the name of the SRS-based chess tutor?
A. Chessable MoveTrainer

Q. What input mechanism does Chessable MoveTrainer use?
A. Moving pieces on a chessboard

Last updated 2023-07-13.