Chessable Reviews

Where to start? What filter is right for me (Beginner, intermediate, advanced)? Even by only choosing 1 of 4 options (tactics in my case) and 1 of 4 difficulty levels, AND only titled authors, I still get 70+ results. That’s ok, but zero direction as to where to start. And no filter for free stuff, so I have to try every course to see if it’s PRO or if it has a free first chapter. Chessable needs a lot of work to be approachable, accessible, and overall useful to the wider public. As of now, I see no point to start from, there’s no evaluation exercise to determine my level according to Chessable , or what I should work on. It’s like walking into a library. If you know exactly what you are looking for, great, otherwise, good luck…

The title says it all. Here’s just some of the drawbacks to Chessable :

1) You can’t watch videos in landscape mode. Try and they stop instantly. Chess vids are really tough to watch in portrait mode. Very annoying.
2) Course search is broken. You get far less results in Chessable than on the web.
3) You can’t see course reviews on Chessable !
4) When reviewing variations there is no option to go through outstanding reviews by variation like on the web. Instead, its all or nothing - random reviews of an entire course! So I have 800 (really) reviews or I can focus on a smaller number I need to address via the web.

I an sure there are more. I am a chess beginner and this app has been enormously helpful. I love the MoveTrainer and the content had uniformly been fantastic. I just wish Chessable were functional. As is I’d say stick to the web and save the install space on your device until significant improvements are made.

The iPad version of this app still has the same great content, but is weighed down by a weak feature set and some frustrating bugs. Others have mentioned the frequent random log outs. What makes it close to unusable for me is the delay in the trainer after making a move. There is about a half second pause between making the move and it actually appearing on the board. This does not happen on the website or in he iPhone app.

With a fuller feature set and some important bug fixes, this would be a 5 star app.

So far Chessable seems very good. It offers several free lesson subscriptions, and the ones I’ve chosen so far seem comprehensive and in depth.

However, there is no way to change the font size in Chessable , and the default size is very difficult for me to read, even with my reading glasses on. At this time it is such a significant problem I am finding Chessable unusable. I will be searching for a new one that allows me to adjust the font size so I can actually read the text of the lessons.

I almost completely agree with the current top review from user Reilyx. I think Chessable is an excellent start.

But it’s been the better part of a year since that review was written, and there’s only been bug fixes and a slow trickle of minor features since then. It feels like the features I care about aren’t a priority, so I feel compelled to leave 3 stars.

The feature that means the most to me personally is the opening explorer on mobile. I hope that’s just around the corner, and I’ll happily revise this review to 5 stars if/when it arrives.

Content is great but it is tough to find the courses that you have on a certain position. It would be great if you could match the position to a current course and study that as you can on the website. What I mean by this is, if I’m searching for an opening that I was unfamiliar with, I want to be able to take a chess board in Chessable and play the opening variation to see if any of the courses I own have a chapter on that opening or if I can buy a course that covers that opening. If I own a course that covers it, then I want to click on that line and learn that opening as I can on the website.

As others have stated, this app has great content. I’ve purchased four books so far and all good. The problem, and many agree through a google search, is that you can’t make adjustments to the font size. The text in the lessons is extremely small on an iPad, iPhone even smaller of course, so even with decent eyes you have to squint. My request to the developers is to add a text size adjustment in settings, as in other pgn style apps, or make the standard size twice as large. Thanks

This is my main way for pattern recognition and learning openings - although I find the openings part not as good anymore because it’s just memorization and doesn’t teach the ideas well enough like a book. Still my favorite platform, but I bought PRO and for some reason offline studying has had so many issues and doesn’t work a lot which is unfortunate because that’s one of the main reasons I got pro.

I think this mobile app is very good, and I really appreciated the addition of Dark Mode. I think there are two things that would instantly make Chessable much better however. Firstly, there needs to be an option to watch the videos in full screen in Chessable . If people are spending a lot on video components for courses then you should make that experience as good as possible and the fact that you can’t watch in full screen makes no sense. Secondly, moving between chapters in courses feels clunky. It would be a lot better if we could swipe to change chapters rather than having to use the navigation or arrow buttons. Other than that Chessable is really good!

The other day I was watching the pogchamps tournament and I saw an add for chessly that James canty the III was recommending. I was excited to improve my chess. I downloaded Chessable and after a few days I downloaded 5 free sample courses and it has really improved my chess. Each course includes a lot of information and is very benificial. There are a few minor probs such as the Wi-Fi is a bit laggy sometimes and the formatting of the board takes some getting use too. Other than that It is the perfect app to improve your chess.

First off, I love this app. Been using it almost a year now and it’s content is excellent. Such an awesome platform. The content and this app as a whole are 5/5 easily.

Chessable is great at the things it does, I just wish it did more. As others have eluded to, I definitely miss the analysis board and opening explorer. Very often while going through a book the author will make a comment about something being obvious or bad etc and in the website when it isn’t clear to my peon brain why, I like to click over to the analysis board to see. I also use it when in a course I know the players I will be playing will make some non-theory move and want to see what my response should be.

There are other examples of the benefits of the website compared to Chessable and I have no doubt those features will be added (as well as dark mode...) but until then, I have to give only 4 stars because I know how good it can (hopefully will) be!

I love this app and I got really excited to learn about their new app. But Landscape mode is an absolute necessity for a chess app, especially if it offers an iPad app. The screenshots show content in Landscape mode so perhaps we’ll see that soon?

Edit: they’ve added Landscape mode since I first wrote this review and the iPad app is just great to use now. Thank you for addressing the feedback!

Firstly, there’s an abundance of different course on Chessable that will help improve anyones chess game. I love the style in which they are presented as well making it easy to pick up and implements over the board/online.

My only complaint is that app can be buggy at times. For example, I’ll try to review certain variations and once I’ve completed reviewing certain lines; it won’t allow to move on to the next variation and my progress isn’t taken into account thus Making me repeat the tedious process of replaying such lines again from the start. Other times I get “booted” out of Chessable multiple times, requiring me to sign in again before being able to review lines/ learn new variations.

Other than that, when the apps is working smoothly it’s wonderful!

Many of my favorite books are available on the platform, but using the digital board makes going through the content much easier. But the spaced repetition based on what I miss from any content in any phase of the game or area for which I am studying is amazing. Then add an objective measure of my performance based on percentage of moves I got correct and how long it took me to do say… It’s an extremely helpful study tool.

1st I need to say that Chessable is for the serious player wishing to improve. 2nd I enjoyed learning chess on Chessable as it made studying easy. With the openings it explains the strategy and reasons behind the moves. The endgame review was something I was looking for a long time.
The one thing that stands out to me is that it needs a second step in the review button where you can choose which course to review. Right now it skips from course to course with no rhyme or reason. Overall a great app.

this app is the best way I have found to study chess openings, Tactics and Strategy. There are some very well known books that have been converted into courses, often with video instruction. The move trainer is the real benefit. This allows you to practice the moves and see the variations set up and play out in real time. The instructors are top notch and every course I have purchased thus far has been well worth it. I would recommend trying out some of their free content to get a feel for the format.

this app is one of the best mobile app experiences I know of. Not just for chess but compared to just about anything else. Customer service is stellar, course quality and user experience are stellar; and if you have anything to complain about then you just ring it up the chain and someone will help you promptly. The community is full of wonderful and thoughtful people, and CEO David K is a brilliant fellow.

Oh, and you get better at and more confident in your chess playing, I forgot to mention that. What are you waiting for?!

First things first, this app is a great study tool for chess. I have been using the website for a little over four months and I would recommend this app with no reservations to anyone who is serious about studying chess. I started out with a free membership but upgraded to Pro within days and have zero regrets.

As for Chessable , it’s great that it is finally here. The interface is clean, and everything seems to run smoothly. A good start!

There are a few missing features that I hope will be deployed soon, and one essential that I am very disappointed not to see.

The things I would like, but don’t miss too much, are just features of the full site — the discussion board, the opening explorer, that kind of thing. I guess it would also be nice to be able to display content in landscape mode.

The missing essential is offline access to purchased material. This is the only drawback of studying chess on the main site and it seems like an obvious feature for Chessable . I hope the plan is to implement this feature in a future update!

Since I downloaded Chessable several large improvements have already been made such as landscape mode. I am very happy with how Chessable works and look forward to it becoming as good or better than the site itself. Couple of minor issues, occasionally crashes but quickly will reload (you just lose you current study session if that is something you care about and track) Also being able to load the score boards would be great. If you want to purchase courses you will need to use the website, but I am sure that will change in the future. For anyone having minor issues or inconveniences with Chessable , remember that the browser site works great on iPads/mobile devices so use that for anything that is not yet on Chessable

Chessable has made it easy to train openings/tactics/endgames. Movetrainer is slick and allows for repetition. Great chess books already placed on site and improving everyday. Some free courses here that could keep you busy for months. The paid courses can be pricey but they will last you years! Grandmasters contribute frequently. Highly recommend if you are looking to improve at chess!