Chessimo for Strategy

What?  No love for IGM Milos?  Everyone is all into Pachman, Silman, Weeramantry and other guys with "man" in their name?  Yet who'd win in a chess match among those authors?...former candidate Gilberto Milos.

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I own Chessimo.  I did the 1st 7 or 8 modules and then stopped.  It was definitely more fun than reading a strategy book (SIlman, Alburt, Seirawan, etc.) because it was interactive and there was just enough minimal commentary, covering strategy almost as fast as doing tactics.  

But I thought some of these ideas would be better understood by yours truly if I could learn more tactical patterns and calculate a little further and more accurately than I currently can (e.g., learning simple tactics and 2-3 move mates) so that I could more accurately assess the superiority and inferiority and goals of given moves and rejected moves.  

Essentially, I was afraid to commit a lengthy time of study to Chessimo strategy when I am so weak tactically. 

Nonetheless, with the new 4th edition of HTRYC by Silman, everyone bagging tactics tactics tactics, and me being frustrated when I am out of my 3-move opening book and when I can't see any tactics for most of my moves, I thought I needed to look into a method of determining my chess moves when I have no concrete tactic available (but I hate "planning").   

So I am debating how much I should devote my study time to strategy and with what materials.  I like problem-solving, but not reading text alone without problem-solving.  And I like problem-solving from simple to complex, which Chessimo purports to do, so best of all worlds, but I bet it rapidly advances in difficulty and was afraid to spend several months powering my way through stuff I am not ready for when perhaps I should just stick to tactics and simple endgames.

I'm one of chessimo fans. I don't play tournaments often so I can't see if I improved or not.  the only improvement I see is I hit the 2800 ELO mark in tactics trainer here in chess.com

I just finished all the tactics modules in chessimo that's all.    Opps I also finished all tactics modules in convekta CT-art. And also the book 1001 combinations and 1001 checkmates by Reinfield(electronic version), A book called "combination challenge" by Silman and solve some problems at Chesstempo.com

BTW tactics allowed me to change my planing style. Before I was a positional coward who strives for close positions.  Now im open wild :)

Do the Chessimo Strategy modules work as well as the Tactics modules?

@davidegpc

Of all tactics training softwares, CHESSIMO is my favorite. The creators really know what they're doing because of these important keys: Fast interface, Time pressure, pattern recognition by repetition, and most importantly addictive so you keep on going. 

@dannyhume

Chessimo Strategy modules are very basic but still worth the time. But the endgame module is where you will get more benefit.

Then again, I don't play real games too often so I can't say how much strength I gained OTB though I manage to apply some short tactics from time to time and it feels so satisfying! :)

Thanks Jhrowin, your comments are very helpful.

Are the Strategy (and Endgames and Tactics) modules too much for me at my lower rating?  

I have already read Amateur's Mind by Silman (a bit difficult to digest those long variations or enact those ideas in my play), I wonder if Chessimo's fast interface and problem-solving would be a nice to way to start learning strategy, but I really don't know how advanced or for what level those strategy modules are intended for.

@dannyhume,

In my opinion, chessimo method is the new method of learning. You will learn so many positions in a short period of time without reading too much. Afterall, new research proved that chess learning and strength is more on pattern recognition that's by simply memorizing thousands of chess positions and that's what chessimo is all about.

Reading chessbook is boring while chessimo is fast and addictive. it's your choice.

Too bad chessimo screen ratio is not compatible with my netbook :(

@jhorwin i know what u mean about having chessimo on a netbook LOL anyways i wanted to ask since you are the only person i know of that has finished all of the modules, i only managed to complete the first two and MOST of them are mates, do they start to vary in the later modules?

Strategy:

I just finished all the Chessimo strategy modules (as many as it would allow me, had some bugs).  It was very nice, doubt it will have much immediate impact upon my game, but it is nice to think of reasons to move a chessman when there is no obvious tactic and then GM Milos has a sentence or 2 about why his move is best, even if it is not 2800-level analysis.  In addition, there aren't lengthy move sequences, usually just 1 move. Some exercises do have a handful of moves, but with commentary every couple moves.

My Chessimo had some bugs, so I was only able to get through 600 to 660 of the 720 strategy modules.  Great primer before more advanced strategy books methinks.  However, it is best because of its nice fast user interface so I don't have to keep inputting positions/variations from a book and the "repetition" part is already built into the program in a sequential curriculum...a nice fast simple intro to strategic concepts, better to do in my opinion before reading Winning Chess Strategies by Seirawan/Silman, The Amateur's Mind by Silman, and strategy chapters of The Idiot's Guide to Chess by Wolffe.   

Tactics:

I'd think it'd be better to do Tempo or Tactics trainer since either one will spit out a tactic that is statistically likely to be at/around one's level whereas Chessimo is a bit arbitrary with the "do-each-one-6-times-and-you'll-never-forget" (to borrow from NM Reb: H O G W A S H). 

Although the flip side of the argument may be that Chessimo's goal is not to improve one's calculation but instead rapidly expose one to numerous patterns to provide a basis for more complex calculation by providing a collection of key tactical, strategical, and endgamical positions, similar to Lev Alburt's Pocket Position books [but there are 6670 positions total in Chessimo (= 4320 tactics + 1440 endgames + 190 commented endgames + 720 strategy) vs 620 positions total in Lev Alburt's 2 pockets books (over 10 times as many in Chessimo that is) plus in Chessimo the repetition is built in and the positions are immediately ready-for-training on the computer (rather than having to set up a board or input positions on the computer), so Chessimo easily wins out by volume and efficiency].  That was all one sentence.

Endgames:

I don't see any better source than Chessimo (for club level players) since it has draws (unlike Tempo), a nice fast interface (no need to spend hours inputting positions and variations), and has nearly as many endgame positions as Pandolifini, Silman, Alburt, and Seirawan's endgame books combined (factoring in the redundancy of positions between those books). 

Tempo however does show the various ways to win from a given position and how many moves till mate for each sequence, but how many different ways do you need to learn to win the same position as a club player?  Chessimo claims to give the shortest line to victory for each of its 1440 endgames (+ 190 commented endgames). 

Chess Mentor here is a bit cumbersome for endgames because of the commentary for every single move and the gdodman "too many clicks" garbage, where you have to keep clicking "try again" or "continue" for every single move of a multi-move sequence (how many times do I have to read the excellent critique of my bad moves, "you are clearly not thinking of a plan"?!).  

My experience with the Computer Workout here is that it is not so great for learning endgames but good for practicing those positions where you "kind of" know how to win, but need to review them or polish up your efficiency in winning such positions (shouldn't KBB v K endgame be >1200-level?  It is at a higher level in Silman's endgame book). 

Chessimo and the chess books compliment each other really well. can't say i'd rather have one or the other 

Hi everyone. 

Great to read about your positive experiences with Chessimo. It truly is an amazing tool to strengthen your pattern recognition skills! Also, happy to announce there is a new release of the app out now:
These are the recent changes with the Chessimo app: 

1 We have a new development team on board who are doing an amazing job solving any existing problems step by step.

2 There is a new release out with the following improvements:
*Piece movement: move the chess pieces by simply tapping on them and tapping the end square. Fans of the drag option can still drag the pieces as well.
*New chess board and chess set designs: choose from 8 different designs.
*Coordinates now withing the chess board, resulting in a bigger board, better overview
*Issues with stalling puzzles have been solved for the biggest part.

3. The website chessimo.com is up and running again and can be used for your daily Chess Training of puzzles. Remember the puzzles are specifically designed to maximize retention of patterns. 

4. Enjoy daily chess puzzles on our FB page and IG account. 

5. Enjoy reading our blog posts.

We are working on any remaining issues and look forward to present you new releases soon.
Best regards

Laurens from Chessimo

Estou esperando uma resposta do mail que mandei para vocês🙌 lrtcb@hotmail.com.... o Chessimo é o melhor programa de Xadrez do mundo!!!

Why is there no way to use Stockfish on Chessimo to further analyze each problem?  This

makes Chessimo almost a completely useless resource when it could have been one of the greatest.  You can do this with Puzzles on this site, Chess Tempo, Chessable, all Chess King apps, and all e-books from Gambit and Forward Chess. Get with the times, Chessimo (Everyman and e+chess, too)!!!!

I agree. You can pay a bit extra to use crafty but only to play against at the start of the setup, no  computer analysis is available which is a major oversight. I find a lot of the mates in the tactics modules need to be analysed for optional moves and there is no way to do that with the program.  I have to input the setup into stockfish running on a different device which is time comsuming.

I paid the extra to use Crafty only to find out it can't be used for any analysis of positions so basically useless. 

My chessimo app on my i-phone stopped working at all about a year or so ago. I thought it had been discontinued?