When thinking of your next chess move, like when choosing chess openings, often the only feedback we get is from a computer.
Perhaps you are doing one better over the majority of us and also looking at a master’s database. However, is this truly enough to learn chess and improve?
We think that when learning anything in life, the importance of feedback cannot be ignored. Chess Grandmaster Georg Meier says one of the most important things in chess is to “be receptive to feedback”.
Olympic medallist Matthew Syed says his coach used to say, “if you don’t know what you are doing wrong, you can never know what you are doing right”. The way to know? Feedback.
How to find your next chess move
Can a computer give you this kind of feedback for your next chess moves? Can a master’s database answer your questions? These tools, while great, aren’t quite able to offer us specific feedback. Are we all missing something by not being able to chat with a stronger player about our chess moves? Might they recommend something less “computery” and more suitable to humans? We think so.
At Chessable, we are passionate about learning chess in the most efficient and awesome manner possible. This is why from today on Chessable students can access our new “Ask a Master” feature (BETA). The best part? You can ask questions for free. Don’t have a Chessable account? You can also make one for free.
It’s simple, to get your question answered, you need one master token. To get a master token, you need to spend some rubies in the store. How do you get rubies? Well, you can earn those by simply logging on to Chessable and studying for a few minutes! We promise you a chess master, above 2,250 FIDE rating, will answer your question – or you get your rubies back.
Get good advice!
Aha, you say! You need to spend something after all, so it’s not free! Well, so far we’ve given away 365,000 free rubies to our dedicated Chessable students. This is over 3,000 free questions that we promise our chess master will answer (he’ll have plenty of coffee to hand)… and for having read on, here are some rubies to get you started (you must be logged in), pick your next chess move wisely!
Notes
1. You can also buy more rubies for cash if you need a question answered urgently.
2. Here is the FAQ explaining a little bit more about this feature.
3. Our top ruby holder has over 1,000 rubies. Impressive.
4. This feature in BETA, we are pretty happy with version 1, but please bear with us, we are treading new ground here.
5. If the feature is popular, we hope to bring more chess masters on board.
6. Don’t have enough rubies? Don’t worry, you can still ask a question as our chess book authors often answer anyway, no rubies needed!
7. No rubies but still want to upgrade to Ask A Master? Post your question anyway, some kind member might upgrade your question for free!
David is Chessable’s CEO and Chief Scientist. He finished his dissertation on expertise and expert performance as part of a MSc in Psychology of Education (BPS) at the University of Bristol, and also holds a PGCert in Applied Psychology from the University of Liverpool. David’s chess rating is around 1,850 FIDE.