We show an improved local in time existence and uniqueness result for Schrödinger maps and for the hyperbolic–elliptic nonlinear system proposed by Ishimori in analogy with the two-dimensional classical continuous isotropic Heisenberg spin (2d-CCIHS) chain. The proof uses fairly standard gauge geometric tools and energy estimates in combination with Kenig's version of the Koch–Tzvetkov method, to obtain a priori estimates for classical solutions to certain dispersive equations.