Best Chess Courses Worth Your Time
The chess course market is flooded with options, many overpriced, many outdated. This guide cuts through the noise: here are the courses actually worth your time and money, organised by level and topic.
Beginner courses
- Free: Lichess Learn modules, interactive, well-structured, completely free.
- Paid: Chess.com's lessons series, guided paths from beginner to intermediate.
- Best value: ChessBase Academy, one-time purchase, lifetime access, covers fundamentals comprehensively. Supplement with daily puzzle training.
Intermediate courses
- Strategy: Courses covering pawn structures, middlegame planning, and piece activity.
- Endgames: Silman's endgame video courses, matches his book quality.
- Tactics: Woodpecker Method courses for systematic tactical training.
Advanced courses
- Opening preparation: Chessable repertoire courses, spaced repetition built in.
- Master games: GM analysis courses breaking down classic games from the legends database.
- Best investment: Working with a coach 1-on-1 surpasses any course above 1800 Elo.