The Three Best ChessMood Courses for Ambitious Improvers

And a free gift!

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all been having a good time with your families. After a short hiatus I’m back with another blog post. This week I wanted to highlight one of my favorite online chess learning platforms: ChessMood.com. ChessMood is run by GM Avetik Grigoryan plus his team and features a variety of video courses with various Grandmasters all teaching you how to improve at chess. The courses cover topics such as tactics, mating patterns, reducing blunders, attack, defense, endgames, a full opening repertoire for White and Black as well as much, much more.

Of all the courses on the platform, I wanted to focus on what I think are three of their best courses for ambitious chess improvers. Also, near the end of the post I’ll be giving away 20 free 1-month memberships to ChessMood as a sort of Cyber Monday thing :-) Enjoy!

Endgame Roadmap

The Endgame Roadmap course is a must-watch for all ambitious improvers. This course is all about how to play practical endgames. This is much different than how to play “theoretical endgames” which tend to involve more memorization. Rather, this course will teach you how to come up with a plan in the endgame and how to improve your position. There is a large focus on the “roadmap” which helps you understand how to get from point A to point B in the endgame. The priority is working towards promoting one of your pawns into a queen but getting to that point is explained in-depth as well. From the introduction to the course:

This course isn’t on theoretical endgames. And it’s not subtle Grandmaster-level techniques.

It’s a very unique course, which will teach you how to think in the endgames, and what you should try to achieve in different kinds of positions.

Grandmaster Grigoryan will put a compass into your hands, so whenever you end up in the endgame, you’re never lost anymore.

Defend with Honor

Defend with Honor is a hidden gem. It is by GM Johan Hellsten and covers all kinds of defensive topics including mobilization, prophylaxis, counterattacking, intermediate moves, tactical tricks, accepting sacrifices and much more. With a watch time of just under 10 hours, you’ll have plenty to learn about focusing on defense in chess. From the introduction to the course:

While it's much more interesting to attack and have the initiative in our hands, sometimes opponents will attack us and we'll need to defend. 

Many chess players don't like to defend, however, after watching this course you'll hopefully have more pleasure when you do it. 

The key is to know the main principles and Grandmaster Johan Hellsten will teach you that...

300 Strategic, Attacking and Endgame Masterpieces

If you’ve ever wanted a treasure trove of classical games to play through and learn from then look no further than this 300-game collection featuring the titans of chess history. Split into three 100-game parts focusing on strategic, attacking and endgame masterpieces, you will have a historic collection of games at your fingertips, all explained by a Grandmaster! If you’ve been looking for a good source of games to do guess-the-move or solitaire chess with, then this is the best collection of games I have found online. From the introduction:

Imagine you are traveling to Paris. You know only 3 streets in the city and have no access to GPS. So there’s a high chance you might get lost in the city, right? 

But what if you knew 50 streets instead of 3? What about 200? Of course, then it’ll be easier to find the route! 

The same is in chess: the more chess classics you know, the easier to navigate chess positions! ...

Hopefully this has whet your appetite to check out ChessMood. As an added incentive, I was given 20 free 1-month memberships (valued at $59 each) to ChessMood to give out to the readers of Chess Chatter. It’s first-come first-served. Click on this link to be one of the first 20 people and get the opportunity to check out ChessMood until December 23rd for free.

Until next time!