eCourses Online

Whether you aspire to be a champion or you’re just an enthusiast like me, chess online courses and tutorials are a great way to get started with the game. With the help of my friends, I’ve come up with this list of chess courses which you’ll definitely find helpful.

In this article, I’ve selected the 10 best free and paid Chess online courses for you from the 80+ Chess courses on our catalog by following a well-defined methodology that you can find below.

But if you want to jump straight to the results, here are my top 10 picks. You can click on a course to jump to the corresponding section:

What is Chess?

Chess is one of the oldest and most popular board games in the world. To quote Chess.com:“Chess is a board game played between two players that simulates a war between two kingdoms. It is one of the most popular games in the world. Millions of people play it both recreationally and competitively.”

There are two different armies of pieces: black (dark) and white (light). Each army contains eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, a queen, and a king. The chessboard is divided into an eight-by-eight grid, making 64 light and dark squares in total. The rows are called ranks and columns are called files.

Why are Chess Skills Important?

Chess has a number of benefits for people of any age. According to Healthline, the nine main benefits of chess are: developing perspective, improving memory, deepening focus, elevating creativity, boosting planning skills, increasing self-awareness, protecting against dementia, helping ADHD, and reducing panic attack symptoms, among many others.

The Science Times lists even more benefits you can get from playing chess: helping in recovering from a stroke or a disability, enhancing reading skills, improving problem-solving skills, preventing Alzheimer’s, increasing IQ, stimulating brain growth, and much more!

What is My Experience with Chess?

I am an amateur when it comes to chess. Recently, I’ve started playing chess with my friends, @fabio and @suparn, who are really awesome at the game. I’m still learning, and this guide will help me get better at chess as well!

Besides that, I am a Guided Project Instructor and a Beta Tester at Coursera, having tested many courses before they’re officially launched. I have taken over 50 online courses in various subjects.

My experience as an online learner and teacher has given me some perspective on what to look for in an online course. I used my experience to evaluate each course in this list.

Course Ranking Methodology

I built this ranking following the now tried-and-tested methodology I used in previous rankings (you can find them all here). It involves a three-step process:

1. Research: I started by leveraging Class Central’s database with 100K online courses and 200K+ reviews. Then, I made a preliminary selection of 80+ Chess courses by rating, reviews, and bookmarks.
2. Evaluate: I read through reviews on Class Central, Reddit, and course providers to understand what other learners thought about each course and combined it with my own experience as a learner.
3. Select: Well-made courses were picked if they presented valuable and engaging content and they have to fit in a set of criteria and be ranked accordingly: comprehensive curriculum, release date, affordability, ratings and enrollments.

The end result is a unique selection of courses that combines a decade of Class Central data and my own experience as an online learner to try to get the best of both worlds. So far, I’ve spent more than 11 hours building this list, and I’ll continue to update it.

Course Ranking Statistics

Here are some statistics regarding this course ranking:

• Combined, these courses have accrued over 54.2K enrollments.
• 7 courses are free or free-to-audit and 3 courses are paid.
• The most-represented course provider in the ranking is Udemy, with 4 courses.
• All 10 courses are in English.
• The Chess subject is followed by over 2K learners on Class Central, and accounts for over 80 courses in Class Central catalog.

So without further ado, let’s get to my picks for the best Chess online courses.

My first pick for the best Chess online course is a collection of free chess lessons offered by Chess.com.

Chess.com is a leading chess platform. It not only lets you play chess online, it also teaches you how to play chess the right way. They have a rigorous collection of lessons and resources on their website, and you can even get personalized live video coaching! In short, Chess.com is your one-stop destination for all things chess.

What You’ll Learn

There are over 350 lessons in this course, but it’s best to start with the “Guide” tab, with 2 lessons for complete beginners, 5 fundamental lessons, 5 intermediate lessons, and 7 advanced lessons (all for beginners)

The main themes of the lessons are: openings, strategy, tactics, endgames, and master games. The lessons can be filtered by level, theme, and instructor.

How You’ll Learn

Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, interactive tutorials and reading instructions. The platform also provides over 500,000 puzzles, chess news, and you can play with other users and watch live matches.

Fun Facts

• Chess.com announced in August 2022 that Magnus Carlsen and the management at Play Magnus have accepted the offer to join Chess.com.
• Their aim is to grow the game of chess and make even more amazing experiences for chess fans and players around the world.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My second pick for the best Chess online course is Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess on MasterClass.

Do you dream of learning chess from a world champion? Then here’s your chance. Six-time world champion Garry Kasparov is here to share his chess strategies, theory, favorite openings and advanced tactics, so that you can become a stronger player. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn from a master!

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about Garry’s chess fundamentals, double attacks, skewers, discovered attacks, pins, deflection/attraction, interference, overload, winning trades, endgames, openings, simul, Jason’s game, Molly’s game, Dennis’ game, case studies on openings and endgame, Garry’s journey, how to analyze, computers and chess, mental toughness, closing, and secret novelty.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 29 video lessons. Each video lesson involves about 5 to 25 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• Kasparov is a chess grandmaster from Russia, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator.
• His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013.
• He holds the record for being the most ranked player No. 1 for 255 months overall for his career.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My third pick for the best Chess online course is a collection of free chess lessons offered by lichess.org.

Another leading chess platform, lichess.org, also teaches you how to play chess alongside practicing and playing online. It contains a wide variety of chess learning resources from tactics to checkmates and endgames, ranging from beginner to advanced level. You’ll learn all this using interactive online chess boards by trying the tactics on your own.

What You’ll Learn

There are 4 main resources in this course:

• Basics (complete beginner)
• Practice (intermediate)
• Study (advanced)
• Puzzles (all levels)

How You’ll Learn

The first module, Chess Basics, is a series of short interactive puzzles. Each session is divided into 6 parts that get increasingly more challenging.

The second module, Practice, is also interactive. You will learn by following the instructions (readings) to learn some common positions, mates, and endgames.

The Study mode is a series of tutorials that tracks each move in the board while giving written instructions so you understand how and why you play in a particular way.

Finally, the Puzzles are simply snippets of games where you can practice what you’ve learned to get the most material out of your opponent or perform a checkmate.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My fourth pick for the best Chess online course is the free course Chess University’s Intro To Chess Crash Course on Udemy.

Aimed towards beginners and first-time players, this course is for players of all ages whose chess strength is below 900 Elo (see here for more information on the Elo rating system). You’ll learn the rules and basics of chess, and move up to more advanced topics such as tactics and strategy. Plus, this course is completely free!

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn about the board and the pieces – kings and rooks, bishops and queens, knights and pawns, special rules, chess notations, winning and drawing, types of advantages, logical thinking, tactics, chess vocabulary, endgame checkmates, and phases of the game.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 2 sections. The first section consists of 30 video lectures and involves about 5 hours of work. The second section consists of puzzles. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, readings and practice puzzles. There are some in-video quizzes as well.

Fun Facts

• Five-time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand is a coach at Chess University.
• Kairav Joshi, one of the instructors, is the CEO of Chess University.
• Their courses are taught by FIDE-Master Dalton Perrine, FIDE-Master Arne Jochens, and International Master Kostya Kavutskiy.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My fifth pick for the best Chess online course is Understanding chess openings | How to play ANY opening well on Udemy.

As the name suggests, this course teaches you different kinds of chess openings. Openings consist of roughly the first ten moves, and you’ll know exactly what (and why) to do in those moves to secure your game. What’s more – you’ll also see how world champions have won against their opponents.

What You’ll Learn

Section 1: In this section, you’ll learn the three main rules of playing the opening and their crucial details, use your pawns, pieces and the king, and good places for your pieces.

Section 2: In this section, you’ll get a detailed analysis of four famous games, and learn ways to use the mistakes of your opponent as well as avoid them yourself.

Section 3: In this section, you’ll analyze another four famous games, learn the value of the rule, and explore ways to exploit your opponents’ failure to follow rules.

Section 4: In this course, you’ll get professional opinion about the most common openings, know your first ten moves against any opening, and receive some homework that would strengthen your understanding of opening principles.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 4 sections. Each section involves about 30 minutes to one hour of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and practice exercises.

Fun Facts

• Oleksiyenko started playing chess at the age of four.
• He has a Ph.D. in mathematics, and wants to implement his scientific background into chess.
• He is an international grandmaster and a chess champion of Ukraine, and has been teaching chess since 2012.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My sixth pick for the best Chess online course is The Complete Guide to Chess Tactics on Udemy.

This course aims to make you a strong chess tactician. Once you’ve completed this course, you’ll be in a much better position to create better chess combinations through the use of a wide range of patterns, and show your calculation ability in any game you play.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll get a fundamental understanding of chess tactics and combinations, make sure opportunities are not missed in calculation using weakness of last move, common squares and “in-effect”, and make use of the important tactical motifs like fork, deflection, decoy, pins, discovered checks.

You’ll also take a look at the downsides of the opponent’s position, use chess combinations to win by force, know the philosophies of great tactical examples, use inspirational calculation aids, understand the importance of the prioritization of forcing moves, and appreciate the examples of combinations from the world chess champions.

Next, you’ll use the default downside of the weak back rank, exploit your passed pawn potential through tactical means, use loose piece liabilities of the opponent, exploit king safety issues of the opponent, and detect tactical issues and “celebrate” them using the concept word of “down-sides”.

After that, you’ll understand the fundamentals of chess tactics such as forcing moves, checks, captures and threats of mate and limiting opponent options in general, match appropriate combinations with the downsides of the opponent’s position, and maximize the differential imposed between strengths of your position and opponent weaknesses.

You’ll also learn to play brilliant and beautiful chess combinations, detect if combinations exist using various approaches of detection and examples, finish off opponents quickly and get a new game in online tournaments, and play with very high accuracy sharp combinations.

Finally, you’ll recognise all the key mating patterns established through chess history, and practice all key tactical instruments which are part of combinations with multiple examples.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 14 sections. Each section involves about 1 to 4 hours of work. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos and practice puzzles.

Fun Facts

• Gavriel is a FIDE Candidate Master and British Regional Chess Master.
• He is popularly known as “Kingscrusher” on the internet, and runs a YouTube channel by the same name where he analyzes and teaches chess.
• Check out his website for more chess courses from him.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My seventh pick for the best Chess online course is the free course Kids Learn Chess the Fun & Easy Way! on Udemy.

Even though this course is made for kids, it can be taken by anyone – including you. The uniqueness of the course is that it teaches chess through animated videos. After taking this fun course, you’ll get up and running with chess and be able to play and beat most people who have no chess training. And it’s completely free!

What You’ll Learn

In course, you’ll learn the following:

• Play a legal game of chess
• Recognize checkmate
• Know some opening basics
• Spot the most common tactical tricks

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 1 section, and this section involves about 2.5 hours of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• Klein began playing chess at the age of four, and eventually became North Carolina’s youngest-ever master.
• He is a FIDE Master, and has taught chess full-time for 16 years.
• He works at ChessKid as the Director of Content.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My eighth pick for the best Chess online course is the free course Beginner to Chess Master, offered by ChessNetwork on YouTube.

Learn all you need to know about chess to become a chess master from a beginner. It is recommended that you already know the rules of chess before taking this course. Even though there are 28 videos in this playlist at the moment, the instructor plans to add more videos to it. So you can expect to get more from this course if you stick around.

What You’ll Learn

In this course, you’ll learn how to checkmate with king and queen, the relative value of chess pieces, a scientific approach to understanding chess, chess terminology, chess opening, checkmate in four moves (scholar’s mate), checkmate with king and rook, promote a pawn, and the element of time in chess.

You’ll also get an introduction to chess thinking, and learn what chess holes are, the power of the pin, target practice, queen vs. pawn endgame, wrong colored bishop, king entering the box, the lucena position (the shield), the philidor position (cut-off king), 7th rank pawn and 6th rank pawn (Vančura defense).

Finally, you’ll end the course by learning what good and bad bishops are, basic checkmate patterns, how your tactical awareness is, and stopping before chopping.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 28 videos. Each video involves about 5 minutes to 2.5 hours of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• The instructor is a self-taught National Master in chess from Pennsylvania.
• He learned to play from his father in 1988 at the age of eight.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My ninth pick for the best Chess online course is the free course Chess course from beginner to master level, offered by NM Robert Ramirez on YouTube.

This is the most comprehensive chess course on this list for beginners with 104 videos. You’ll learn every chess concept in detail, from openings and endgames to chess theory and puzzles, and become a better chess player with every lesson. And you get all of this for free. So get ready for some serious chess lessons!

What You’ll Learn

Here are the broad concepts you’ll learn throughout this course:

Fundamentals: You’ll learn how to organize your board, understand how the pieces move and capture, perform a checkmate, and end with a practical example.

Chess Tactics: You’ll learn how to perform forks with your knight, pins and skewers, and understand decoy vs. deflection techniques by solving exercises.

Special moves: You’ll learn about promotion, castling, and en-passant.

Checkmates: You’ll learn about checkmates in one move, one rook and king checkmate, and four move checkmates.

Openings: You’ll learn the three principles of openings, the Ruy Lopez Opening, the Petrov Defense (Russian Defense), the Queen’s Gambit, the Czech Pirc Defense, King’s Indian Attack, and much more.

Chess openings in practice: You’ll take a look at various games analyses of different openings in practice and how to defend against each.

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 104 videos. Each video involves about 10 to 50 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

Fun Facts

• Ramirez is a professional chess player with over 8 years of teaching experience.
• He was introduced to the world of chess at the age of five, and has earned his National Master title from the United States Chess Federation.
• He teaches chess on his website, and also at several private schools.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.

My tenth pick for the best Chess online course is the free course Everything You Need to Know About Chess, offered by Chess.com on YouTube.

Created first in 2011, this free old school playlist is still pretty much as helpful to learn chess today as it was a decade back. Consisting of only five videos, this course is enough to get you started and learn all about chess openings, tactics and strategies, and endgames. This is indeed the “one chess lesson of their life”, as Chess.com puts it.

What You’ll Learn

In course, you’ll learn the following:

• The opening
• Tactics and strategy
• The endgame

How You’ll Learn

The course is broken down into 5 videos. Each video involves about 15 to 20 minutes of work. Concepts are taught through video lectures only.

If you’re interested in this course, you can find more information about the course and how to enroll here.