ChessMood vs Modern Chess

Choose ChessMood if you want many topics for one yearly fee, can use most of it and want a refund window on your first subscription. Choose Modern Chess if you have already picked a specific opening and are happy to buy it in parts, or if you want its monthly live Academy, and accept that its terms make all sales final. Both sell in more than one way, so the real comparison is the cost of the route you would take for one study goal, which is calculated below.

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Test depth: Public information only. Nobody at ChessCourseFinder has taken a course from either seller or used either paid plan. This page is based on published documentation, pricing and reports read on 8 November 2026. How we review explains the limits.

The axis: two ways to buy at each seller

ChessMood sells plans and also single courses; our pricing page holds the plan detail, and the headline is Essential at $948 a year as of 8 November 2026. Its single courses were $250 to $600 on the four pages we read. Modern Chess describes online courses, an academy, event courses, bundles, opening content and a magazine, and the course pages we read show per-course prices in euros. Its Academy sells access month by month and is compared separately below.

Our Modern Chess review covers its pages in more depth.

Matched goal 1: a White repertoire

All figures are list prices from pages read on 8 November 2026, with cost per hour calculated from listed running times. Currencies are kept apart, and the two repertoires are different openings.

The Part 1 page lists Part 2 separately at 99.00 EUR and 4h 21m (July 2026), so 99 EUR buys Part 1 only: both parts would be 198 EUR for about 9h 13m, around 21.48 EUR per listed hour (calculated). The $948 row is a reminder that the plan makes sense only if you use several courses; the ChessMood review shows a 50-hour path at about $19 per listed hour.

Matched goal 2: a Black defence, and the series problem

Modern Chess's Caro-Kann According to Dreev, Part 1 costs 79.00 EUR for 6h 26m of video, about 12.28 EUR per listed hour; it is a repertoire for Black against the Advance Variation only. ChessMood's BlackMood Openings runs 4h 43m and costs $250 alone, about $53 per listed hour, but it answers 1.e4 with the French and 1.d4 with a Dutch set-up, so the two courses do not teach the same opening.

Part 1 is not a whole repertoire. Parts 2 and 3 are also 79.00 EUR each, as our Dreev course page records from their own pages, and they hold the Two Knights, Exchange, Panov, Fantasy and Classical lines. The trilogy is 237.00 EUR for 17h 16m, about 13.73 EUR per listed hour, or 225.15 EUR if the extra 5% series discount applies (calculated). A further course on beating the Advance runs 6h 6m. For a shorter route, the same authors' Caro-Kann Express for Black is 99.00 EUR for 2h 12m, about 45 EUR per listed hour but a smaller total.

Matched goal 3: a repertoire for both colours

If you want a full repertoire for White and Black, the two sellers offer very different amounts of material for the money. List prices are from 8 November 2026, and totals and per-hour figures are calculated.

Cheaper per hour is not the same as better for you, because the Modern Chess route is more than twice as long. Going by lesson titles, WhiteMood stays off many main lines and answers the Sicilian with the Grand Prix Attack, while the Dreev Part 3 chapter list goes into both 4...Nf6 and 4...Bf5 after 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4. The London Part 1 leaves Black's ...Qb6 lines to Part 2, so that opening is a two-part purchase. Coaches commonly advise club players to prefer a shorter repertoire built on plans, which is received wisdom and not a measured result. In our view, a player below about 1500 would need a clear reason to take on 26 hours of opening video.

The Modern Chess Academy against ChessMood Pro

The Academy is closest to ChessMood's Pro tier, because both advertise live sessions with strong coaches. Prices are as shown on 8 November 2026 on the Academy page and ChessMood's pricing page, and currencies are kept apart.

Calculated from those prices, six months works out at about 58.17 EUR a month, against 79.00 EUR bought singly. If 12 lectures a month holds, that is about 4.85 EUR a lecture on the six-month plan and about 6.58 EUR on one month. Two consecutive six-month purchases would be 698.00 EUR at today's price, which is an assumption about future pricing.

Before treating 79 EUR as the price, check four things:

• The crossed-out price looks like a standing one. The September 2025 and March 2025 pages also show 150.00 EUR crossed out, then 99.00 EUR, with six months at 449.00 EUR. We saw no date on which the list price applied. An "Ends in" countdown appeared at the top of every Modern Chess page we opened, including its terms page.
• The page contradicts itself. Its FAQ says "One month is 1.00 EUR", while the buying box says 79.00 EUR. Check the amount in your cart.
• Live sessions are timed for Europe. The September 2025 lectures were listed at 17:30 Paris and 11:30 New York. Recordings are included, so a missed lecture is not lost, but you would be watching it, not joining it.
• What happens when you stop is not stated. The page says material is organised month by month, and we did not see how long access to a past month lasts.

The page's testimonials carry ratings from 1736 to 2219 with no rating system named, which hints at the audience but is not a stated level, and testimonials are not evidence of results.

Refunds are the biggest practical difference

ChessMood gives you a way back on a first subscription and Modern Chess does not. Modern Chess's terms, last updated 29 December 2025, say "all sales are final and non-refundable once access to digital content has been provided", citing Article 16(m) of EU Directive 2011/83/EU. They rule out refunds for lack of use, change of mind, perceived difficulty or dissatisfaction after access. ChessMood's refund policy gives 30 days from the first payment, and it is written about membership plans, so we could not confirm a refund on a standalone ChessMood course.

That changes how to buy. At Modern Chess the free preview is the only test you get, so play through the sample chapter and check its level before paying. At ChessMood, use the first section of a course on the free Basic tier, then the 7-day Essential trial.

Level and ceilings

ChessMood's foundation courses mostly list 800 to 2000 and many advanced ones list 1800 to 2600, in a rating system the pages do not name. Modern Chess's two pages give no range, so level has to be judged from the description and any preview. In a Chess.com forum thread as we read it earlier on 8 November 2026 (the site refused automated access on recheck, so we could not re-confirm), one user said ChessMood suits players aiming for about 2000 and another found the yearly price high. These are forum opinions. We found no independent opinion on either Modern Chess course.

Which to choose

• Several skills this year (tactics, endgames, blunders, a repertoire): ChessMood, starting from the free Basic tier.
• One opening you have already chosen: Modern Chess, once you have added every part and tried the free preview. Check our opening pages, for example London System courses and Caro-Kann courses.
• Live lectures with GMs at a lower commitment: one Academy month, which costs less than a ChessMood Pro year but cannot be refunded, or ChessMood Pro if the 30-day window matters more to you.
• A cheaper first step: compare both against Chessable and ChessBase; see Chessable vs ChessMood and ChessMood vs Chessly.

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• Part 1 is not the course. The Dreev Caro-Kann series has at least four related items, and the page's own "three-part" label undercounts them.
• A cheaper part can mean a dearer total. The ChessMood subscription may be cheaper per hour than a series of 79 to 99 EUR parts if you would watch several courses, and dearer if you would watch one.
• Update dates are thin. Modern Chess gives a publication date but no update date on either page, while ChessMood's four pages give none.
• Neither seller states how long access to a purchased course lasts on the pages we read. Modern Chess's terms do say content can be "fully accessed, viewed, and downloaded" on purchase.
• The refund promise does not cover everything at either seller. Modern Chess has none once access starts, and ChessMood's is limited to a first subscription; see the money-back guarantee guide.

Who should skip each

Skip ChessMood if you want one course, study irregularly, or cannot commit $948. Skip Modern Chess if you want a stated level or any chance of a refund. Below about 800 we would try free material first (our view, not a measured result).

The free resources that cover similar ground

Lichess Practice and Studies cover checkmates, basic tactics and endgames at no cost, and Lichess Studies are user-created collections that can hold opening material. Links to ChessMood may become affiliate links, and Modern Chess is linked without one. More pairings: ChessMood vs Remote Chess Academy, TCW Academy vs ChessMood, and all comparisons.