Best Chess Video Courses by Grandmasters

ChessMood's homepage names eight grandmasters as coaches and the course pages we read name two of them, while Chessable, ChessBase, Modern Chess and Next Level Chess each sell individual grandmaster-presented courses with listed lengths and prices. A grandmaster's name tells you the presenter's playing strength, not the course's level fit or teaching, so use the table below to match length, stated level and price to your gap. Nobody here has taken any of these courses.

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This page is built from seller pages read on 8 November 2026. It compares presenter, length, price and date across sellers; the "fit on paper" column is a reading of those pages, not a verdict from use. How we review explains the limits.

What a grandmaster title does and does not tell you

A grandmaster title certifies playing strength, and FIDE awards separate trainer titles for teaching, set out in its trainer regulations. Neither tells you whether a course suits your level. On the Lichess side, a commenter in a forum thread argued a grandmaster video will rarely diagnose your own recurring errors; the author of a Chess.com thread argued that free material may not keep pace as you improve. Both are opinions. The practical checks are the stated level, the length and a free preview.

Teaching has its own ladder. FIDE's trainer regulations run from Developmental Instructor (typically players rated up to 1200) through National Instructor (1201 to 1700) and FIDE Instructor (1701 to 2200) to FIDE Trainer (typically over 2200) and Senior Trainer. The presenter column below shows playing titles only, because that is what the listings gave us, so a GM label tells you nothing either way about teaching credentials.

Grandmaster-presented video courses, side by side

Prices are as of 8 November 2026, in the seller's currency, and not converted. Chessable lists a base price (training with part of the video) and a higher price with full video; the length shown is the full video.

Individual pages: ChessMood, Chessable, ChessBase, Modern Chess and Next Level Chess.

The name on the cover is not always the voice on the video

Chessable can list a book's author and the video presenter separately, so check both. If you are buying a course for one person's teaching, this is the row to read.

The two de la Villa courses show why it matters: the same author's name sits above a grandmaster on one video and an international master on the other. A lower title on camera is no reason to rule a course out. It is a reason to watch a sample of the person you will actually be listening to.

When a grandmaster's course is too much course

Size is the plainest warning, since a stated level is often missing. Giri's Najdorf lists 866 variations and 24h 18m of video and states no level. At 10 new variations a day, that is about 87 days before you have seen the whole repertoire once (calculated), with review on top.

Coaches disagree about who should buy repertoires of that depth. GM Noël Studer, in a Next Level Chess article that carries no date in the text we read, recommends Shankland's and Giri's opening courses for quality but says "I would stay far away if you aren't 2300+ FIDE". That is one coach's opinion, and Studer sells courses and is listed as a ChessMood coach. Treat 2300 as a strong warning from one source and not a rule, then compare the variation count with the time you have.

How to judge the teaching from a free look

A free section is the only way to test teaching before paying, and what you get varies by seller.

Use whatever you get to answer these six questions:

1. Does the presenter say why a move is played, or only which move?
2. Are you asked to find the move before it is shown?
3. Are the example games at a level you can follow without pausing every move?
4. Is the free part typical, or only an introduction?
5. Can you follow the speech at normal speed?
6. Do you want to do the next lesson? If not, a famous presenter will not fix that.

Famous names on other lists

Two well-known offers appear on other lists that we could not document to the standard of the table. Garry Kasparov's MasterClass is described by SkillScouter, a site with a commission disclaimer, as 29 modules and just over 7 hours, marked "Beginner to Advanced level"; we did not read MasterClass's page. A StackSocial listing for iChess Vault says it holds instruction from "Top Players Like Simon Williams, Susan Polgar", with a claimed 1,500 hours for $399 as of 8 November 2026. A famous name in a bundle does not tell you who teaches the part you would use.

Where the presenter is hard to see

ChessMood's catalogue index lists title, rating range and length without naming a coach, so the names below come from the course pages: GM Avetik Grigoryan on five courses in the table and GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan on Must-Know Endgame Theory. Its homepage names eight grandmasters (Grigoryan, Laurent Fressinet, Hovhannes Gabuzyan, Varuzhan Akobian, Bassem Amin, Noel Studer, Boris Avrukh and Pepe Cuenca) as coaches, but we could not tie most catalogue courses to a coach. Chess.com's lessons library shows instructors including GMs, FMs and Chess.com staff, for example GM Simon Williams and GM Jan Gustafsson on two courses on the first page, included with Gold or higher membership; no price was readable.

Sellers we could not document

Two sellers list grandmaster-taught courses that we could not verify to the same standard. Remote Chess Academy sells courses by GM Igor Smirnov; our single readable page for "3 Steps to 2000 ELO" states no hours, and RCA's terms give a 15-day refund on single products. TheChessWorld listings in search results include courses attributed to GM Pavel Eljanov ($99.00 for Parts 1-2 of a Caro-Kann course), GM Marian Petrov, GM Damian Lemos and GM Ron Henley, but we could not open the pages. See their reviews: RCA and TCW.

Which to choose

• Several skills from named grandmasters, one fee: ChessMood, after the free Basic tier. See best subscriptions.
• One topic you want drilled: Chessable; compare the base and video prices.
• One topic from a single author, kept as a download: ChessBase or Modern Chess, once you have added every part you need. Modern Chess says all sales are final, so finish with its preview first.
• Cheapest per listed hour: see cheapest chess courses.
• The overall comparison by rating band: best chess courses.

Who should skip a grandmaster course

Skip it if you cannot yet say what your games' recurring errors are, if the course's stated level is far above yours, or if you want feedback on your own games, which a recorded course cannot give. A coach versus course comparison covers that choice.

The free resources that cover similar ground

Lichess Practice and Studies are free, and a list of chess YouTube channels for improvers shows free grandmaster video. What you give up is sequencing and a defined syllabus. The wider buying decision is in how to choose a chess course.