Sideline, Gambit and Refutation Courses (Alekhine, Philidor, Dutch, Larsen and More)

For a sideline, buy the shortest course that lists the lines you expect to meet, and check the side first: several of the sideline products we found are for playing against the opening, not playing it. The most thoroughly documented set we found is ChessMood's four course pages for the Alekhine, Philidor, Larsen and Nimzowitsch (USD 50 to 200 each, all listed at 1800 to 2600). For playing the Dutch as Black, ChessBase has the most titles we counted: its Dutch listing page shows 11, three of them one-hour micro-courses (judged from their product links).

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Test depth: Public information only. Nobody at ChessCourseFinder has taken any of these courses. Facts below come from seller pages read on 8 November 2026 or from search listings, labelled as such.

Why these openings share one page

Each of these openings has too few courses to support its own page. We counted 8 distinct paid courses for the Alekhine (3 page-read), 11 for the Philidor (6), 16 for the Dutch (9), 8 for Larsen's 1.b3 (4), and only 1 dedicated course for the Nimzowitsch Defense (1.e4 Nc6), at ChessMood. Counts are lower bounds for Chessable, Modern Chess and TheChessWorld, and ChessBase "60 Minutes" micro-courses (EUR 9.90, about an hour) are included, so full-length courses are fewer.

For the King's Gambit we have a separate, fuller treatment; see the King's Gambit courses page.

Selection criteria

We kept products where a page states the author, side, price and some content. We separated "play this opening" courses from "beat this opening" courses, because the buyer's decision depends on the side. We then looked at hours, price and date.

Do you need a course for a sideline at your level?

Usually not, on our judgement rather than measured evidence, and coaches commonly say opening study is a poor use of time at lower ratings (received wisdom, not a measured result). The plans in these openings can often be seen in a handful of model games. A course makes sense for one of two reasons: you have decided to play the opening every game, or you keep meeting it and losing. Free route: Lichess has no paid tier, so you can keep your own sideline lines in a Lichess study, and it is worth checking the free Chessable courses for a sideline title before paying for one.

Theory load at club level

Low to moderate for most of these, with the Dutch likely the heaviest (a judgement from the number of Dutch products, not a measurement). Rare defences have fewer main lines than the Sicilian or the Ruy Lopez, but if you meet them rarely, a long course may be hard to keep fresh. Gambits (Stafford, Latvian, Elephant, Colorado) are sharp, forcing openings, and ChessMood's course titles call its versions "The Refutation" and list them under its White repertoire category, so they are written for the player who faces the gambit with White.

What ChessMood's pages list

All four are listed at 1800 to 2600 by the seller, with no rating system named and no course date on the pages. "Course-only" is the standalone price on the page (shown as "$", no currency code); the courses are also included in a ChessMood subscription.

The catalogue also lists four short "The Refutation" courses, each 1800 to 2600: Latvian Gambit (36m), Elephant Gambit (50m), Stafford Gambit (48m) and Colorado Gambit (49m). We did not open those pages, so their prices and contents are unconfirmed. Calculated from the pages we read: the Alekhine course is about USD 53 per listed hour at the course-only price; the Philidor about USD 36; the Larsen about USD 61; and the Nimzowitsch about USD 56.

A broader route to part of the same ground, though at USD 250 course-only it costs more than any of the four stand-alone prices above: ChessMood's WhiteMood Openings (USD 250 course-only, 7h 41m, listed 800 to 2000) has sections of 6 episodes on the Alekhine, 4 on the Nimzowitsch, 11 on the Philidor and 8 on the Owen Defense, plus gambit sections (Stafford 6, Latvian 5, Elephant 8, Albin-Blackburne 5, Colorado 4, Busch-Gass 3) and a "Rubbish moves" section. Only the introduction and the Scotch section are marked unlocked, so none of these sections is. BlackMood has 7 sections on the Dutch for the Black player. See the ChessMood review and pricing page for plan costs, or ChessMood's course pages.

What other sellers list

Prices are listed prices as of 8 November 2026. Confirm on the seller's page before paying.

TheChessWorld lists Alekhine, Philidor (Hanham), Benko and Scandinavian crash courses inside its "Opening Vault" product, and a Leningrad Dutch course, in search listings only, with no individual prices; see TheChessWorld for the current catalogue. There are also gambit courses for Black on ChessBase (for example a 60-minute Stafford Gambit course by Robert Ris at EUR 9.90).

Nimzowitsch Defense: one course only

For 1.e4 Nc6, ChessMood's 54-minute course is the only dedicated product we found. Our searches of Chessable (a blog guide only), ChessBase, TheChessWorld and Udemy turned up nothing dedicated to it. Multi-opening Modern Chess courses mention it among sidelines; one snippet attributes a EUR 129, 67-article sidelines course to Jobava and Basso, but we could not confirm that listing, so we do not rely on it. One course is not a market to compare.

Who should skip a sideline course

Skip it if you are under about 1400 (a coaching convention, not a measured result), if you want a repertoire to rely on every game (see complete Black and White repertoire courses), or if your aim is low maintenance (see low-theory repertoire courses).

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• ChessMood's four defence courses are all "beat this opening" products for the opponent's side; no ChessMood course in this list teaches you to play the Alekhine, Philidor or Nimzowitsch as Black.
• The Philidor course lists a section called "Destroying Gambits" and an advanced section named "The Strong Novelty", but gives no detail on either.
• WhiteMood, listed at 800 to 2000, also has Alekhine, Nimzowitsch and Philidor sections, while the stand-alone courses are listed at 1800 to 2600. The pages do not say how the content differs, and only the stand-alone pages' unlocked lessons (5 to 11 per course) let you sample the teaching.
• Per-hour prices for ChessMood's course-only versions run from about USD 36 to USD 61 (calculated from listed price and length), against roughly EUR 4 to 5 per listed hour for several ChessBase courses on our other opening pages. Currencies, openings and course types differ, and ChessMood courses are also included in a subscription.

See how to choose a chess course, the price-per-hour calculator, the ChessBase FritzTrainer review, the Modern Chess review and all opening pages.