ChessMood WhiteMood and BlackMood Repertoire Review

WhiteMood and BlackMood are ChessMood's two Starter repertoire courses. WhiteMood (7h 41m) is a 1.e4 repertoire built on the Scotch Game, BlackMood (4h 43m) answers 1.e4 with the French and 1.d4 with a Dutch set-up reached through 1...e6, and each costs $250 alone as of 8 November 2026. On paper they are a plan-led, low-theory starting point that deliberately avoids main lines, which is their appeal and their limit.

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

This review has no star score. Fit, price and limits are set out instead, and how reviews are made is public.

What each course is

Both course pages were readable on 8 November 2026, and they list the following.

No page shows a publication or update date, so the review dates are only a floor for each course's age. The WhiteMood text says it is for players "with up to 2000 online rating" without naming a site, and the BlackMood text promises what you need for "fighting below 2,000 level opponents".

These are the "Starter" courses. The catalogue also lists longer "WhiteMood - Model Games" and "BlackMood - Model Games" courses, which this page does not cover; the White one shows 15h 59m and $50 alone. WhiteMood's text says deeper courses on each opening follow, such as Attack with Scotch Game, listed at 1800-2600, 10h 29m and $400 alone.

What WhiteMood plays against each reply

The lesson titles show that WhiteMood mixes main ideas with practical sidelines, and its Sicilian answer is not an Open Sicilian. Timings are ChessMood's; the summary of what White plays comes from lesson titles, and we have not seen inside locked lessons.

A 1.e4 repertoire needs an answer to every reply, and this list has one. What it does not have is equal depth. Calculated from these timings, the seven gambit sections together get more video than the Sicilian (1h 8m 38s against 50m 18s), and the Caro-Kann has 8 puzzles against 49 for the Scotch. Whether that balance suits you depends on what your opponents play. One four-star student review (July 2025, self-described as 1900 USCF) says the Caro-Kann section covers ...e6 but skips ...Nf6 at a point where that reviewer considers ...Nf6 the main move. That is one reader's complaint, which we have not checked. We did not check any lines for chess accuracy.

What BlackMood plays

The seller's pitch is that two openings answer everything: "We'll play French (1.e4 e6) and Dutch attacks (1.d4 e6 with f5 next)!" The lesson list shows how, and calculated from the section timings, the French gets 2h 11m 23s and the Dutch 1h 46m 30s.

Against 1.e4, French only. There are sections on 3.e5, 3.exd5, 3.Nc3, 3.Nd2, 3.Bd3 and rare systems including the Two Knights, 2.c4, 2.Qe2 and the King's Indian Attack. The recommendations are deliberately unusual: a lesson titled "Kd7!! - French Attack in action", "Our tricky variation with 3...Nc6" against the Tarrasch, and the McCutcheon named against 3.Nc3. The seller says directly that "we're not going to main variations".

Against 1.d4, a Dutch via 1...e6. Lessons cover the London, "Normal development", the Stonewall (played "only against g3", per one title), the Torre, the Colle, the Veresov, and delayed Staunton (3.e4) and Krejcik (3.g4) gambits.

Against everything else, a few minutes each. The English, Reti, 1.g3, Grob, Larsen, Sokolsky and Bird get 25m 16s in total, with no puzzles.

BlackMood is also the more criticised of the two on ChessMood's own site. Of the reviews embedded on the page, 129 of 145 give five stars and 16 give fewer; on WhiteMood's page, 103 of 105 give five stars. BlackMood's single two-star entry is just a question about where to find the Caro-Kann, so it is not really a criticism. Among the critical ones:

• A three-star review from December 2023 likes the low-theory approach but doubts the French lines, and argues that a move the course calls "very bad" (5.c4 after 3.e5 Bd7 4.Nf3 a6) is an engine's top choice.
• A three-star review from March 2026 asks about a 3.Nd2 Nc6 position it says is not covered.
• A four-star review from May 2022 calls the coverage minimal in several variations, naming the King's Indian Attack and the Dutch against the Torre, Colle, Zukertort and London.

These are individual comments we have not verified, and the engine claim is the reviewer's. The pattern is still worth noticing, because a short course that stays off the main lines will have gaps.

Theory load

Both courses are built to keep memorisation low, and the seller says so. WhiteMood's page calls itself "a simplified version of ChessMood openings" with "very little theory to remember". BlackMood says it "doesn't require memorization of long variations". ChessMood's study plan for 1000-1500 players says: "Just don't try to memorize everything in the courses."

That fits conventional coaching advice, which is to learn plans and typical positions before long lines. It is received wisdom, not a measured result. The limit is the other side of the same choice: offbeat lines tend to rely on surprise, and how they hold up against opponents who know them is exactly what the page cannot show. A student review from February 2026 asks for more Stonewall ideas "against stronger opponent". If you expect to play in rated events above about 1800, treat these as a starter rather than a final repertoire. BlackMood's free introduction includes a lesson titled "Are these openings lifetime?" (1m 13s), which is worth watching for exactly this reason.

How to study them, using ChessMood's own order

The same study plan gives a practical sequence. It says to spend more time on the first WhiteMood section, which we read as the Scotch since the numbered Section 1 is the introduction, because at that level "Most of your opponents" answer 1.e4 with 1...e5. That is the seller's claim. It then suggests watching up to section 9 (the Caro-Kann), switching to BlackMood, and coming back for section 10 onwards.

Calculated from section timings, the first part is 5h 36m of WhiteMood. That leaves 2h 5m of rarer replies and gambits for later, and these are the sections you could skip for a while if your opponents do not play them.

Price

Each is $250 alone as of 8 November 2026, with no sale price seen. Calculated from listed figures:

• WhiteMood: $250 over 7.68 hours is about $33 per listed video hour.
• BlackMood: $250 over 4.72 hours is about $53 per listed video hour.
• Both: $500 for 12h 24m, or about $40 per listed video hour.

Before paying $500 for the pair, compare it with the plans on our ChessMood pricing page, which also explains the refund terms.

Who it suits and who should skip it

They suit a player rated roughly 800-1800 (the seller's label says 800-2000) who wants a complete, fun, teacher-led system for both colours and does not want to study theory yet. Skip them if:

• You play 1.d4 as White, or want something other than the French against 1.e4. Compare White repertoire courses and Black repertoire courses.
• You want a main-line Scotch or French. See Scotch Game courses and French Defense courses.
• You want a main-line Sicilian as White. Going by its lesson titles, the section is built on the Grand Prix.
• You want to drill lines with a trainable-variation count in front of you. Chessable pages show counts: Liem's London System, for example, lists 208 variations and 13h 55m of video.
• You only need the short version. ChessFox sells a simplified course based on this repertoire, which it says was made with GM Grigoryan's permission: about 2.5 hours of video plus a Lichess study at $39, as of 8 November 2026. We have not seen inside it.

The free resource that covers similar ground

Lichess is free, and its studies include community-made opening collections. See Lichess studies and practice. The quality varies by author, which is what a paid course tries to control. ChessMood's free preview sections are the better test of these two specific courses, because you can see the teaching and the recommended lines directly. For another seller's approach, see ChessMood vs Remote Chess Academy, and for the wider library the ChessMood review.

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• The free previews are large and tell you most of what you need. WhiteMood unlocks the Introduction and the whole Scotch section (26 lessons, 49 of 269 puzzles, about 18%). BlackMood unlocks the Introduction, the French introduction and the section on 3.e5 (24 lessons, 21 of 135 puzzles, about 16%), so you can see the French idea before paying, but none of the Dutch.
• What White plays against the Caro-Kann is not named in the lesson titles.
• No update date, so theory freshness is unknown beyond the oldest review dates above.
• No trainable-line count and no per-course refund terms were on either page.
• How strong the opposition can be before these lines stop working is not addressed.