Free Chess Courses to Boost Your Opening Knowledge!

Many chess players struggle to find free yet high-quality opening resources. If you've reached a point where the ten-minute YouTube videos leave you hungry for more, read on. In this blog, I'll share an underappreciated resource for learning chess openings: Chessable's Short and Sweets.

What is a Short and Sweet?

Short and Sweets are free Chessable opening courses which are a preview of a larger paid one. They usually have 10-30 variations annotated by the author, sometimes with an hour or two of video explanations. No matter what opening you play, there is a Short and Sweet out there for you. The Hippo, Van Geet (1. Nc3!?), and Pseudo-Trompowsky (1. d4 d5 2. Bg5!?) all have Short and Sweets for you to explore. One of these courses even shows you what to do against the Sodium Attack!

Why choose these courses?

There are some benefits to choosing one of these courses instead of getting your opening knowledge from another source.

• It's free! Unlike books, paid DVDs, etc. all of these courses are completely free.
• It's convenient. Many players do all their opening work themselves to 'blaze their own trail'. While this is fine, picking and choosing lines can be confusing, difficult, or time-consuming. In Short and Sweets, it's chosen out for you, and you just have to study it.
• It provides more extensive coverage than you'd find in a YouTube video by someone like GothamChess or Hanging Pawns.
• The vast majority of authors are titled players! So they're pretty good at chess, and they do know what they're doing.

What to Look For

In my experience, some Short and Sweets are sweeter than others! Many of them have only ten lines, which in my opinion is not enough. Some have even fewer . Some of these courses have annoying little blurbs at the end of each variation, not-so-subtly prompting you to purchase the main course. The most annoying trend is for authors to choose random 20-move Stockfishy lines that we will never see in a real game.

Below, I'll write about Short and Sweets which actually work as a cohesive mini-repertoire. The authors pick out responses to the most critical and popular lines, so you will actually use it in your games. You may be shocked to know that I'm not sponsored by Chessable, so I will highlight some negatives as well.

#1 - e4 Repertoires

Some guy once said, "e4, best by test". Here's some great courses for the e4 fans out there (like me).

GothamChess e4: Levy Rozman has become a big name in the chess scene for his YouTube channel. But is his e4 course any good?

His course is relatively short, with just 15 lines. While I do love Levy's instruction, 30 minutes of video isn't enough for all the material there is to cover. In terms of lines, he gives the Fantasy Caro, Milner-Barry against the French, 2. Nc3 against the Sicilian, and the Italian (with a small Ponziani distraction, but stay focused).

I think this is a good course overall, I'd recommend it to those who are fine with a bit less content or those who like GothamChess.

Logozar's e4: I really like this course. Logozar provides a great e4 repertoire in 68 lines. He writes (and I paraphrase) that "This is the course I'd send to a master-strength player if they wanted to play 1.e4 tomorrow but had no time to learn all the theory". Of course, for masters, 68 lines is very little theory, but for us it's very comprehensive.

He goes for mostly mainlines, which is a big plus. I'd recommend this one over the others because it's more extensive and the lines he suggests are both fun and strong. Below are a sample of the variations he goes for.

Banzea's e4: The longest free e4 course I could find. It has a generous 90 lines! However, Banzea only chooses sidelines in every single opening. Some of them are quite odd/rare too, like the Schlechter French (1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Bd3!?), the Chekhover (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Qxd4!?) and the Westerinen Attack (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3!?). He also goes for the Vienna in e4 e5. This works if you enjoy playing sidelines to catch your opponent off-guard. However, I wouldn't recommend it over the others.

#2 - d4 Repertoires

I've played 1.e4 as long as I've played chess, but I do love 1.d4 too. I don't see why it must be either this or that. Why not both?

Shankland d4: This is the bible for 1. d4 players. Shankland's repertoire is ambitious, comprehensive and strong. It has nearly sixty lines and lots of video explanations. Shankland chooses mostly mainlines for his repertoire and covers Black's critical responses more than sufficiently.

However, in my opinion, this is quite a difficult course to work through. Shankland doesn't aim for simplicity in this course, and at many times I feel he's careening in the opposite direction. I also find his annotations are sometimes too succinct. Shankland presumes his target audience can fill in the gaps.

This is a very, very good course, don't get me wrong. However, I'd only recommend it to advanced d4 players. Below is a course which I think is also great and easier to digest.

Barrish d4: The course I'd recommend to an intermediate 1. d4 player. I love Barrish's explanations, they are clear and logical. I also like the lines. At the repertoire's heart is the legendary Exchange QGD, the weapon of many World Champions. His other choices include the Reshevesky against the Nimzo-Indian, 3. e4 against the QGA, the Exchange Slav (which is more than a boring draw offer), 2. Bg5!? against the Dutch (one of my favourite variations!) and the Anti-Grunfeld with 3. f3. 

GermanMC's d4: The last course I will speak about was made by a 2000 USCF player under the pseudonym of GermanMC. Unfortunately I don't have many good things to say about this course and I cannot recommend it. There is no video instruction and the author's explanations leave a bit to be desired.

People who are first learning openings (especially club players) need explanations over lines. While GermanMC provides a lot of lines, he doesn't offer a high level of instruction. The above free courses are better.

#3 - Anti-e4 Repertoire

...because sometimes our opponent gets to play the first move!

Two Knights Defense: This course covers the Two Knights Defense, and a lot of it is dedicated to the Polerio. The Polerio is a gambit against the Fried Liver that leads to fun attacking games. It's a very fun course to work though. The course includes 27 model games and thematic tactics taken from master games!

Aside from the Polerio, the course also covers a modern, somewhat crazy idea of meeting the Giuoco Pianissimo with the plan of playing h6 and g5! Check out the 4. d3 h6 chapter in the course if you're interested.

I must warn you, the lines are long, concrete and sometimes forcing. This course is not for the faint of heart or the weak of memory. But if you do get through it, you will be rewarded for elite theoretical knowledge compared to your peers (probably) and you will have many great wins against your bamboozled opponents.

Anton Teaches e4 e5: Another 1...e5 course, but this one is less chaotic than the Two Knights course. Don't worry, you can play them both if you swap out Anton's Greco and Evans lines with the Polerio. At least you'll be able to use the centerpiece of the repertoire, the Open Ruy Lopez. The Open is an S-Tier opening that packs surprise value. This is a very rare combination of characteristics! The Open had an improvement to its theoretical reputation at top level relatively recently, and I suppose this knowledge has taken some time to trickle down to us mortals. My advice: play the Open before it becomes cool, and one day you'll tell people you played the Open before it was cool.

Anton’s video instruction is easy to follow. He chooses numerous long lines in his course, but I have no trouble remembering them as they were all explained so well. And yes, I do use this course. I combine it with the Two Knights course mentioned earlier. I make my many middlegame blunders secure in the knowledge that my opening play was (relatively) strong.

Giri's Najdorf: Beginner and intermediate players are often recommended not to play the Sicilian. (I don't agree, though I admit this advice has a grain of truth to it.) If you're going to play the Sicilian anyway, why settle for playing any Sicilian... when you could play the big kahuna of Sicilians? Of course, I'm talking about the legendary Najdorf Variation. The author of this course is Anish Giri, who knows a thing or two about the Najdorf!

Going through the course and video, you will appreciate the quality of instruction. You will be able to feel the incredibly high level of knowledge and experience the author has in the Najdorf. Not every course has that. It's truly an amazing course for an amazing opening.

#4 - Anti-d4 Repertoire

For most people, the weakest part of their repertoire is their response against d4. Here's some courses to potentially help with that!

Colovic's QGD: The Queen's Gambit Declined is, in my opinion, one of the simplest and most intuitive ways to play against 1.d4. It has been good enough for all the World Champions who played it, so it is good enough for you and me. Colovic doesn't just tackle the QGD in this course; he also covers the Reti, KIA, Catalan, and the ever-annoying London System. I loved his video explanations in every variation. It's very easy to follow and I'd even recommend it to a beginner (not that this course is for beginners!).

Fierce Nimzo: The Nimzo-Indian is probably the most solid response to 1.d4 right now. With Keetman, you will play the Nimzo and you will play it energetically! The course focuses on a thematic setup involving d6, Nbd7, b6, and Bb7. There are many h6 g5 ideas, and some variations where we play f5 and reach positions similar to the Dutch. Keetman gives 25 lines but accompanies it with nearly 10k words of instruction plus the video. I enjoyed her video instruction, and found the explanations very simple and well-put. She put in effort into explaining what other authors may have assumed to be obvious and omitted.

Note that if you do play the Nimzo, you need a partner opening for it if White plays 3.Nf3. Keetman pairs her Nimzo with the Vienna, and she has a seperate course on it. Personally, I don’t like the Vienna. If you do choose the Nimzo, you have no shortage of choices for a partner opening. The Ragozin, Semi-Tarrasch, Queen’s Indian, Bogo-Indian, Benoni, Blumenfeld, are all good openings. That being said, pairing the Nimzo and Blumenfeld against 1.d4 would be like holding a rifle in one hand and a water gun in the other.

Jones' KID: The King's Indian proper is a difficult opening to play. I recommend Jones' course for any of those interested. His full course is a KID bible, and I think this Short and Sweet is of very high quality. 

#5 - Other Repertoires

Some other courses.

Reversed Sicilian: Neiksans, who you might recognize from his role as GothamChess' coach, gives you some great coverage on the English Opening for Black.

Every Gambit Refuted: Brief refutations to some crappy openings. Only five lines, but the main course is much more comprehensive.

Beat b6 Defenses: A very good course which plays a very niche role in most people's repertoires. I don't think you'll need this level of depth unless you're preparing specifically against a b6 player.

Anti-London System: A course showing you how to counter the increasingly popular and ever annoying London System.

Anti-London System: A course showing you how to counter the increasingly popular and ever annoying London System.

Anti-London System: A course showing you how to counter the increasingly popular and ever annoying London System.

No, I didn't copy and paste the same course thrice. People hate the London so much that there are three seperate courses with the sole purpose of beating the London.

Odd Openings: Covers some strange White first moves.

If you're interested in any other courses, including non-opening courses (gasp!), go to https://www.chessable.com/courses/. The filters on the left hand side allow you to sort by the course's theme (Opening, Strategy, Tactics, Endgames) and price (select 'Free' if you're broke like me).

Final Thoughts

Chessable's spaced repetition is a great feature, and they plaster it on their front page. In my experience, some people have the idea that Chessable is for those who love memorizing a bunch of opening theory. I don't think you should be memorizing lines, and definitely not if you're starting to learn an opening.

Another tip: you don't need to follow every single line of a course. For example, if you really like your chosen 1. e4 course, but can't tear yourself away from your beloved Smith-Morra Gambit, just pause the course's Sicilian chapter and continue to Morra! 

Well, that's it. Thanks for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. If you have any questions or comments, leave them down below! Until next time