| Type | Availability | |------|--------------| | Official free courses | GM Smirnov offers several free mini-courses (e.g., “7 Grandmaster Secrets”, “Chess Opening Fundamentals”) via email sign-up on RCA website. | | Full 9-course set free | ❌ Not officially available for free. The complete 9-course package is a paid product (typically $200–$500 depending on bundle). | | Pirated / leaked content | Some forums and torrent sites claim to offer these courses for free. This is copyright infringement and not endorsed. |
Igor Smirnov woke to the same thin winter light that had bled through his blinds for as long as he could remember. Snow muffled the city outside; the radiator hissed like an impatient mentor. He brewed tea, settled at the small table by the window, and opened the battered laptop that had carried his life’s work: nine courses, each a lattice of ideas, drills, and revelations he’d shaped from decades of chess study and teaching.
He wasn’t famous in the way the glittering grandmasters were famous. His name didn’t sell headlines. Yet in basements, school gymnasiums, and browser tabs around the world, “Smirnov’s Lessons” had become an underground permalink: clear structure for confused beginners, surgical tactics for juniors who needed direction, and an ethos that learning should be joyful, not punitive. He’d watched students grow from shaky pawns to confident players; he’d watched some move past him.
The courses were his bones and breath. They started with the humblest things — how to recognize a weak square, how to build a plan — and rose to the architecture of middlegame technique and the quiet, precise cruelty of endgames. He’d packed them with annotated games, exercises, quizzes, and a style guide to thinking at the board. Over the years, people paid what they could for access. Some donated enough to keep him afloat. Others never paid at all. He had been furious once, then sad, then finally pragmatic: the world was complicated; people had lives.
That morning the email subject line made him drop his teacup: “Request — Permission to Redistribute.” The sender was anonymized through a school address, but the message read with blunt sincerity: “Our community center runs free after-school programs for kids. Parents can’t afford subscriptions. Would you grant us the nine courses to share with students?” The attachments were testimonials, a class roster, a photo of a motley group of children crowded around a single battered board. The request itself felt less like a plea and more like a mirror. He thought of the boy from two decades ago who’d learned to love chess on a photocopied sheet of tactics, who’d gone on to college because some teacher believed in him.
Igor’s first instinct was caution. Years of tacking monetization onto his work had kept him fed and allowed him to update the material. But then something else, quieter and older, rose in him: the reason he had started teaching in the first place. He closed the laptop and started making a list. What mattered most was access. Not prestige. Not profit. Access.
He replied with a single sentence: “Yes — all nine, free.” He sent the files attached, with a short note: “Use them. Teach them. Improve them. Tell me what works.”
Word spread in that patient, exponential way things do when they touch human need. The community center printed worksheets and pinned a weekly schedule. A teacher in a different city translated a course into Spanish and uploaded it to a forum. A single mother used the material to teach her two children; they began opening the board at 6 a.m., sleepy and secretive at first, then loud and laughing as they discovered tactics and patience. A refugee shelter used the endgame module to teach calm decision making under pressure. An elderly man resumed a childhood passion and found new friends at the park.
The courses transformed, not because Igor demanded perfect formatting, but because people made them theirs. A school adapted the “Plan-Build-Execute” framework into a club that paired older students with younger ones. A volunteer group used the “Study Habits” handout to create micro-lessons that fit into fifteen-minute snack breaks. A local nonprofit printed laminated cue-cards with key motifs and used them as elevator pitches: “Fork, pin, discovered attack.” Kids learned to name patterns the way one learns to name constellations — a map that turned chaos into meaning.
Messages came in from corners Igor had never imagined. A young coach from a small island sent a shaky video of his students arranging pieces on a sandy table; they’d memorized the opening principles from course one and were excited to show their “first checkmate.” An older student wrote that the endgame drills had stopped his panic in critical games; he’d started seeing where to build patience. An 11-year-old sent a simple drawing of a champion trophy she’d drawn with the caption: “I beat my mom.” The wins were small and enormous all at once.
Not everyone agreed with his decision. Some peers, professional coaches who relied on paid courses for income, criticized Igor publicly. “Giving away nine courses undermines livelihoods,” one wrote in a forum heated by principle. He understood the anger — he’d been dependent on those subscriptions for years. But he also watched the kids in the community center study during lunch and realized that access to knowledge often mattered more than the purity of any economic model. He learned to hold both truths: that creators deserve support, and that withholding learning from hungry minds is a different kind of theft.
Requests for guidance multiplied. Some people wanted lighter versions for very young children. Others asked for deeper technical appendices. Students sent annotated improvements and alternative exercises. Volunteers offered to proofread translations. A former student coded a free app that gamified the drills. Slowly, the courses became not only free but collaborative — a living set of tools shaped by teachers and players across time zones.
Igor kept teaching, too, but his role shifted. He no longer charged gatekeeping fees for the curriculum, but he did teach masterclasses and held coaching sessions for a modest stipend. He knew his time and attention had value, and those who could pay did. But he also started hosting monthly open-study sessions at the public library, where anyone could drop in, learn an idea, and leave with a new habit. These sessions often involved little more than him explaining a concept, asking two volunteers to play out an example, and handing laminated cue cards to the kids. People came with children, with laptops, with lives rearranged around a single desire: to improve.
One spring afternoon, a video surfaced online: a montage of clips stitched by a volunteer in a faraway city. It showed a child in a refugee camp studying tactics under a solar lamp, a retired factory worker learning pawn endings, a teacher in rural India holding a printout and laughing with students, and, finally, the original community center where a boy who’d once been embarrassed to lift a piece now stood at a table explaining the principle of squares to younger players. The caption read simply: “All 9 Courses — Free.”
The video went a little viral in pockets that mattered: education blogs, chess clubs, small social feeds. Articles appeared that praised the generosity and raised awkward questions about business models. Some articles interviewed Igor; others interviewed parents and teachers. One piece described a school where chess became a tool to teach patience and planning, and another profiled a community program that saw attendance rise and conflicts fall as kids learned to respect rules and think ahead.
Igor read his interviews with a peculiar mix of embarrassment and wonder. He’d never wanted the spotlight; he’d wanted the board to be a place where mistakes meant lessons. But the attention brought more than praise; it brought resources. A foundation offered to fund printed workbooks, another to translate the courses into five languages, and a nonprofit offered servers and bandwidth for hosting. With that support, volunteers created robust PDF versions, audio guides for visually impaired learners, and even short animated clips that explained motifs in three minutes.
The most meaningful change, though, was quiet. Teachers reported students who had gone from trembling before the clock to playing with steady hands. A juvenile counselor reported that chess had become an outlet for focus and self-worth. Parents began reporting fewer arguments at home because children had found a structured hobby that rewarded patience. In letters and messages, the recurring theme was less about wins on the scoreboard and more about small, durable gains: improved concentration, newfound confidence, a shared language across generations.
Years later, Igor would remember the morning he clicked “send” on that first reply. He would remember the teacup and the snow and the thrum of a radiator. He would also remember the boy who had once learned from a photocopied sheet and the many small faces who had turned a game into a bridge.
When a journalist asked him whether he regretted giving everything away, Igor’s answer was simple. He said: “I teach so others can teach. If they teach better than me, that’s the plan.”
And so the nine courses persisted, not as relics behind a paywall but as seeds in innumerable classrooms and living rooms — each a quiet architecture of practice that multiplied when shared. They lived in printouts, in translated PDFs, in short videos, in the habit of a single child practicing tactics before bed.
On a late autumn evening, years after the courses were first freed, Igor walked into the community center for the monthly open practice. The room was fuller than it had been in the beginning: a line of small faces, an old woman with a soft laugh, teenagers bent over serious boards. A boy from the first class — now taller and steadier — greeted Igor and, without waiting, taught a child how to mate with a rook. He used the phrasing Igor had once written in a handout: “Keep control of the seventh rank.” The phrase landed like a small inheritance. gm igor smirnov all 9 chess courses free free
Igor sat down between two players, watched a simple tactic resolve into laughter, and felt the warm, complicated truth: knowledge lived when given away. The courses had become communal property, not through theft but through deliberate generosity. They had multiplied in ways money could never buy: trust, improvement, and the steady spread of a habit that teaches thinking.
Outside, the city lights blinked against an indifferent dark. Inside, across a dozen boards, a game ended, players shook hands, and the lamp’s circle of warmth moved on to the next table. The phrase “free, free” — once a simple declaration in an email subject — had become a quiet credo: that some things belong to everyone, and when they are shared, they build more than knowledge; they build belonging.
GM Igor Smirnov is a prominent chess Grandmaster and coach known for his "System of Thinking" and his training platform, Remote Chess Academy (RCA)
. While his primary 9+ premium courses are paid products, he provides extensive free resources and periodically offers free mini-courses. Top Premium Courses by GM Igor Smirnov
Smirnov’s core curriculum often focuses on bridging the gap between amateurs and masters. His top courses include: The Grandmaster's Secrets
: Focuses on the fundamental principles of chess that professional players use but rarely explain. The Grandmaster's Positional Understanding
: Teaches how to understand the board deeply rather than just memorizing lines. Calculate Till Mate
: Provides a systematic approach to tactical calculation and visualization. The Grandmaster's Opening Lab
: Explains how to build a professional-level opening repertoire. Your Winning Plan : Focuses on middlegame planning and strategic execution. Accessing Free Content You can find significant free material directly from Remote Chess Academy's Free Lessons Free Masterclasses : Smirnov frequently hosts free masterclasses, such as "3 Simple Rules to Reach 2000 Rating Faster" Mini-Courses
: Free training plans and mini-courses like "Chess Training Plan" are available to help players organize their study schedule. YouTube Channel Remote Chess Academy YouTube channel
contains hundreds of free instructional videos covering openings, traps, and endgames. Blog & Articles provides written guides on specific tactics and rules. Buying Options for Full Courses
For those looking for the full 9+ courses, they are typically sold in bundles: GM Igor Smirnov's Super Pack - Remote Chess Academy
Searching for "all 9 chess courses for free" often leads to unsafe or pirated download sites that may contain malware
. Instead of risking your device, you can access a significant amount of high-quality training directly from GM Igor Smirnov’s official platform, Remote Chess Academy (RCA) , through their legitimate free offerings
Below is a breakdown of how to improve your game using Smirnov’s free resources. 1. Official Free Masterclass & Mini-Courses The most effective way to start is by joining the Free Masterclass "3 Simple Rules to Reach 2000 Rating Faster" Remote Chess Academy The Roadmap
: Smirnov provides a proven strategy to reach the 2000 ELO mark by training just 30 minutes a day. The "System of Thinking"
: Learn the core principles Smirnov used to jump from 1600 to 2260 ELO in a single year. Remote Chess Academy 2. The Free Chess Lessons Library By signing up on the official website
, you gain access to a curated set of video lessons and articles at no cost. Remote Chess Academy Core Topics : Previous free lessons have covered critical areas such as "Fighting in the Endgame" "10 GM Secrets" "How to Think Like a Grandmaster" Middlegame Planning
: Access positional concepts to improve your strategy in complex positions. Remote Chess Academy 3. Remote Chess Academy YouTube Channel With over 1,700 educational videos, the Remote Chess Academy YouTube Channel
is one of the most comprehensive free chess resources online. Igor Smirnov's Courses worth giving a try? - Chess Forums | Type | Availability | |------|--------------| | Official
The Chess Courses of GM Igor Smirnov: A Gateway to Mastering the Game
The world of chess is a vast and complex one, with a multitude of strategies, tactics, and techniques to master. For aspiring chess players, accessing high-quality training materials can be a significant challenge. However, with the generosity of Grandmaster Igor Smirnov, chess enthusiasts can now access all 9 of his comprehensive chess courses absolutely free.
GM Igor Smirnov, a renowned chess expert and trainer, has made it his mission to share his knowledge with the chess community. His courses, which cover a wide range of topics, from basic tactics to advanced strategies, are designed to cater to players of all skill levels. By offering these courses free of charge, Smirnov is providing an unparalleled opportunity for chess players to improve their game without incurring significant costs.
The 9 courses offered by Smirnov cover a broad spectrum of chess-related topics, including:
The benefits of accessing these courses are numerous. Firstly, players can learn at their own pace, reviewing and revisiting complex concepts until they are fully understood. Secondly, the courses provide a comprehensive overview of chess strategies and techniques, helping players to fill gaps in their knowledge. Finally, by mastering these courses, players can significantly improve their chess skills, enabling them to compete more effectively in tournaments and online matches.
In conclusion, GM Igor Smirnov's decision to offer all 9 of his chess courses free of charge is a remarkable opportunity for chess players worldwide. These courses provide a unique chance to learn from a renowned expert and improve one's chess skills without incurring significant costs. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced player, Smirnov's courses are an invaluable resource that can help you achieve your chess goals. Take advantage of this generosity and enhance your chess skills today!
GM Igor Smirnov ’s premium library—such as his Super Pack
featuring 17–30 courses—is a paid resource, he offers an extensive collection of high-quality free training through the Remote Chess Academy (RCA)
Here is a blog post putting together the best ways to access his training for free.
Master Your Move: How to Get GM Igor Smirnov’s Chess Training for Free
Stuck at a plateau? You aren't alone. Most club players struggle to reach that elusive 2000 ELO mark because they lack a clear system. Ukrainian Grandmaster and psychologist Igor Smirnov founded the Remote Chess Academy to solve exactly that.
While his complete course catalog is a professional investment, you can build a massive foundation without spending a dime. Here is how to access his best free resources. 1. The "3 Simple Rules" Free Masterclass
This is Smirnov's flagship free resource. In this masterclass, he breaks down:
The Ultimate Guide to GM Igor Smirnov’s Chess Courses: A Path to Mastery
GM Igor Smirnov is a renowned Ukrainian Grandmaster, coach, and psychologist whose Remote Chess Academy has helped thousands of students globally. Known for his unique "Thinking System," Smirnov focuses on the psychological and logical aspects of the game to help players break through plateaus and reach expert levels.
While his premium courses are paid, there are legitimate ways to access high-quality training materials for free. Top GM Igor Smirnov Courses for Rapid Improvement
Smirnov has developed over 30 courses targeting different skill levels. Here are some of his most influential programs:
GM Igor Smirnov does not offer all of his premium courses for free; most are paid products sold through his Remote Chess Academy (RCA) and TheChessWorld. However, he provides extensive free educational content, including a Free Masterclass and hundreds of video lessons. Free Educational Resources
While the full "Super Pack" of 30+ courses is a paid bundle, you can access the following free materials:
Free Masterclass: A training session titled "3 Simple Rules to Reach 2000 Rating Faster" that covers GM thinking systems and positional concepts. The benefits of accessing these courses are numerous
Email Subscription: By signing up at chess-teacher.com, you receive periodic free video lessons, articles, and training materials directly in your inbox.
YouTube Channel: The Remote Chess Academy YouTube channel features over 2,000 free videos covering openings, tactics, and grandmaster techniques.
Free Lessons Hub: A structured blog section on his website categorizes free lessons into fundamentals, openings, and middlegame strategies. Notable Premium Courses
If you are looking for specific titles often bundled in his "Super Packs," these include: ALL Chess Courses by GM Igor Smirnov - TheChessWorld.com
While the full library of GM Igor Smirnov's premium chess courses is not available for free, you can access several of his teaching materials, introductory courses, and specialized lessons at no cost through official channels. Premium "Super Packs" containing all major courses are typically paid products available at Remote Chess Academy or TheChessWorld.com. Official Free Resources
Remote Chess Academy Free Hub: Offers free lessons on fundamentals, openings, and middlegame strategies. GM Igor Smirnov YouTube Channel
: Features over 2,000 instructional videos, including full webinars like "The Art of Defence in Chess" and guides on common opening traps. Free Masterclass: A specialized session titled " 3 Simple Rules to Reach 2000 Rating Faster " designed to teach Smirnov's core thinking system.
Crushing the King: A complete course available for free download via official promotional links. E-books : Materials like " Chess Opening Fundamentals
" are occasionally available through academic or promotional platforms. Premium Course Collections ALL Chess Courses by GM Igor Smirnov - TheChessWorld.com
While "getting all 9 chess courses for free" is a common search term, it's important to clarify that Grandmaster Igor Smirnov
’s premium courses at the Remote Chess Academy are paid professional materials. However, Smirnov provides a significant amount of high-quality free educational content that can form the basis of a comprehensive study "paper" or curriculum.
Below is a structured "paper" outlining a path for chess improvement using Smirnov's core principles and free resources.
The Grandmaster Thinking System: A Synthesis of GM Igor Smirnov’s Teachings I. Core Philosophy: Efficiency and Psychology
GM Igor Smirnov, who holds a Master’s degree in Psychology, focuses on the thinking process rather than rote memorization. His primary goal is to provide a "universal system" that helps players find the best move in any position without being overwhelmed by hundreds of separate rules. II. Fundamental Strategic Pillars
Piece Activity: This is the central idea of Smirnov's system. Every move should aim to increase the activity of your pieces relative to your opponent's.
The "Forward" Rule: Smirnov advocates for the most aggressive mindset: "How can I go to my opponent’s side of the board and create threats?".
The Principle of Least Activity: When you don't know what to do, find your least active piece and improve its position.
Avoid Unnecessary Exchanges: Do not trade pieces unless it clearly favors you; unmotivated exchanges often help the opponent activate their forces.
III. Recommended Free Curriculum (The "Essential 9" Concepts)
If you are looking for a complete free "package" of his knowledge, you can study these nine key areas through his YouTube channel and free mini-courses:
Any opinions on Igor Smirnov's training courses? - ChessPub Forum
Sign up for GM Smirnov’s newsletter. Every month, he gives away two or three full video lessons from his premium courses (e.g., "The Psychology of the Exchange Sacrifice"). Over six months, you can collect 10-15 premium lessons for free.