Most players consume chess content.They:
Yet their results fluctuate — because their training lacks structure.
Modern Chess Academy was built to solve exactly that problem.
This is not a content platform. It is a monthly training system where every element supports the others.
Everything is connected.
Each month includes:
Strategy Wednesday → Positional understanding & long-term planning
Tactical Thursday → Disciplined calculation & practical sharpness
Repertoire Builder → Building an opening identity based on understanding
Guided Practice → Weekly curated training with structured repetition
Opening Radar → Modern theory & elite-level trends
Inside Your Games → Analysis of real member games
Mentorship Program → Personal direction & accountability
✔ All lectures recorded
✔ All material organized
✔ A system that builds month after month
Improvement in chess is cumulative.
The Academy provides the structure that makes that accumulation possible.
Modern Chess Academy does not offer shortcuts. There are no magic formulas here. The Academy will not replace the work you must do. It will only structure it.
This is a serious training environment. This environment is not designed for everyone. Before subscribing, ask yourself:
Am I ready to work systematically?
Am I willing to improve gradually, not emotionally?
If the answer is yes — you belong here.
The pillars of the Academy continue in August, each advancing into its next stage — and one of them begins again from the start.
French Defense for Black: Fundamental Structures after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5
👤 Coach: GM Grigor Grigorov 📅 Dates: 18.08.2026 & 25.08.2026 🔗 Event page: https://www.modern-chess.com/event/repertoire-builder-french-defense-for-black-fundamental-structures-after-1-e4-e6-2-d4-d5-3-e5/52583/
August marks the starting point of a new six-month Opening Builder journey. Where the previous project built a complete 1.Nf3 system for White, the new cycle turns to Black — and to one of the most strategically coherent answers to 1.e4.
We begin with the structure that defines the opening. The Advance Variation produces the archetypal French pawn chain — d4 and e5 against d5 and e6 — and almost every strategic idea in the French traces back to it: the ...c5 break against the base of the chain, the pressure on d4 with ...Qb6 and ...Nc6, the fight for the c-file, and the long-standing question of the light-squared bishop.
Theory is kept intentionally light — only what is required to reach the right kinds of middlegame positions. The emphasis is on understanding, not memorisation: what each side is playing for, and how plans emerge naturally from structure.
📅 Program Schedule
18.08.2026 — Paris | New York 🕒 17:30 – 19:00 | 11:30 – 13:00 — Fundamental Structures after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 – Part 1 🕒 19:30 – 21:00 | 13:30 – 15:00 — Part 2
25.08.2026 — Paris | New York 🕒 17:30 – 19:00 | 11:30 – 13:00 — Part 3 🕒 19:30 – 21:00 | 13:30 – 15:00 — Part 4 🕒 21:00 – 21:30 | 15:00 – 15:30 — Q&A with GM Grigor Grigorov
📌 Also this month: the rescheduled Theoretical Knowledge – Part 6 from the previous Opening Builder cycle takes place on Wednesday, 5 August at 19:30 Paris time, completing the 1.Nf3 project.
From the Opening to the Endgame: Typical Endgames in the Caro-Kann Defense
👤 Coach: GM Ioannis Papaioannou 📅 Dates: 19.08.2026 & 26.08.2026 🔗 Event page: https://www.modern-chess.com/event/from-the-opening-to-the-endgame-typical-endgames-in-the-caro-kann-defense/62517/
More than almost any other defence, the Caro-Kann is an endgame opening. Black accepts a modest share of space in return for something durable — a sound structure with no long-term weaknesses — and trusts that this asset will still be there when the queens come off. The player who understands where that trust is justified, and where it is not, holds a lasting practical edge.
This camp covers the recurring endgame structures across the Classical, the Advance, the Exchange and the Panov: the healthy queenside structure behind Black's resilience, the pawn majorities that decide so many of these endings, the isolated queen's pawn positions, and the minority-attack structures. You will learn how strong players steer the middlegame toward favourable transitions and convert small but durable structural advantages into full points.
Looking for Options and Visualisation
👤 Coach: GM Swapnil Dhopade 📅 Dates: 13.08.2026 & 20.08.2026 🔗 Event page: https://www.modern-chess.com/event/looking-for-options-and-visualisation/12550/
Most missed opportunities are never calculated at all. The move that would have won was not rejected after analysis — it simply never entered the list of candidates. Habit, assumption and the pull of the natural move narrow the search before it begins.
This camp trains the two halves of every calculation: looking for options, the breadth of your search, and visualisation, its clarity. You will learn how strong players generate a genuine list of candidate moves instead of following the first idea, how they recognise the positions that demand a wider search, and how they hold positions accurately in the mind several moves deep — so that what you calculate is what is actually on the board.
Elements of Positional Play II
👤 Coach: IM Siegfried Baumegger
August continues the cycle on the elements of positional play — the building blocks of strong strategic understanding, trained one theme at a time.
📅 Weekly Structure
Participants receive training positions each week, in-depth explanations, video summaries, and a final annotated PGN collection.
👤 Coach: GM Ivan Cheparinov
Modern opening ideas, practical novelties, and answers to member-submitted questions.
Format
✉️ Submit your opening questions to academy@modern-chess.com
👤 Coach: GM Ioannis Papaioannou
GM Papaioannou selects 15 anonymized games submitted by Academy members and analyzes them deeply, extracting practical lessons and recurring mistakes.
Submission guidelines
Publication includes
✅ Free access for all Academy members.
A structured, personalized improvement path with an assigned mentor, a 30-minute kickoff session, and monthly follow-ups built around your submitted games and your progress over time.
Most chess training is content consumption. The Academy is structure — the work is connected month to month, and every pillar reinforces the others. Live GM-led sessions every Wednesday and Thursday, weekly structured practice, modern opening updates, real game analysis, and a long-term repertoire-building project, all within one integrated system.
Improvement is cumulative. The Academy provides the structure that makes that accumulation possible.
This is not random content. This is chess training — the Modern Chess way.