Not sure how typical I am, but I'm 45 years old now and I struggled for years to get back into chess, although I really liked it when I was (a lot) younger. Chess is complex and it's really hard to make progress, when you are not great in memorizing things and so I failed year after year and lost motivation. This opening course (which I bought after Yevheniis free 30-day-course on youtube) was finally the turning point in 2025. From the 30-day-course I already knew how Yevhenii structures his lessons, so I was quite sure the new course would also fit my way of thinking. The big promise (and hope): to not have to memorize endless lines of moves. To be honest: of course it helps a lot if you are good in memorizing main and side lines. In the beginning I was so overwhelmed, that I couldn't handle all the input and my rating dropped drastically, because I got confused during my games, when I tried the new ideas. BUT there are reocurring principles throughout the course, which are pointed out every time, that I could focus on and which made life a lot easier. And of course you have time to learn at your own pace and adapted to your life situation (in the end it took me ~ 7 months). When I started focusing on the essential ideas and moves my rating went up from 1000 to now 1250 on Lichess. And the good thing: the more I played those openings and the more I trusted the ideas, the less I paniced, even when I made mistakes). Although I do not have all the lines in mind, I can play solid openings and then focus and analyze special situations when they happen. Normally I find solutions in one the videos or the pgn file (or you can just ask in the forum, if you miss something). Important to mention: You do not only learn an opening repertoire, you also get a plan how to proceed after the opening (something I often struggle with). AND the whole course is growing, in reaction to user feedback. I finished all the main videos, but there are tons of bonus videos, new practical puzzle tasks after each "day" to internalize the learnings (I will use them as reminders in the future), there was a live Q&A (which was recorded for those who couldn't participate) that motivated me a lot and just a few weeks ago we got a new quickstart path for under 1000 and 1000-1500, where the most important knowledge is compressed into ~ 1 hour, especially for those ratings. I rewatch those videos from time to time, just to keep the main ideas in mind. And I'm sure, there still more to come :-) All in all: I can absolutely recommend the 10-day Opening Mastery :-)

I can highly recommend this opening course! I started playing 9 months ago and bought this course only 4 1/2 months ago, when my Elo rating was around 850. Today - 4 1/2 months later my Elo is almost 1300! It's incredible! :) And most of this progress is due to this opening course! No Doubt! I love how lines are explained so you get the ideas behind. Very helpful! And the best part is that I don't even have to play the specifik lines in the videos, but you get the general ideas and that will for sure ''improve your chess'' :) High recommendations from here!

I am a 70 year old retired professor. I have played chess informally all my life, struggling with textbooks and even had some of the first chess computers. I never had a mentor and never got interested enough to study hard. And I found playing chess perhaps more stressful than enjoyable. Since then I have discovered your training on YouTube and now the 10 day opening course. It was exactly what I was looking for and is very well designed as a learning platform. Also very well designed course. I am enjoying it and seeing results in my informal play. Furthermore, I have finally developed a unique philosophy about playing chess: I don't play to win, I play to find the most beautiful move (similar to mathematics or computer programming) - for me or my opponent. There are many benefits but mostly no emotional rollercoaster (it does not matter much who wins apart from being a learning metric), just pure zen chess

Hi, I’m a physicist by profession and a lifelong chess enthusiast. My current rating is around 1600 on Lichess. Before taking this course, my biggest challenge was opening preparation. I’ve always preferred making my games tactical and creative rather than memorizing long theoretical lines, but that often left me unsure how to reach good positions without falling behind early on. The 10-Day Opening Mastery course helped me tremendously by providing a clear, practical repertoire built on understanding rather than memorization. IM Yevhenii Yelisieiev explains each position in a calm, structured way, making it easy to grasp the key ideas and typical plans. The best thing about the course is Yevhenii’s teaching style: approachable, insightful, and focused on helping you truly understand chess. It’s clear he put a lot of thought and effort into crafting the material. Overall, the course gave me confidence to enter the opening without fear of being out-prepared, and it made studying chess genuinely enjoyable again. Highly recommended!

The best thing about this course is that it presents a comprehensive and flexible opening repertoire for white and black that will reduce the amount of study time for openings by focusing on principles and ideas instead of memorization of specific lines. I am very satisfied with the course and look forward to further study in order to master these ideas. I have not played chess since 2002 but I am now interested in playing again. My struggle in the past was mostly due to trying to memorize good responses to all of the possible openings. The course has helped me by simplifying my opening preparation by just focusing on just a handful of openings with similar set-ups. Yevhenii provides valuable instruction with practical tips for improving your chess.

I am 1500 Elo-rating player, focusing on becoming a good player rather than knowing theory. Then, you save yourself a great amount of time and aggravation. And, just trying to keep upto date with all these random lines.
Thanks to "10-day Opening Mastery" I have adopted the new way of thinking, I have to do that all the time.... But you can do this Yevhenii. You say it like it is. In fact, not many others say, or teach. This is how today's chess training looks like, how you learn something, seriously. This is not just an opening repertoire, but much more than that. Congratulations! 
It's always fun to do the impossible. This is a practical masterpiece. Thanks in advance! Have a good time and good luck with chess and life.

Greetings fellow seekers of the art of Chess Mastery, I am a young (48 years old) Canadian, always wanted to play chess, and started this journey two months ago. I have been learning a lot through youtube videos, and find myself a bit overwhelmed. My rating as of now, on Chess.com, is 816. Having gone through the course, I few more secure at the starting phase of the matches. Before, I was always lost, without knowing what to do as the games started. I still have a long road ahead, and all this new information has still to sink in. I find myself re-watching the videos again and again, and that is being really helpful. Wish all the best to all of you! Thank you kindly, Rafael

Hi I'm a beginner and struggled with a lot of openings, etc. I'm on chess.com as White-Rabbit25 you can see my ELO improved from 400 to 1067 in last 90 days because of this excellent course 😄

I'm over 40 and only recently started playing chess. I've always had problems finding a move when my opponent simply plays a move I wasn't expecting. My knowledge of openings was quickly lost. The course has helped me to find the right ideas and after I have worked through it once, they are slowly coming to my mind better and I am finding better moves. I will certainly go through this course 2 or 3 more times until everything has really manifested itself, because it really changes a lot. Especially the perspective of active playing. That's something I'm going to adopt, because I'm usually the one who reacts to the other and doesn't act. Thank you for helping me to put all this into practice.

Out of the hundreds of chess videos on YouTube that I watched, Yevhenii's video's on the Colle/Zuckertort system inspired me to check out this opening. I had started playing chess again after many years of not playing, and after quickly rising to 1200 on chess.com I kind of hit a wall and started to feel the need for a coherent opening repertoire. Also, I noticed that I often struggled to find the right plan right after the opening phase. So, I subscribed to the course and started watching and learning. Not only did I learn the Colle/Zuckertort properly, which was my primary goal, but more importantly I started to understand the general opening principles on a much deeper level. I am already getting better at recognizing and finding active moves, and it happens much less often now that I don't know what to do after the opening phase. This makes playing chess much more enjoyable! The best thing about the course: it is very coherent, which helps you to remember the many possibilities - much more effective than just memorizing lines!

Thank you for all of the hard work you put into making this course. I had previously started this course and made it to Day 3, before I was distracted. This time around I am making a concentrated effort to finish. It took me 11 days, but I made it. I wasn't sure about the Black Openings, but I see how they are all tied together. Your PGN file makes it easier for me to learn. There is a lot of information in those files. I can see your understanding of the various Openings. Because. you know them so well, sometimes your explanation of the position is so quick that I miss a lot of what your trying to convey. I am not sure if it was on purpose, but the puzzles seem to be about an upcoming Opening, they don't line up with the video explanation. I find myself going back one on the practical tasks, it helps me see what you were talking about. Again, a great job.

Hello. My name is Matthew Wetherbee. I am rated 820 on 10 minute rapid games on chess.com. I am rated 981 on lichess.org 10 minute games. I was probably slightly too green for a course this advanced, but it did help my ELO raise 100 on both those two sites. Because of where I am at my biggest struggle seems to be the entire game. I feel as if I put in so much time and just can't seem to get better. So it was nice to make any progress at all. Definitely feel as if I have solid openings now. Best thing about 10 day Opening Mastery is that it over delivers. You got over much more than just openings, and there is far more than just 10 days worth of material to go over. A great value for the price. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I am a 42-year-old from Sussex, England, rated 1776 ECF (OTB). I have played chess for 15 years, and have struggled to improve recently. So many resources are available that it is easy to get lost in the sea of information. I have tried many methods to improve, including online training programs and websites, books, and coaches, to little or no avail. One reason is that I have constantly changed my openings. I want to stick to a dedicated training plan, but have found it hard to grasp any one repertoire. Most courses give you lots of lines to memorise, failing to explain the key ideas. This means that I try new openings and abandon them because I just don't understand them. I find opening books difficult to read. When playing main-line openings, I struggle with how prepared my opponents are, whilst playing off-beat openings can simply give them an advantage. I found IM Yevhenii Yelisieiev's '10-Day Opening Mastery' course via his YouTube channel. I was instantly impressed by how he explained key concepts and ideas, combined with his enthusiasm and character. His love for the game is apparent. The course is by far the best opening course I have ever studied. It is simple enough to be able to grasp but advanced enough that it will serve at a high level. Whilst there are many long variations, IM Yelisieiev is keen to make the point that you don't need to memorise them; they are shown as examples of how the game could go. His approach teaches openings, middle-game strategy, and endgame technique all at the same time. I have finished the course feeling empowered to move forward with my chess training, knowing this one resource, combined with analysing my games, will provide me with everything I need for my opening. I am 100% converted to a Philador player! Whilst there are a few minor flaws, the quality of the material and its presentation are outstanding, more than enough to forgive any minor discrepancies. Some key lines are missing, and I think it will take more than 10 days for most people to study the course effectively (and much longer to master these openings, but that is true of any). I don't think this should dissuade anyone, as this course will enrich your understanding of chess, not just the opening. After 5 days of studying the course, I played the best game of my life at my local club in the variation given against the Kings Indian Defence. This wasn't because I had memorised the moves, rather I found myself understanding the chess board better than I ever had before. That night I scored 4 wins in 4 games, playing at a much higher level than ever. Thank you, IM Yelisieiev, for a great course; I look forward to using these lines in my future victories!

I am a playing chess for 1 year now and my rating is 800. Before this course i struggled to find the right opening and have a solid setup, so i can especially timewise , focus fully on middlegame / endgame situations. The opening mastery course gives me two really good openings , which are described in absolute detail against so much variations. You will absolutly love it. The best part is how mich time the coach is taking to go through all the stuff and it does not stuff with opening. He will give you a clear idea what to do, what are the goals and strategies and EVEN included some more advice on how to avoid blunders, how to think correct to improve. Its an absolute blast

My chess rating is 447 on Chess.com. I was below 300 and started using the opening for black that is taught in this course. I have improved to 447. I still have a long way to go but I have learned so much! I recommend this course!

My name is Greg G, I'm a 1000 on chess.com. Iv'e used 10 or 30 principles of chess articles and videos, no real openings. This course has gave me a foundation for openings with a system. I like that it was done with video and in segments.

I am Dante Messina and i am 16 years old. My struggle was my opening preparation as i played E4 and the Caro-Kann which contained a lot of complicated variations. This course has helped me so much because i don t have to memorise these complicated variations. The best thing about this course is that the openings are based on fundamental principles and that the ideas are easy to understand even for a beginner.

The "10-day Opening Mastery" course has exceeded my expectations on many levels. I have rediscovered chess only a few moths ago, when after many decades of not playing I had decided to sign up for chess.com. Due to that my rating is at the moment very low- around 900. After playing some games I have decided that I need some structured learning so I can improve fast. And I came across this course. Firstly, it is done very professionally and covers much more materiał than I have anticipated. Opening concepts are explained very clearly and very systematically. I was and I am still overwhelmed with the plethora of different opening lines presented by Yevhenii. Secondly, the structure of the course is very well thought through. I loved the practical exercised, as well as the sample games. And here comes a great bonus. During the games Yevhenii presented his thought process, and I have learned so, so much from that! I would risk the statement that this might have been the most valuable part of the course. Lastly, it is called "10-day” course. Certainly not for me. It took me more than a month to go over the material and I think this is just the beginning. I need another few weeks to consolidate my knowledge, and remember the most important lines. This is just the beginning of the journey! But it is certainly fun, and I highly recommend that course.

What a fantastic course. Professional and clear, it's obvious that a lot of effort has gone into making it. Highly recommended. As well as providing clear opening lines, this course also reinforces the ideas and the chess principles behind those openings. The course doesn't simply provide opening moves to be made automatically, it presents idea behind the moves, what the immediate threat is and what the goal is. Most importantly for me, it shows how deviations in the opening are not necessarily to be feared, reducing my panic when I see my opponent play something unexpected.