Chessable is pleased to announce it is opening admissions for its third annual Create Your Own Course contest.
From today, September 1 until November 30, 2023, the Chessable community is invited to submit their own course for a chance to win up to a $5,000 advance on sales and have their course presented by Grandmaster Maurice Ashley.
Don’t know how to make your own course but are interested? Check out this easy guide to show you how!
To be eligible for the contest, you just need to be a Chessable PRO member.
No course topic is off-limits, and no topic is too basic. In fact, this year, we’re offering a $2,000 advance on sales for the Best Course for Beginners!
The winners of the top prize will get their course published as a full Chessable video course. The course winner will get a video presentation this year from GM Maurice Ashley.
The Create Your Own Course contest will also be in Spanish and German this year, with IM Michael Rahal and WGM Josefine Heinemann presenting the winning courses respectively.
The prizes for the English contest are the following cash prizes (advances on course sales):
1st Place: $5,000
2nd Place: $3,000
Best Beginner Course: $2,000
The prizes for Spanish are the following:
1st Place: $2,500
2nd Place: $1,500
Best Beginner Course: $1,000
The prizes for the German contest are the following:
1st Place: €2,500
2nd Place: €1,500
Best Beginner Course: €1,000
If you’ve ever had an idea for a course, we encourage you to try it out! You don’t need to be a titled player or have any coaching background – original ideas and quality instruction are what count!
Last year’s winner
Last year, the top prize went to the strategy course Bishop vs. Knight: Minor Piece Imbalances by WeilunPotter, which focused on this often-overlooked topic in chess.
In six easy-to-understand chapters and annotated model games, author Weilun Yun did an incredible job on his submission.
Users have agreed since its publication. Look at what Chessabler D3RP_BLU3 had to say:
“This course is really well constructed to walk you through long segments of how to play around minor pieces imbalances. The game segments often move from a middlegame to an endgame where you then use your advantage to press for the win or find ways to neutralize your opponent’s advantage. This is helping me move from the concept “good knight vs. bad bishop” into SEEING these in candidate move generation and selection– looking for the structural changes you want to create or avoid based on the minor piece imbalances.”
What is perhaps most impressive about the winner is author Weliun Yun was just 14 years old when he created it. An inspiring story indeed, and it just goes to show you that anyone can create a Chessable course with the right idea.
But even if you don’t win, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a successful Chessable course. Several contestants last year did exactly that and have gone on to see their courses do quite well.
One example is author Can Kabadayi, whose courses were originally submitted as part of the Create Your Own Course contest and didn’t win. However, they went on to become big hits and were subsequently made into video courses.
We hope you find these stories as inspiring as we do. Hopefully, it will inspire you to Create Your Own Course this year.
