The course is built on the philosophy that modern players often "know" too much but "do" too little, leading to inconsistent results. It focuses on transforming passive knowledge into "unconscious competence"—skills that trigger automatically during a game.
Some users find the older video format and Smirnov’s accent a bit dated compared to modern Chessable or Chess.com courses.
Highly praised for providing a clear, step-by-step roadmap for study, which is often what self-taught players lack most.