Resources

This lists some of the best chess resources I have found.  I am not trying to list everything, rather just the best or most important stuff.  For now it is just links; I will create more in-depth summaries and reviews in the future.

Free Content

1. Chessmaster's Josh Waitzkin Videos: Remains some of the best chess instruction ever produced.  I'd recommend video 61 to start, but nothing wrong with starting from the beginning.
   
2. John Bartholmew's "Chess Fundamentals" and "Climbing the Rating Ladder" Series: a large number of people have learned chess from JB's excellent introduction.  An ideal starting place for beginners.
3. Daniel Naroditzky's various "Speed Run" Series: DN illustrates his thought process and points out common errors across all the various rating bands.  Highly educational and generally good fun. I have linked his most recent one, but there are others on his channel as well.
   
4. Lichess.org: Arguably the best site to play chess, and it has amazing tools and resources.  Many sites offer less and charge you for it!  I play on lichess exclusively nowadays.
5. Smithy's Opening Fundamentals: I suppose I should include my own course here, though I imagine anyone that has found my blog already knows about it!

Premium Sites

There are lots of paid sites.  These stand out as worth the money.

1. ChessTempo.com: Remains the best site to train tactics on the Internet.  A free account already has access to unlimited puzzles, and a reasonably priced membership gets you near infinite control over your learning.  It also has its own Opening Trainer that is far and away the best in class, though it does not have a large catalogue of books.  If you have your own pgn, though, you can upload it and control just about everything.  The site owner, Richard, is super active and constantly improving things.  Highly recommended.
2. ChessPuzzle.Net: Expect a larger review soon, but for a reasonable memerbship cost you get access to the Academy, which trains tactics in a progressive manner.  First you learn 1 move forks, then 2 move forks, then using pins to set up forks, then forks to set up pins, etc.  It is amazing and ensures you have no holes in your tactical ability.  Highly recommended.

My Favourite Courses

I have tried a lot of chess educational material.  This is the best of the best.

1.  GM Smirnov's "Grandmaster's Positional Understanding": Remains my favourite chess course and the single-best chess investment I have ever made.  Literally rekindled my love of chess and helped push me out of a decades-long plateau.  I will write an in-depth review at some point, but suffice to say, for anyone intermediate and above that wants to jump-start improvement, I cannot recommend this enough. (Note: this is an affiliate link)
2. GM Shankland's "Semi-Slav LTR": All of Shankland's work is good, but his first one remains the best one in my opinion.  A great opening, excellent analysis and peerless video instruction. Sam has basically created my entire opening repertoire, so how can I not recommend his work?
3. GM Ganguly's "Nimzo LTR": If Shankland is my number 1 author, GM Ganguly is 1B.  He is sensational and his work raises the bar for quality. Rather than repeat what makes this course great, read my review. Sensational work, both this and the Part 2 follow-up.

My Favourite Books

 Most chess books are good.  Some are really good.  A few have changed my life.  These are those.

1. Tarrasch, "The Game of Chess": Objectively, I am sure there are better books nowadays.  Subjectively, I read this book cover-to-cover about seven times and my chess ability skyrocketed.  When I started playing online, I started at 1400 and steadily climbed to 1800 over two years, all built off the foundation Tarrasch provided.  It's 100 years old, but timeless principles are timeless.
2. Reti, "Masters of the Chessboard": Objectively, I do not think there has been a better book written on annotated games.  It is fun, it is crystal clear, it is educational, it will transform your chess.  The ideas still carry forward today.  Absolutely brilliant.
3. Seirawan, the "Winning Chess" series: I only read three entries in the series (Tactics, Strategy, Endgames), and all three were superb.  Seirawan kept things conversational, almost like a private lesson, and his is the only endgame book I managed to complete.  I can give no higher praise than that!

Friends of the Blog

I know some people with chess sites of their own.  Check them out.

1. Chess Goals: Run by NM Matt Jensen, Chess Goals started as a series of data-driven study plans and has evolved into several high-quality, club-focused courses.  Good content run by good people.  If you get a course, you get access to their Discord server, where I am reasonably active.  I have occassionally made a guest appearance on their YouTube channel as well.
2. DontMoveUntilYouSee.It: Run by Aiden Rayner, an amateur improver, DontMove focuses on chess visualization.  Specifically, Aiden advocates visualization training to beginners much earlier than traditionally thought.  It has free resources and a premium course, depending on your interests.  There's a dearth of quality info on visualization techniques on the Internet, and Aiden answers every email you send.  Good guy, check him out.