The Soviet Union is the first country in the world to create a system of higher chess education at special departments of sports universities. However, the experience accumulated in the USSR in this area has not yet received a proper generalization and has hardly been covered in chess literature and periodicals. The proposed benefit is designed to fill this gap. It summarizes the experience of the Soviet chess school, shows a system of methods for preparing for competitions, sets out the scientific, pedagogical and methodological recommendations of world champions H.-R. Capablanca, A. Alekhine, Botvinnik, A. Karpov, as well as other prominent chess players.