Queen's Indian for Black — A Top-Level Repertoire by GM Jose Martinez Alcantara and GM Pier Luigi Basso
In 1931, Max Euwe and José Raúl Capablanca reached a position where Black had just sacrificed the exchange on a8. Capablanca, with the black pieces, stood better — and never realised it, repeating moves into a draw he should have been pressing to win.
Nearly a century later, that same position is the critical theoretical battleground of this repertoire. White's most testing engine moves still lead straight back to it, and Black is still playing for three results. That is the spirit of the whole course: principled, fighting, and built on lines that reward the player who understands them.
A practical repertoire with a familiar DNA
GM Jose Martinez Alcantara (Jospem) and GM Pier Luigi Basso set out to give Black an ambitious answer to 1.d4 — one that fights for the full point without memorising endless forcing theory.
The recurring idea is the early 5...Bb4+, chosen over the mainstream 5...Be7, followed by the clean 6.Bd2 Bxd2+. No 6...Qe7, no 6...c5, no 6...a5: Black simply trades and heads for clear, fighting middlegames. Against the Petrosian set-up with 4.a3, the authors recommend the energetic 5...Ne4! rather than the routine 5...d5, again steering the game toward three results.
The emphasis throughout is on understanding the type of position rather than recalling concrete moves. In the 8.0-0 lines the battle reduces to a single positional question — can White ever achieve e4, and is Black in time for ...Ne4? — and the authors explain those nuances in full instead of dumping variations.
Map of variations
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6
- 4.g3 Bb7 5.Bg2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 0-0
- 8.Nc3 Ne4 9.Qc2 Nxc3 10.Ng5 Ne4 11.Bxe4 Bxe4 12.Qxe4 Qxg5 13.Qxa8 Nc6 — the exchange sacrifice (Euwe–Capablanca, 1931) → Chapter 2
- 8.0-0 d6 — the positional battle: Nc3 vs ...Ne4 → Chapter 3
- 7.Nbxd2 — the knight is misplaced on d2 → Chapter 4
- 6.Nbd2 (2nd move in the position) and 6.Nc3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 — a worse version of the Nimzo for White → Chapter 5
- 4.a3 Bb7 — the Petrosian Variation
- 5.Nc3 Ne4 — the fighting reply → Chapter 6
- 5.Bf4 c5 → Chapter 8
- 4.Bf4 Bb4+ — the all-important check → Chapter 7
- 4.Bg5 — a sideline worth knowing → Chapter 9
- 4.Nc3 Bb7 — facing Bg5, g3 and Qc2 → Chapters 10, 11 and 12
- 4.e3 Bb7 — facing Be2, Bd3 and a3 → Chapters 13, 14 and 15
Chapter 1 serves as the introduction, laying out the philosophy and the road map above.
Premium Course Features
This is a Modern Chess Premium course, built as a complete training system:
- 15 theory chapters
- Video instruction throughout
- 30 test positions — critical moments with tactical and strategic solutions
- 5 training positions for interactive practice against the engine
- To-Go Version of every chapter — condensed files for fast pre-game review
- Memory Booster — for long-term recall of the key ideas
- Multilingual PGN files — English, German, French and Spanish
- Full download access — all materials are yours to keep
Where it sits in the authors' work
The practical, three-results approach here will feel familiar to anyone who followed GM Martinez's earlier 1.d4 work for Black.
His Bogo-Indian Defense According to Jospem, released in 2025, sits within the broader 1.d4 for Black According to Jospem series and shares the same fighting philosophy.
The Queen's Indian presented here is a separate repertoire built on a different system — not a continuation of those courses — and it makes a natural companion for players who want a second, complete weapon in the same style.
Understanding over memory
The thread running through every chapter is the same: trade the right pieces, fix the structure in your favour, and keep all three results alive. Black is not equalising and offering a draw — Black is asking the questions.
It is a repertoire built for players who would rather grasp twelve moves deeply than recite thirty, and who want their answer to 1.d4 to be a fighting one.