The Reti According to Abasov – Part 1
When Richard Réti stopped occupying the center with pawns and chose instead to press on it from a distance, he was doing more than introducing a move order. He was refusing to play the game on his opponent's terms. A century later, that same instinct is what draws GM Nijat Abasov to the opening that still carries Réti's name.
Abasov is candid about why he plays it. In today's most worked main lines, entire systems and even gambits have been analyzed to a dead draw, and the player with White is too often the one walking into the latest prepared novelty. The Reti steps off that treadmill. Rather than matching memory against memory, White keeps the center fluid, lets Black declare first, and shapes the character of the game from the opening moves.
A repertoire built to steer, not to react
Part 1 covers the 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 complex — the positions that arise once Black meets the Reti head-on in the center. What holds it together is not forced lines but a consistent attitude: against each of Black's setups, Abasov chooses the direction that keeps White in control.
That attitude shows in his concrete choices. Against the aggressive 2...d4, he answers with 3.b4, controlling the c5-square and preparing Bb2 before Black is settled. In the Catalan-flavored lines after 3...Nf6 4.Bg2 Be7, he sidesteps the well-trodden 6.b3 and 6.d4 in favor of 6.d3!?, keeping e4 in reserve and playing for a kingside attack. And in the principled main line 3...dxc4 4.Qa4+, White reclaims the pawn and steers toward structures he knows better than his opponent. The recurring idea is the same one Réti built the opening around — invite the commitment, then punish it.
Variation map
2...dxc4 — accepting the pawn, QGA-type positions → Chapter 1
2...c6 3.g3
- 3...Bg4 and other rare tries → Chapter 2
- 3...g6 setups → Chapter 3
- 3...Nf6 4.Bg2 Bf5 → Chapter 4
- 4...dxc4 — the critical attempt to hold the pawn → Chapter 5
2...d4 3.b4
- 3...c5 and sidelines → Chapter 6
- 3...f6 — the popular ...e5 plan → Chapter 7
2...e6 3.g3
- 3...c5 and other rare third moves → Chapter 8
- 3...d4 4.Bg2 Nc6 — preparing ...e5 and ...Bc5 → Chapter 9
- 4...c5 — the main Reversed Benoni → Chapter 10
- 3...Nf6 4.Bg2 Bd6 and sidelines → Chapter 11
- 4...Be7 5.O-O O-O 6.d3 Nc6 and rare tries → Chapter 12
- 6...c5 — Black's main response → Chapter 13
- 3...dxc4 4.Qa4+ Bd7 and alternatives → Chapter 14
- 4...Nd7 5.Bg2 Ngf6 → Chapter 15
- 5...a6 — the main line, striking for ...b5 → Chapter 16
Course features
- 16 Chapters
- 30 test positions
- Memory Booster
- To Go version of every chapter
- Video instruction
- Multilingual PGN availability (English, German, French, Spanish)
Completing the picture
Part 1 answers the classical 1...d5 reply. Its companion, The Reti According to Abasov – Part 2, turns to the 1...Nf6 setups — the Queen's Indian, symmetrical English, and Grünfeld-flavored positions — where Abasov adapts the same flexible approach to a different family of structures. Together they give White a coherent way to handle Black's two principal answers to the Reti.
Play through the lines, practice with the test positions, and you will start to feel what Abasov means about having control in the position — the quiet opening that keeps the game in your hands, right from the first move.