Courses (102)

When GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso designed this course, they made a deliberate choice: understanding before memorization. In an era where players rush to learn the latest engine lines in the Winawer, this course takes a different path—one that begins with Karpov-Short 1982 and travels through decades of classical games before arriving at modern theory. The philosophy is simple yet profound: most players know the Winawer's moves, but few grasp its logic. This course bridges that gap.

When GM Baadur Jobava first introduced 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bf4 in 2013, he compared the opening to "a lady I had fallen in love with." For years, he guarded his secrets jealously, watching others publish courses that relied on engine evaluations rather than capturing the opening's true spirit. In 2024, he finally shared his complete vision with Modern Chess. Now, just one year later, the Jobava London returns—not as a static system, but as a living, breathing organism that continues to evolve with modern chess.

When Mikhail Tal and Alexei Shirov attacked the Caro-Kann with 4.g4, they created unforgettable tactical fireworks. Then the engine era arrived, and conventional wisdom declared the line "harmless if Black knows the theory." But what happens when you combine modern computer analysis with creative human intuition? GM Baadur Jobava and IM Dragos Ceres demonstrate that this aggressive system has been quietly revolutionized—particularly after Nepomniachtchi's 2017 idea 6.e6, which changed the evaluation of the entire variation.

The Benoni player's dilemma is well-known: you prepare sharp tactical lines after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5, only to face 2.Nf3, 2.Bf4, or the slow positional grind of White's fianchetto setup. Suddenly, your preparation seems irrelevant. But what if the Benoni's essence—dynamic play, creative counterplay, and fighting chess—could be maintained regardless of White's move order? This is the philosophy behind Jobava's Benoni Defense - Fight the Anti-Benoni Systems by GM Baadur Jobava and IM Dragos Ceres, the continuation of their successful Jobava's Ambitious Benoni Defense - Part 1.

For decades, the Advance Variation has been a fortress White uses to avoid the theoretical labyrinths of the French Defense. Black's most common responses—5...Qb6 and 5...Bd7—require memorizing countless sidelines and nuances. But what if there was a different approach? GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso present French Defense - Practical Solution against the Advance Variation, a course built around the intriguing 5...Nge7, followed by the paradoxical queen maneuver 7...Qa5 and 8...Qb6. This isn't about memorization—it's about understanding a coherent system that leverages piece coordination over theoretical depth.

What makes this course stand out is the move order. Rather than the classical 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6—the Modern Benoni starting point—Jobava advocates 3...g6 first, delaying ...e6 until the position demands it. This subtle shift completely changes Black's preparation burden. By avoiding early commitment, Black sidesteps White's most forcing theoretical lines and enters middlegames where ideas matter more than precise move sequences. The result: a repertoire you can learn in hours, not months, yet one sharp enough to challenge anyone—from club players to elite grandmasters.

In the 3...Qd6 Scandinavian Defense, the move 5...Nc6 was dismissed for decades as dubious—a theoretical footnote that strong players avoided. White's straightforward 6.Nb5 followed by 7.d5 was considered the final word, a refutation so clear that the line vanished from serious practice. Then GM Nikolas Theodorou looked closer. What he discovered wasn't just a defensive resource—it was a complete paradigm shift. The supposedly flawed 5...Nc6, coupled with the stunning 8...Na6, has transformed this Scandinavian variation from a niche system into a legitimate fighting weapon that Abdusattorov, Dubov, and other elite players are now deploying with success.

When Adolph Albin first played 2...e5 against the Queen’s Gambit in 1893, he introduced an opening that embodied risk, creativity, and defiance. For more than a century, theory dismissed his idea as a relic of the romantic era—until now. In The Albin Countergambit, GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso reveal the discovery that brings this opening back to life: the spectacular and deeply underestimated move 5.a3 g6!!.

The Pseudo-Trompowsky — 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5 — doesn’t announce itself with fireworks.
At first glance, it resembles a typical positional setup, the kind of position Black faces regularly after 1.d4. But this similarity is deceiving.
As GM Baadur Jobava notes in his introduction:
“At first sight, this looks calm, but that’s exactly why it works.”

The 1...d6 setup—once dismissed as passive—has been reborn through engine analysis and high-level practice as a flexible, resilient system that poses concrete problems even at the elite level.
The Modern Philidor Defense – 2025, by GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso, now enhanced by the distinguished addition of GM Vladimir Malakhov, represents the defense’s full evolution: not merely solid, but strategically rich and tactically dangerous.