For decades, the great unsolved question of 1. For decades, the great unsolved question of 1.d4 d5 has been everything that isn't 2.c4. Dreev and Basso solve it through a unified Black system built on principle rather than memorization, anchored by a revolutionary new idea against the London. The third volume completing the authors' QGD series — and the final piece of a comprehensive repertoire against every first move White can choose.
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4h and 37min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice Video Content
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For decades, the French Defense has demanded a complete answer to White's alternatives. Players comfortable against the Advance, Tarrasch, or Steinitz often find themselves unprepared when White sidesteps theory with 2.d3, 2.Qe2, or the deceptively simple Exchange Variation. GM Szymon Gumularz and GM Pier Luigi Basso now complete their French Defense series by tackling precisely these gaps—offering a unified repertoire against every system White can throw at you after 1.e4 e6.
Sequence: French Defense According to Gumularz »
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4h and 28min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice Video Content
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The Slav Defense with 4...Bf5 has always been Black's most principled attempt to solve the opening's central problem: developing the light-squared bishop before closing the position with ...e6. It's theoretically sound, strategically ambitious, and demands precise understanding rather than pure memorization.
In this second volume of their Positional Slav for White repertoire project, GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso present a classical yet deeply modern approach built around the flexible 7.Be2 — delaying Nxg6 until White can dictate the most favorable moment for the exchange. But what sets this course apart is its format: most chapters are structured as analytical conversations between the two authors, exploring not just what to play, but how to think in these middlegames.
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4h and 25min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice Video Content
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Viktor Korchnoi didn't play the French Defense — he fought with it. While Rubinstein gave the opening its strategic foundations and Petrosian refined it into a tool of prophylactic perfection, Korchnoi transformed the French into something entirely different: a weapon of uncompromising combativeness. This third volume in GM Pier Luigi Basso's Understand the French Defense series presents the opening through the eyes of one of history's most resilient fighters, revealing how "ugly" positions and concrete energy can overcome even the most objectively balanced evaluations.
Sequence: 1.e4 Structures »
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2h and 7min PGN Download Interactive Tests Video Content
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When GM Daniil Dubov unveiled his ...h5 Dragon setup at the elite level, many thought the Yugoslav Attack needed renovation. When Magnus Carlsen started mixing Dragon structures with Najdorf timing via the Dragdorf, others wondered if White's classical approach still held water. The authors of this course — GM Jose Martinez Alcantara, IM Dragos Ceres, and GM Pier Luigi Basso — came to a different conclusion: the Yugoslav Attack doesn't need to be abandoned. It needs to be rebuilt with precision tools that account for every modern deviation Black has invented over the past decade.
Sequence: Jospem versus the Sicilian »
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4h and 25min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice Video Content
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10 Must-Know Games in the Catalan by GM Pier Luigi Basso is not a theory course. It is not a variation dump. It is a carefully curated tour through six decades of the sharpest, most instructive, most iconic Catalan battles ever played—games that reveal why this quiet diagonal remains the ultimate positional weapon at the highest level.
Sequence: Fianchetto Pawn Structures »
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3h PGN Download Interactive Tests Video Content
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The Caro-Kann player's dilemma: you prepare the heavy 2.d4 lines, sharpen your Classical structures, and then White plays 2.Nf3. Not because they fear your preparation — because they want a different kind of fight. Flexible systems, low on immediate theory, high on practical venom. These are positions White chooses when they want practical play over theoretical duels.
"Dreev Deep Caro-Kann" answers that challenge directly. GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso built this course around the two systems White actually plays nowadays: the Two Knights (2.Nf3 and 3.Nc3) and the modern 3.d3 endgame line, the setup that started gaining serious traction after Santos Ruiz–Ivanchuk in 2019. These aren't sideline curiosities. They're practical choices at every level, and they demand specific treatment.
Sequence: Caro-Kann According to Dreev »
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2h and 34min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Video Content
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When a grandmaster opens a course with the words "This variation has been my faithful companion for my entire chess life," you know you're not looking at a trendy theoretical experiment. GM Vladimir Malakhov has played the Chebanenko Slav in World Championship qualifiers, Olympiads, and blitz sessions alike—and it has never let him down.
Now, together with GM Pier Luigi Basso, he's built a two-volume series to share this repertoire with the chess world. Part 1 tackles the main battlegrounds: the systems White employs in the vast majority of games at every level.
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2h and 49min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Video Content
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The French Defense carries two reputations: a fortress for players seeking solidity, and a labyrinth of forced draws in the most explored lines. GM Szymon Gumularz and GM Pier Luigi Basso challenge that second notion directly.
If you play the French for fighting chess — not memorization contests ending in perpetual checks — then 7...Rb8 after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 offers exactly that. With fewer than 500 games in the database and regular employment by Matthias Bluebaum, this system delivers fresh positions where preparation depth matters less than understanding.
Sequence: French Defense According to Gumularz »
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3h and 39min PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice Video Content
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When Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Alexey Sarana all reach for the same defensive setup, you know something has shifted. The traditional Carlsbad Structure—White's century-old weapon in the Queen's Gambit Declined—has evolved. Black's modern systems, built around the prophylactic ...h6 and flexible piece regroupings, have changed the rules. GM Luca Moroni and GM Pier Luigi Basso's Carlsbad for White – Part 2 addresses this reality head-on, arming White with updated ideas calibrated specifically for the challenges posed by contemporary defensive schemes.
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3h PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Video Content
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