Courses (261)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For thirty years, GM Alexey Dreev has returned to the same weapon against the Slav: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3.
Not because it promises an opening advantage through force, but because it grants White structural flexibility that endures across all of Black's setups. While mainstream theory debates sharp Nc3 systems or early Qb3 confrontations, Dreev's approach offers something rarer—a positional framework that allows White to outplay opponents through understanding rather than memorization.

When Alexey Dreev began working on this course, he wasn't just thinking about opening theory—he was thinking about what players actually face over the board. The Queen's Gambit Declined with ...Be7 is one of the most reliable defensive systems in chess, but surviving the main lines with Bf4 and Bg5 is only half the battle.
The real preparation challenge lies in navigating the extensive landscape of sidelines, tricky move orders, and practical tries that club players and professionals alike deploy with increasing frequency. This course addresses that gap directly.

The Caro-Kann structure doesn't change much from decade to decade—yet the way it's understood has evolved dramatically. What looked defensive in 1927 became flexible by 1974, and today's elite handle it with a precision that would have surprised even Capablanca. The pawn chain remains the same. The depth of understanding does not.
That's the insight driving Caro-Kann Pawn Structures by GM Vladimir Malakhov and GM Pier Luigi Basso—the third volume in the Malakhov's Structures series. This course doesn't teach an opening repertoire. It teaches you how to think in positions defined by the Caro structure, regardless of how you arrived there

In the landscape of modern opening theory, the Fianchetto Reti has emerged as a flexible weapon that allows White to reach Grünfeld-type positions with an extra tempo. While Part 1 established the foundational understanding of this setup, Part 2—authored by GM Andrea Stella and GM Pier Luigi Basso with assistance from GM Alexey Dreev—tackles Black's most challenging response: the aggressive ...c5 combined with ...Nc6, creating rich tactical complexities from the opening moves.

The Tarrasch Variation (3.Nd2) is chosen by players who value solidity over complications, aiming to limit Black's active possibilities while maintaining a safe edge. Gumularz and Basso systematically dismantle this comfort zone.
Their repertoire is built on 3...c5—Black's most principled response—followed by the healthy recapture 4...Qxd5, avoiding structural concessions. Unlike creative but offbeat approaches such as Jobava's 3...h6, this course prioritizes classical logic and practical reliability.