Courses (357)

Zürich, 1953. At the Candidates Tournament where the King's Indian Defence was reborn, Svetozar Gligoric faced Alexander Kotov's Sämisch setup and gave up pawns to blockade White's centre.
The sacrifice opened the long diagonal for his g7 bishop and shut down White's bishop on d3. Within a few moves, White's pieces had been driven back to their starting squares. The game ended in a draw, but the idea has stayed relevant ever since.
For IM Filip Pancevski, it was the game that first taught him about the blockade. Decades later, he won a tournament game of his own with exactly the same idea. That connection between a classic idea and modern practice is what Understanding the King's Indian is built on.

After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2, Black faces the Bogo-Indian's oldest question: what to do about the bishop on b4. Trade it, defend it with the queen, or strike with ...c5?
GM Jose Martinez Alcantara chooses a fourth path. The modest rook-pawn move 4...a5!? anchors the bishop, keeps the tension, and prepares the classic Bogo-Indian setup with the d6–e5 pawn chain.
Why ...a5?
The author's goal is simple: fighting positions in which Black dictates the character of the game. After 3.Nf3, the Bogo-Indian denies White the familiar Catalan structures and steers the game toward a different kind of struggle.
The ...a5 move does more than defend b4. In many lines the pawn moves on to a4, squeezing the queenside and making it harder for White to make progress on that side of the board. Against 5.Bxb4 axb4, the structural transformation keeps Black's chances to play for all three results.

The Queen's Gambit Accepted carries a slightly misleading name. Black takes on c4, but the pawn is rarely the point. The real bargain is time and space: White is invited to build a broad centre, and Black's entire strategy is built around challenging it before it becomes too strong.
That paradox, giving up the centre in order to attack it, is the leitmotif of The Modern Queen's Gambit Accepted: A Dynamic Repertoire for Black by GM Mitrabha Guha. After 2...dxc4, Black's typical plan is ...c5 and, at the right moment, ...cxd4. If White recaptures with the e-pawn, the isolated d4-pawn can become a long-term target. If White recaptures with a piece, the position opens up with roughly equal chances.

Every player who meets 1.d4, 1.Nf3 and 1.c4 knows the problem. Against a strong, well-prepared opponent, Black rarely gets the opening he prepared for. White can choose the Catalan, slip into a Neo-Catalan move order to sidestep the main theory, or stay in Réti territory altogether.
Each choice normally demands its own repertoire, its own files and its own hours of study.
GM Abdulla Gadimbayli's answer is a single move: ...Nbd7. In The Catalan with ...Nbd7: A Modern Repertoire for Black, the knight goes to d7 in every line, against the Catalan, the Neo-Catalan and the Réti alike.

The Queen's Indian Defence is a classical opening, usually valued more for its solid positional foundation than for its fighting potential. IM Deboushnik De's new repertoire keeps that foundation but adds novelties, ambitious ideas and aggressive lines that let Black fight for the initiative.
The central idea goes back to Aron Nimzowitsch. His 4...Ba6, aimed straight at the c4-pawn, turns a developing move into a question White has to answer immediately. The repertoire is built around that question, and around a broader principle: Black's setup should be decided by what White has already committed to.

Few positions have been studied as deeply as the Carlsbad. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5, White's plans have been known for more than a century: the minority attack with b4-b5, or f3 followed by e4.
That is exactly what makes it a hard test. When everyone knows the plans, Black needs more than general understanding. Black needs a concrete repertoire.
This database is the next stage of the Modern Chess Autumn Challenge. For this stage, GM Tomás Sosa, FM Sebastian Reimann, GM Jan Subelj and IM Ajay Santhosh received the same task: a repertoire for Black against the Exchange Variation with 5.Bg5. Each of them worked on it independently.
Four recommendations. No two alike.

After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.e3 d5, the game reaches an isolated queen's pawn structure that belongs to no single opening — the very same positions arise from the Panov Attack, the Semi-Tarrasch, the Queen's Gambit Declined and the Symmetrical English, so learning to handle them once pays off for the rest of your career. Across seven lectures, GM Ioannis Papaioannou begins with two full sessions on the attacking ideas and technical procedures of the structure itself, then builds the concrete repertoire on top: the immediate 4...d5, the Panov tabiya after 5.exd4 d5, and Black's attempts to stay flexible.

Some ideas wait years for their moment. Back in 2014, with virtually no practical games to lean on, GM Pier Luigi Basso began analyzing a quiet developing move in one of the sharpest corners of the Nimzo-Indian — 8...Nc6 — and then set it aside. It remained largely unexplored until GM Daniel Fridman finally brought it to the board.
Part 2 of The Nimzo-Indian Reloaded is where that idea, and the entire 4.Qc2 complex around it, receives its full treatment. If Part 1 was about out-waiting the Rubinstein, this volume is about reviving a concept that sat dormant for a decade — the "reload" is an old idea given new life.

Every strong player knows the reflex: you look at a position, count the material, and reach a verdict — until the board refuses to agree. GM Baadur Jobava describes exactly that reaction the first time he met the key endgame of this repertoire. White seems to hold a sound extra pawn, yet the two bishops tell a different story, and Black equalizes.
That quiet contradiction — the extra pawn that looks decisive and isn't — runs through the whole of The Austrian Defence: A Dynamic Weapon for Black. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c5, Black meets the Queen's Gambit not by accepting or declining it, but by answering one gambit with another.

Players reach for the Slav to put White to the test. The heavy main lines after 3.Nc3 when Black captures on c4, the Chebanenko with ...a6, the sharpest Semi-Slav tabiyas — each one asks White to remember a great deal of theory before the real game even starts. The Positional Way against the Slav sidesteps all of it.
GM Abdulla Gadimbayli, the 2022 World Junior Champion, meets 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 with 3.Nf3 and 4.g3 — a Catalan-flavoured fianchetto that moves the struggle off memorized lines and onto strategic ground. White develops naturally, places the bishop on g2, and keeps the structure flexible rather than forcing an early clash.