Courses (358)

Reykjavik, 1972, Game 5. Boris Spassky plays the Nimzo-Indian's most popular system, and Bobby Fischer answers with an idea that looks almost careless: he captures on c3 without waiting for a3, voluntarily giving up the bishop pair. Then comes the point — ...d6, ...e5, and a blockade that slowly suffocates White's position. Twenty-seven moves later, Spassky resigns.
That blockading concept, refined by GM Robert Hübner in the late 1960s and 1970s, is the foundation of GM Mitrabha Guha's new course. Against the Rubinstein System with 4.e3 — by far White's most popular reply — Guha recommends exactly the Hübner treatment: 4...c5 followed by an early exchange on c3 and the strategic clamp with ...d6 and ...e5. It is a repertoire built on plans, not on memorizing long lines of theory.

Part 1 gave White a reliable structure against Black's classical setups. Part 2 answers a different question: what happens when the opponent has done the homework? GMs Alexey Dreev and Pier Luigi Basso built this course around Black's sharpest, most computer-tested tries against 3.Bf4 — the exact positions a well-prepared opponent will steer toward today. The repertoire doesn't just patch holes; it turns the London into what Dreev calls "a complete, future-proof weapon."

The King's Indian Defense has never been an opening for players content with a draw. It is the choice of World Champions like Fischer, Tal, Spassky and Kasparov, and modern stars such as Hikaru Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov, who wanted to fight for the initiative as Black from the very first moves. Its logic is deliberately provocative: Black concedes the center, lets White build it, and stakes everything on dynamic counterplay.
That fighting spirit has a precise face in this repertoire. In the Classical main line, GM Aydin Suleymanli does not steer into the most heavily analyzed channels — he reaches for 7...Bg4, a rare idea in which Black is perfectly content to give up the light-squared bishop for White's knight. It is the King's Indian bargain in miniature: trade a small concession for clarity and activity, then play for the win.

For decades the London System has carried a reputation for being quiet, safe, and a touch boring — a system you reach for when you want a calm game rather than a fight.
GM Alexey Dreev opens this course by dismantling that idea from forty years of personal experience. The London, he argues, is far more unpleasant to face than its tame image suggests.
Black has many setups that equalize on paper, yet in nearly all of them he is left untangling small, irritating practical problems move after move. That gap between reputation and reality is the thread running through Part 1, and the goal is stated plainly: by the end, you are the one posing the problems.

For most of chess history, voluntarily handing your opponent a broad pawn center looked less like a plan and more like a concession. The King's Indian Defense turned that instinct on its head. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6, Black invites White to occupy the center with pawns and then sets out to undermine it with timely counterplay — a hypermodern provocation in the 1930s that, over the following decades, became one of Black's most trusted ways to play for a win against 1.d4.
GM Mitrabha Guha builds the course around that evolution rather than around a wall of theory. He traces how understanding of the King's Indian deepened across nearly nine decades of practice — from the foundational games of the 1930s, through Fischer's win over Korchnoi in 1970 and the Korchnoi–Kasparov clash of 1992, up to Praggnanandhaa–Giri in 2022. The structures repeat and the ideas accumulate, so that following them in order teaches you to feel the opening rather than memorize it.

"A knight on the rim is dim." Few maxims are drilled into beginners more often — and few are refuted more elegantly than by 7...Na6 in the Classical King's Indian. The knight steps to the edge not to linger there, but to spring into c5, where it pressures e4 while Black's central counterplay gathers force.
That paradox runs through the whole of Part 4. Instead of the dense, move-for-move theory demanded by 7...Nc6 or 7...Nbd7, Black gets a repertoire organized around recurring ideas: the ...Na6–c5 route, the flexible ...Qe7, reinforcing e5 while keeping all options open, and the thematic ...Ng4 and ...f5 breaks. The same plans reappear against almost everything White tries, so understanding carries the load rather than memorization.

For decades, the Vienna Variation asked Black to walk a tightrope. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4, the classical road was 5...Bb4, holding the tension with the pin on c3 and the standing threat of ...Nxe4. It worked, but it came wrapped in a thick layer of forcing theory that every well-booked opponent had seen.
Alexander Grischuk reframed the question. Rather than creating and maintaining the tension, why not resolve it at once with 5...b5 — clamping down on the c4-pawn immediately, even before it is properly defended. The point is refreshingly direct: provoke e5, open the b7–h1 diagonal, and develop with ...Bb7 and ...Nc6 at full speed. Material becomes secondary; time, coordination, and pressure on d4 are what matter. The Neo-Vienna - A Dynamic Approach to the Queen's Gambit by GM S. P. Sethuraman is built around exactly this idea.

The London System without the memorisation: GM Ioannis Papaioannou presents a practical, low-theory repertoire for White built on understanding the structures rather than recalling forced lines. Organised by Black's setup and taught through model games from elite practice — Carlsen, Ding Liren, Giri, Aronian and others — it gives club players a complete, ready-to-play weapon and stronger players a reliable, time-efficient addition to their 1.d4 arsenal.

This is the third and final volume of Malakhov's Chebanenko trilogy, and by design it is the least theoretical of the three. The first two courses gave Black the complete repertoire — the exact moves and the modern evaluations after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6. This course answers the question those materials deliberately left open: once you know what to play, how do you actually play the middlegame?

Following the success of the 1.d4 According to Dreev series, GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso return with a powerful new chapter—Fight the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. This course provides a complete and ambitious repertoire for White after:
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4
This aggressive continuation challenges Black from the very first moves, setting the tone for dynamic and initiative-driven play. Unlike more reserved systems, 3.e4 seizes central space and creates immediate tactical and strategic dilemmas for the opponent.