Courses (43)

The Catalan has long been one of White's most reliable weapons at the highest level: a quiet setup that accumulates small advantages, sidesteps sharp theory, and exploits Black's structural concessions over a long game. Yet elite practice over the past decade has quietly shifted the balance. Players like Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer have demonstrated that 4...Bb4+ — the early check that defines this repertoire — is not a minor nuance but a genuine strategic weapon. By provoking White's pieces before the pawn structure fully crystallized, Black dictates the terms of the game rather than reacting to White's slow buildup. This course, built around that single provocative move, packages the resulting complex of ideas into a coherent, battle-tested system.

The Catalan is a positional opening, yet its subtlest battles are decided by a single tempo. When Black plays 4...Bb4+ before retreating the bishop to d6, White's bishop lands on d2 instead of staying on c1. This seemingly modest difference—one extra tempo with an already developed piece—creates a web of tactical and strategic nuances that separate preparation from improvisation. GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso's Play the Catalan - Part 4 completes their comprehensive White repertoire by addressing precisely these modern defensive setups that have become the weapon of choice for elite players in recent years.

The Catalan has earned its reputation as one of White's most refined weapons—a setup that squeezes Black positionally without offering clear tactical targets. Traditional responses either accept long-term passivity or aim for quick exchanges that lead to plain equality. The fundamental challenge remains: can Black create genuine winning chances without drifting into positions where White's superior structure and piece placement gradually tell?

GM Mahammad Muradli answers this question with a system that flips the script entirely. His course on 4...dxc4 5.Bg2 Nbd7 presents Black's most principled counterattacking approach—a line that has become the choice of world-class players including Carlsen, Nakamura, and Mamedyarov.

When Dreev and Basso concluded their previous two volumes on the Catalan, they left one critical junction unexplored—the moment after 4.g3 Bb4+, where Black's check forces White into a labyrinth of transpositions. This third installment confronts that complexity head-on, offering not just a repertoire but a conceptual framework for understanding why the same positions arise from wildly different move orders.

The leitmotif here is transposition as weapon rather than obstacle. Where many players see confusion in the multiple routes to similar structures, Dreev and Basso reveal a unifying logic: the early Bd2 creates a tempo advantage that subtly reshapes familiar Catalan positions. After 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 O-O 7.O-O, Black's responses split into distinct strategic families—and White's extra move proves useful in each.

When Magnus Carlsen defeats Fabiano Caruana with an underexplored idea favored by Daniil Dubov, the chess world takes notice. At Norway Chess 2025, Carlsen employed 8.Rd1 in the Classical Catalan—a move with barely 150 games in the database—and won convincingly. This isn't just a novelty; it's a signal that the critical battlegrounds of the Catalan are shifting, and that fresh understanding is waiting for those willing to look beyond the well-trodden paths.
Play the Catalan - Part 2 - 2025 Edition by GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso arrives at precisely this moment, where the Classical Catalan (4...Be7 5.Bg2 0-0) demands renewed attention. While Play the Catalan - Part 1 - 2025 Edition established the foundational Catalan systems, Part 2 confronts Black's most common and historically significant responses—the lines where theory runs deepest and where concrete preparation wins games. This isn't about mastering every variation; it's about understanding the character of each system and knowing which modern approaches, like Carlsen's 8.Rd1, are reshaping the landscape.

When Alexey Dreev first championed the Catalan at the highest level, he didn't just play an opening—he refined a philosophy. Now, in partnership with GM Pier Luigi Basso, that philosophy evolves. Play the Catalan - Part 1 - 2025 Edition arrives exactly one year after their original course, not as a replacement, but as a strategic evolution shaped by elite practice and theoretical earthquakes at the top level.

After an intense first round where seven grandmasters competed with their repertoires against the London System and Jobava London, the chess community has spoken. Now, these three elite players present their weapons against one of the most sophisticated openings in modern chess — the Catalan Opening.

The camp Catalan Refined - Full Repertoire for White after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 is now available as a digital product! This comprehensive course includes all the videos from the camp as well as the PGN file related to the training sessions. The material consists of 10.5 hours of video and a PGN database with 172 files!

In this course, IM Kushager Krishnater delivers a practical and combative repertoire for Black against three of White’s most popular and theoretically resilient systems: the Catalan, the London System, and the Jobava London. True to his trademark style, Krishnater prioritizes fresh, offbeat directions that take the opponent out of their comfort zone—without compromising on objective soundness.

The January edition of Strategy Wednesday, led by GM Ioannis Papaioannou, is now available as a digital product! This course explores the strategic principles of handling a fianchetto bishop, a critical piece in numerous openings, from the King’s Indian and Grünfeld to the Catalan and the English Opening.