Courses (1087)

GM Vladimir Malakhov and GM Pier Luigi Basso present the fourth volume of Malakhov's Structures series — a complete strategic study of the Exchange Slav pawn structure from Capablanca's era to today. Across model games, typical endgames, and Basso's own practical experience, the course reveals how minimal asymmetries in this deceptively symmetrical structure become decisive at every level of play.

GM Ioannis Papaioannou presents a complete strategic study of the Maroczy Bind across four lectures and 151 annotated games. The course covers the structure from both sides — typical plans for White, counterplay for Black, the critical art of exchanges, and the transition into superior endgames.

The Petroff Defense has become the ultimate drawing weapon at the elite level. Carlsen, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Giri—all deploy it as their primary answer to 1.e4, steering opponents into symmetrical endgames where White's advantage evaporates by move 15. For ambitious 1.e4 players, facing the Petroff has felt like walking into a theoretical wall: sound preparation meets sound defense, and the result is predictable balance.
GM Jose Martinez Alcantara and GM Pier Luigi Basso offer a different approach. Their new course, Fight the Petroff Defense - White Repertoire, builds an aggressive, concrete system based on 5.d4 followed by 6.Bd3—the classical development that keeps the center open and maintains practical tension. Rather than aiming for marginal edges in lifeless structures, this repertoire targets specific imbalances in each of Black's setups. The key move 8.Nbd2 forces Black into immediate concrete decisions, and every resulting position comes with a clear plan.

When GM Pier Luigi Basso faced Ivana Hrescak at the Porto Rose Open 2019, he was chasing 2600 and needed something new. His main weapon—the Italian Game with 1.e4 e5—had delivered painful results against lower-rated opponents. The solution arrived in the form of: 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6, the Caro-Pirc hybrid. That first game became the spark for a complete repertoire.
This opening fuses the ambition of the Pirc with the structural control of the Caro-Kann. You avoid the theoretical weight of both systems while keeping genuine winning chances. The position after 3...c6 offers flexibility without chaos, solidity without passivity—a balance rarely found in modern opening theory.

The Slav Defense has long held a unique status among Black's responses to 1.d4—a reputation for solidity without passivity, resilience without concession. While other defenses against the Queen's Gambit force Black into early structural commitments or passive piece placement, the Slav allows natural development and maintains central tension.
GM Mahammad Muradli's Slav Defense — Full Repertoire for Black delivers a complete, practical repertoire centered on the Classical Slav with 4...dxc4, designed for players who value long-term reliability over short-term fashion.

Twenty years of practical refinement, now brought to completion. GM Vladimir Malakhov, one of the world's foremost Chebanenko experts, returns to finish what Part 1 began.
Where the first volume covered White's most critical tries—5.c5, 5.e3, and 5.g3—this second part closes every remaining door. The anti-Chebanenko systems, the sidelines, the move-order tricks that strong players use to avoid main theory: all of them are met with concrete solutions.
This is not supplementary material; this is the completion of a professional repertoire that has weathered decades of grandmaster practice.

GM Pier Luigi Basso has played the Slav with Black his entire career. He knows which White systems create genuine discomfort for a prepared Slav player—and which ones a Black player secretly welcomes. This course was shaped by that experience from the other side of the board.
The lines presented here are the ones Basso never enjoyed facing: the most venomous, practical systems against the Slav. This is what distinguishes the repertoire—it's not theoretical completeness for its own sake, but a curated selection of the positions that make strong Slav players uncomfortable.

When Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana choose to adopt reversed Sicilian ideas with White, there's a reason. GM Anton Korobov's new course on 1.c4 e5 2.d3 explores this exact transformation—taking one of the most respected and dynamic structures in chess, the Najdorf, and wielding it with an extra tempo.
The concept isn't new, but Korobov's systematic treatment offers something rare: a complete repertoire that combines strategic depth with practical punch. The system has attracted both world champions and rising stars like Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer, highlighting its credibility at the highest level.

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.

GM Ulf Andersson — former World No. 4 — joins GM Petar Arnaudov for an engine-free discussion of eight of his own games in the Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian structures he played as Black throughout his career. A rare chance to listen to a legendary positional player explain his own work.