Courses (1087)

For decades, the London System carried a dual reputation. Strong players employed it as a reliable universal weapon, while critics dismissed it as a toothless option. GM Ivan Cheparinov's new course challenges this perception entirely.
His London isn't about avoiding preparation—it's about controlling the narrative. Where traditional London theory offers White a safe harbor, Cheparinov presents something more refined: a repertoire built on concrete plans rather than generic setups. Each of Black's defensive structures receives a tailored response, and what emerges is a system where White's flexibility becomes a weapon rather than a compromise.

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.

For decades, the Dragon existed in uncertain territory—too dangerous to die, too sharp to be trusted. Bobby Fischer declared it lost. Yet there were always believers, grandmasters who saw something the verdict missed. Now, with modern chess engines rewriting opening theory, those believers are proven right. GM Sina Movahed's new course presents the Dragon not as a rehabilitation project but as a fully operational weapon for Black, armed with the dynamic resources modern engines have finally revealed.

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 fourth installment of GM Ioannis Papaioannou's Inside Your Games series is now available — and it begins with an unusual editorial choice. The games analyzed in this course were not selected because they are beautiful, technically clean, or theoretically important. They were selected because they contain the typical decision-making moments where practical games are actually decided.

GM Ioannis Papaioannou presents a complete White repertoire after 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3, built around the flexible 3.Nbd2 system that bypasses the King's Indian and Grünfeld theoretical battlefronts in favor of strategically rich positions where understanding outweighs memorization. Across seven lessons the course covers Black's full range of responses — 3...d5 with both quiet and ...c5-based setups, ...d6 structures with both Bb5+ and Bd3 plans, the energetic 3.Nc3 against 2...d6 leading to Pirc and Philidor positions, and the gambit 4.e4 against 2...c5 3.d5 b5. The course is the digital release of Papaioannou's training camp, featuring 10.5 hours of professionally edited video lectures, the complete annotated PGN material with additional analysis, and lifetime access — built for serious players who want a unified strategic system instead of separate preparation against each Black defense.

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 Garry Kasparov dominated the chess world with the King's Indian Defense, the Saemisch Variation wasn't just another sideline—it was the system that repeatedly tested his intuition under concrete pressure. White's central clamp with f3 and e4 creates a position where Black cannot simply rely on standard patterns.
With over 100,000 games in the database, 5.f3 stands as the second most popular response to the King's Indian—and one of the most challenging to face. Unlike other King's Indian lines, Black rarely gets the typical kingside attack. The game takes a completely different strategic direction.
This is precisely why GM Baadur Jobava and GM Andrea Stella built their second course around a clear principle: in the Saemisch, Black needs a structured system that transforms White's space advantage from a strength into a static weakness.

The second part of GM Davorin Kuljasevic's Understanding the French project is now available. The first course — Understanding the French Defense: Middlegame Structures and Strategy — covered Classical and Winawer structures, the two pawn-structure families that arise from the most theoretically dense lines of the French. With those covered, the project now turns to the three remaining families of central pawn structures arising from 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5: Open French, Closed French, and French Gambit structures.

This flexible system, anchored by the move order 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.c4, transforms what is often seen as a vague “less concrete” approach into a practical weapon offering positional safety, easy learning, and rich middlegame play without the heavy memorization of mainline theory. GM Sina Movahed’s repertoire provides concrete responses to critical moments—such as turning Grünfeld attempts into uncomfortable positions with 6.h4 or seizing the initiative against symmetrical setups with 5.e4—making this underrated weapon a powerful choice for modern players.