Courses (1100)

Doubled pawns appear in countless openings, yet most players never develop a consistent way to handle them. Most handle them by feel rather than by principle, which rarely holds up under pressure.

GM Ioannis Papaioannou built his latest course around exactly this problem. From the Opening to the Middlegame: Positions with Doubled Pawns is not a theoretical overview of doubled-pawn structures. It is a training system for developing structural judgment — the kind of understanding that replaces rules of thumb with genuine positional reasoning.

There is a persistent gap in chess improvement literature between what engines show and what players actually need to understand. The best move in a position and the right way to think about that position are often completely different things. This gap — between engine output and human decision-making — is precisely what GM Ioannis Papaioannou has been building a methodology to close, one edition at a time.
Inside Your Games – Edition 3 is not a course about perfect moves. It is a course about real thinking, in real games, under real conditions.
As GM Ioannis Papaioannou explains, the goal of this project is simple but rare: to show how a strong player evaluates positions, forms plans, and makes decisions — not how a chess engine assigns numbers to moves.

The Grünfeld Defence has long been the refuge of players who want counterplay with absolute theoretical reliability. Unlike most defences, it does not merely survive early pressure — it thrives on it. For decades, the Fianchetto System (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d5) has been White's most principled attempt to reduce that dynamism, steering the game into a quieter, more strategic frame. The irony, as any experienced 1.d4 player knows, is that "quieter" does not mean "easier." Against a well-prepared Grünfeld player, the Fianchetto can feel like a maze without an exit. The new Modern Chess course Fianchetto System vs the Grünfeld: Complete White Repertoire, by GM Alexey Dreev and GM Pier Luigi Basso, is built precisely to change that.

The Paulsen Sicilian has long been a weapon of choice for players who want to outplay their opponents from a position of strategic complexity. Black's setup with ...a6 and ...e6 is deceptively flexible — it avoids early commitments while preparing a rich middlegame where initiative often shifts gradually. For decades, White's responses were either sharp and double-edged or solid but uninspiring. GM Jose Martinez Alcantara and IM Dragos Ceres propose something different: 5.Bd3, a move that is flexible, concrete, and immediately sets the terms of the game.

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.

For most of its history, 3…Nd4 in the Ruy Lopez has been the kind of move that earns a raised eyebrow rather than serious theoretical concern. GM Mahammad Muradli's starting point for this course is a simple observation: the same idea in the Rossolimo Sicilian is an entirely different story. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4, Black sidesteps conventional theory entirely, gaining initiative, active piece play, and a pawn structure White has almost never faced before at a practical level. This course provides a full Black repertoire built around that idea — concrete, thoroughly prepared, and almost entirely off the theoretical map.

For decades, the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann has been a frustrating line for Black players at every level. Against weaker opponents, it offers few winning chances; against stronger ones, full equality isn't easy to achieve. White's seemingly modest setup conceals concrete resources that punish imprecision while limiting Black's counterplay. The classical approach of accepting simplified equality has left generations of Caro-Kann practitioners searching for something more—a way to compete for the full point without compromising positional foundations.

This project is built around video discussions between GM Ivan Cheparinov and GM Petar G. Arnaudov, where modern opening ideas are explored, explained, and placed in their practical context. While GM Cheparinov provides the core analysis and theoretical insights, the conversational format with GM Arnaudov makes the material especially instructive and engaging, allowing ideas to be developed naturally through discussion.
Originally delivered as part of Modern Chess Academy, these two editions are now available as a standalone digital product that includes video discussions, annotated PGN files, and a full training section with test positions.

After dismantling Black's ambitious setups in Part 1, GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso return with the second volume of their Strategic 1.Nf3 System, focusing on the resilient ...e6 systems. This is where theory meets practice at its finest. While Part 1 addressed direct confrontation, Part 2 tackles the positions where Black opts for solid development, aiming to neutralize White's ambitions through careful piece placement and structural integrity. The course demonstrates how to maintain the initiative even when facing Black's most respectable defenses, transforming seemingly equal positions into long-term strategic advantages.

For decades, White's third move against the French Defence has been a matter of philosophical choice. The Winawer with 3.Nc3 demands precise preparation and sharp, deeply analyzed lines. The Advance with 3.e5 releases the central tension and hands Black a ready-made plan with …c5 and …Nc6. The Tarrasch with 3.Nd2 has long been regarded as the calmer alternative — but in the hands of GM Aydin Suleymanli, it becomes something considerably more ambitious: a flexible, positionally grounded weapon that sidesteps Black's sharpest theoretical replies while generating concrete, long-term pressure. The system's apparent modesty is precisely what makes it dangerous — and Suleymanli's course is built on that insight.