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.
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4h 22m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests
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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.
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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?
Sequence: Malakhov's Slav Defense »
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2h 32m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests
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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.
Sequence: 1.d4 According to Dreev »
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4h 38m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests
In 1931, Max Euwe and José Raúl Capablanca reached a position where Black had just sacrificed the exchange on a8. Capablanca, with the black pieces, stood better — and never realised it, repeating moves into a draw he should have been pressing to win.
Nearly a century later, that same position is the critical theoretical battleground of this repertoire. White's most testing engine moves still lead straight back to it, and Black is still playing for three results. That is the spirit of the whole course: principled, fighting, and built on lines that reward the player who understands them.
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3h 9m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice
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Few openings announce their intentions as openly as the Exchange Slav. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.cxd5 cxd5, White releases the central tension and accepts a symmetrical pawn structure. For most of its history this has been read as a peace offering: trade early, simplify, and steer toward a dry position where Black's best case is half a point.
Exchange Slav for Black — Top-Level Repertoire sets out to overturn that reading. Its premise, in GM Vladimir Malakhov's words, is that symmetry is not the same as a quiet life — Black can answer every White setup with positions that keep real winning chances on the board.
Sequence: Malakhov's Slav Defense »
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3h 38m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice
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GM Pier Luigi Basso and GM Andrea Stella's bundle covers three openings — the Express Najdorf for Black against 1.e4, the Queen's Gambit Accepted with 3...b5!? against 1.d4, and the Catalan Siege for White — built on a single principle: learn structures, not variations. Across 14 chapters and 30 test positions, the bundle delivers a complete tournament repertoire that a serious player can put to use over a weekend.
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For most of its history, the London System was the opening you reached for when you wanted a quiet life. Baadur Jobava changed the question. By slipping the knight to c3 before the bishop appears — 1.d4 d5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bf4 — he kept everything that made the London easy to learn and added what the classical version never had: a direct route to creating attacking chances. The early Nc3 unlocks the thematic Nb5 jump against the weak c7-square and clears the way for the Qd2–Bh6 plan against the fianchetto. That is the idea running through this repertoire from start to finish — the London, rebuilt as an attacking system.
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4h 43m PGN Download Memory Booster Interactive Tests Computer Practice
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When IM Filip Pancevski took up the King's Indian Defence at age 12, he couldn't have imagined he'd still be wielding it more than two decades later—through database explosions, engine revolutions, and countless theoretical novelties. Yet here we are. The KID has survived every computational assault not because the positions are "objectively equal" (they often aren't), but because the resulting chaos favors the player who understands the ideas over the one who memorizes computer lines.
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GM Baadur Jobava and GM Andrea Stella continue their King's Indian Defense series for Black with a complete repertoire against the Makogonov 5.h3 — the flexible system Carlsen, Caruana, and Giri reach for when they want to squeeze without overextending. Across 11 chapters, the course offers clear structural plans for every White setup, with several rare lines that take Black off the database by move eight.
Sequence: King's Indian Defense According to Jobava »
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