Courses (1098)

For decades, 1.e4 e5 players prepared their Marshall, their Berlin, their Open Spanish—only to face 5.d3 on move five. What was once dismissed as a “safe” sideline has quietly become White’s second most popular choice, appearing nearly as often as 5.O-O in elite practice. The landscape has shifted: you can no longer afford to treat these deviations as afterthoughts. Ruy Lopez for Black – Jospem’s Repertoire against the Sidelines addresses this modern reality head-on, offering a unified solution to every sideline White throws at you before castling kingside.

When GM Michael Roiz surveyed the modern Nimzo-Indian landscape, he observed that while 4.e3 and 4.Qc2 dominate tournament practice, three ambitious sister systems—4.f3, 4.a3 (Sämisch), and 4.g3—remain strategically interconnected yet theoretically underserved.
Part 2 of his Nimzo-Indian Defense According to Roiz series addresses precisely this gap, offering Black a coherent positional framework across these critical lines. This course doesn’t merely catalog variations—it builds a unified strategic language for navigating White’s most aggressive central setups, from Gheorghiu’s bold 4.f3 to Petrosian’s patient Sämisch approach and the Catalan-flavored 4.g3.

When GM Efstratios Grivas prepared for the 2008 Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, he faced a familiar dilemma: how to meet the Slav Defense without drowning in the theoretical quicksand that swallows hours of preparation?
His solution — the modest 4.Nbd2 — delivered instantly, scoring a critical win against German GM Arik Braun.
Nearly two decades later, with adoption by Carlsen, Mamedyarov, Nakamura, Aronian, and Giri, this “sideline” has quietly evolved into a serious weapon.

The Pseudo-Trompowsky — 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bg5 — doesn’t announce itself with fireworks.
At first glance, it resembles a typical positional setup, the kind of position Black faces regularly after 1.d4. But this similarity is deceiving.
As GM Baadur Jobava notes in his introduction:
“At first sight, this looks calm, but that’s exactly why it works.”

When Grandmaster Ioannis Papaioannou began exploring the Reversed Torre setup — where Black achieves the Torre Attack structure with colors reversed after 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 c6 4.O-O (or c4) Bg4 — he discovered something remarkable: a complete system that transforms White’s flexible Reti into a concrete positional battleground.

For years, Grandmaster Alexey Dreev searched for the ideal Sicilian Defense — one that combined strategic depth with practical clarity, free from the endless theoretical arms races that define the Dragon or Najdorf.
He found his answer in the Four Knights Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6) — an opening that delivers rich, fighting positions without demanding decades of Sicilian experience.

The Nimzo-Indian Defense has long been one of chess’s most flexible openings — not because it’s vague, but because of the richness of its strategic options.
In this new course, GM Michael Roiz, together with GM Grigor Grigorov and IM Siegfried Baumegger, demonstrates that true flexibility requires depth — the ability to select systems that fit your style while maintaining concrete control of the position.

Most opening repertoires ask: “What should I play against this move?”
GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy and GM Pier Luigi Basso ask something different:
“What does White’s first move tell us about what he cannot play?”
Their new course, 1.Nf3 b6 According to Bernadskiy – Complete Repertoire for Black, is built on a simple positional insight:
once White commits to Nf3, he loses access to the e4–d4–Bd3 setup that makes 1.e4 b6 questionable.
This isn’t a theoretical loophole — it’s a structural reality that transforms 1...b6 from a sideline into a legitimate, fighting system.

In My System, Aron Nimzowitsch elevated the concept of space advantage from a tactical convenience to a strategic imperative — the idea that controlling more squares isn’t about comfort, but about systematically restricting your opponent’s possibilities.
Nearly a century later, GM Ioannis Papaioannou revisits this classical principle with modern precision. His course Strategy Wednesday: Space Advantage – From the Opening to the Middlegame explores not just what space advantage is, but when and how it transforms into tangible winning chances.

The 1...d6 setup—once dismissed as passive—has been reborn through engine analysis and high-level practice as a flexible, resilient system that poses concrete problems even at the elite level.
The Modern Philidor Defense – 2025, by GM Baadur Jobava and GM Pier Luigi Basso, now enhanced by the distinguished addition of GM Vladimir Malakhov, represents the defense’s full evolution: not merely solid, but strategically rich and tactically dangerous.