11/13/2023 – Ivan Sokolov's long awaited "Understanding Middlegame Strategies" continues! The dutch Grandmaster and star coach released three new volumes on the French Winawer, Catalan Structures, and the French Tarrasch Variation.
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Many young top-players are opting for the trendy “Dynamic Catalan” where, against the triangle or semi-slav structures, White can sacrifice a pawn to gain immediate initiative. This sacrifice can lead to long term positional advantage, but often White can unleash dangerous threats upon the black king with a central pawn break.
Many games will become attacking adventures for White, with various opportunities to sacrifice material and create stunning threats. The “Dynamic Catalan” can be your choice of opening - if you are willing to take the game into your own hands from the very beginning; and with this video course, you will add a sharp weapon to your repertoire.
The author GM Ivan Sokolov has been on the white side of the “Dynamic Catalan” in many top-level games, against players such as Caruana and Vallejo Pons, and “felt comfortable playing it: space, initiative, safe king.”
Video running time: 4 hours 48 minutes
With interactive training including video eefdback
Extra: Training with ChessBase apps - Pyla “Dynamic Ctalan” positions againts Fritz on various levels
Ivan Sokolov: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 7 - Dynamic Catalan
New: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 8 - French – Winawer
The French is a complex opening and can lead to a wide variety of middlegames. The Winawer after 3...Bb4 is Black’s most proactive option, immediately weakening White’s pawn structure by doubling their c-pawns.
While Black gets to play against the weak square d4, White often gets attacking chances on the kingside and a space advantage. Structurally, this line can lead to closed positions after ...c4, or open and dynamic play by white’s structural exchange dxc5.
“My game selection is aimed at explaining the most important plans of these strategically complex positions.” (Author GM Ivan Sokolov)
Video running time: 3 hours 55 minutes
With interactive training including video feedback
Extra: Training with ChessBase apps - Play “French: Winawer” positions again
Ivan Sokolov: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 8 - French Winawar
New: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 9 - French – Tarrasch
In the Tarrasch variation, White seems to be doing great, but initial evaluations can be deceptive and Black certainly has trumps, creating complicated and fascinating positions.
“The French´s household-name proponent is the legendary Victor Kortschnoj - arguably the best player to have never become world champion - so naturally, I have included a number of his games.”
He played these positions in two of his World Championship matches in 1978 & 1981 against Anatoly Karpov - who many consider to be the most precise player against isolated pawns - not losing a single game.
French middlegames are very rich and tricky to master, but with this video course you will gain a better positional understanding and learn precise strategic planning.
Video running time: 3 hours 50 minutes
With interactive training including video feedback
Extra: Training with ChessBase apps - Play “French: Tarrasch” positions against Fritz on various levels
Ivan Sokolov: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol. 9 - French Tarrasch
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
€59.90
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