In this series, we dive deep into the opening and middlegame, analyzing the most dynamic and aggressive ways to take charge. Through expert commentary, thrilling games, and insightful breakdowns, you’ll discover the art of the initiative—how to grab it, how to keep it, and how to use it to dominate your games.
Are you ready to take control? Then let’s begin the fight for The Initiative!
We take a look at Rapport – L’Ami from the Sigeman tournament in Malmö, followed by a fascinating moment where Ivanchuk lost his game while fighting for the initiative. We also include a game from one of Werle’s students, offering valuable practical insight. As always, there’s a training exercise to sharpen your skills, and we continue with our Opening Repertoire in the French Advance Variation: focusing on how to build up the initiative when fighting for a space advantage.
Example: Westerhof vs Hagen, 2025
GM Jan Werle is a professional chess trainer, coach and author. In 2008 he became EU-champion in Liverpool and reached his peak rating of 2607. He is giving chess lessons online to pupils worldwide but also in schools. He enjoys to help and teach his students and to watch them improve. Werle regularly publishes video courses with ChessBase. His most recent one being a two volume course on the Catalan.
In volume 1 of his Catalan repertoire, Jan Werle looks at the Open Catalan, i.e. playing with an early ...dxc4. The Dutch grandmaster tends to choose "tough", concrete variations to pose Black difficult problems. In 9 hours and 30 minutes of video time, he designs an ambitious main line repertoire. Such a repertoire requires a good deal of theoretical knowledge, but it is also extremely powerful. The course has made me want to play the Catalan more often again – even without deferred c2-c4!
A recent example of Supergrandmasters playing the Catalan...
