New: Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.5 + Vol.6 by Ivan Sokolov
Understanding an opening doesn’t stop after the theory. It’s essential to understand ideas and structures connected to the opening moves. Furthermore, recognising mistakes by your opponent to gain an advantage is a key component of the middlegame. In this video course we’ll concentrate on Rossolimo and Maroczy structures in the Sicilian Defence. Start improving your understanding of the middlegames now! Vol. 1 Dynamic Pawns and Vol.2 Practical Play released last year, Vol.3 + 4 became available early this year. Now you can get Vol. 5 Sicilian Rossolimo and Maroczy. and Vol.6 Ruy Lopez Structures. Photo: ChessBase
Understanding Middlegame Strategies: Vol. 5 - Sicilian Rossolimo and Maroczy Structures by Ivan Sokolov
The Rossolimo gained popularity recently as it avoids Open Sicilian theory such as the Sveshnikov or Kalashnikov. In essence, we reach an English opening with colours reversed (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 (or 2…Bb4) 3.g3 Bb4) being a tempo up.
As with most colour reversed systems, now we have (as White) a comfortable position (the extra tempo counts after all!), but our aim also changes (as we are no longer happy with a ‘comfortable position’ but are aiming for an advantage).
None other than Magnus Carlsen is playing this opening to a great extent, which is a key component of the selection on this video course. We mostly analyse plans after 3…g6 (followed by Bxc6 with both …bxc6 or …dxc6 recaptures) or 3… e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6.
At first glance White has an ‘obvious advantage‘ in the Marcozy Bind: White has more space with Black not having clear counterplay. Danish chess legend Bent Larsen liked to play against the Maroczy Bind with Black and came up with many ideas that are still viable today.
In this video course, my material is based on the Classical main-line Maroczy bind, I have pointed out the main ideas/positions both sides are aiming for and show surprising strategic mistakes (committed even in top-level games!).
• Video running time: 7 hours 20 minutes (English)
• With interactive training including video feedback
• Extra: Model games database & Training with ChessBase apps - Play key positions against Fritz on various levels
Understanding Middlegame Strategies: Vol. 6 - Ruy Lopez structures
Anatoly Karpov once said: ‘Understanding the Ruy Lopez is crucial to middlegame improvement in chess’. On this video course I opted for ‘Karpov Ruy Lopez understanding type lines’, the massive majority of the material coming from Chigorin, Breyer and Zaitsev variations.
I have tried to give viewers a ‘crash course’ on typical middlegame plans, typical material imbalance ideas (and dynamics), types of positions White or Black should be happy about (or try to avoid!), while combining it (when I saw fit) with useful opening advice (advice based on my forty years’ experience playing and researching those positions).
The course aims to improve the understanding of these types of positions to help the viewer to play better and to get better results.
• Video running time: 6 hours 25 minutes (English)
• With interactive training including video feedback
• Extra: Model games database & Training with ChessBase apps - Play key positions against Fritz on various levels
System Requirements
Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7, DirectX 11 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation.
Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX11, graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11, (DVD-ROM drive) and internet access for program activation.
Mac OSX
Minimum: MacOS "Yosemite" 10.10
About Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov is a Dutch chess Grandmaster and author of popular chess books. He was Yugoslav champion in 1988 and Dutch champion in 1995 and 1998. For more than two decades he has been on of the elite players and has beaten many of the strongest players in the world.
