🏆 Shortlisted for Best Opening Course of 2021 🏆
The 14th World Champion Reveals
His 'User Manual' For Playing
And Winning With 1.e4
Do you struggle to gain an edge with 1.e4 and lose the thread when facing an unfamiliar opening? If so, then we bring you fantastic news.The 14th World Champion,
Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik, returns to Chessable. And in his latest course, he passes onto you his mastery of 1.e4 — enabling you to expertly navigate the opening and outplay the opposition.
Chess players then and now admire Vladimir's strategic genius and harmonious playing style. But what most people miss is that he's also one of the best coaches around to teach you the intricacies of 1.e4.
Vladimir has played 1.e4 since 1984, when he was barely 10 years old, and...
It's his rich experience in the opening which allowed him to wrestle the World Championship from Garry Kasparov in 2000... and defend the title in 2004 and 2006.
Yet Vladimir's command of 1.e4 only got better after he was crowned champion — tested and refined through 20-plus years of super GM tournaments and matches.
Today, he shares with you the tactical and strategic insights he's amassed through the decades. So you too can...
Play And Win With 1.e4
Like A World Champion
Understanding Chess Openings: 1.e4, Part 1 Black's Sidelines has all of the trademarks of a five-star Chessable opening course — from top-level analysis... ready-made middlegame plans... to club player-friendly instruction.
But unlike your usual opening repertoire — which focuses on one side only — Vladimir's course examines 1.e4 from White
and Black's point of view.
By taking a 360-degree view of the opening, not only do you learn move-by-move variations. You also gain a better understanding of the thematic plans for both sides... find the best squares for your pawns and pieces more easily... and play the arising middlegame positions to their full potential.
This way, even if you encounter an opening you've never seen before, you can...
Count On Your Fine-Tuned Understanding To
Show You The Route To An Advantage
But even better:
Vladimir also shows you at least three strategies for meeting Black's major defenses and sidelines. Whether you're looking to:
✔️ Play for a small but stable edge you can "milk" all game long
✔️ Seal the deal with a vicious kingside attack
✔️ Or cruise to a pleasant, risk-free position
You can count on the champ's recommendations to give you the game you want.
Part one of
Understanding Chess Openings: 1.e4 takes on the Caro-Kann, French, Scandinavian and Pirc Defense... as well as strange openings common in club-level games. Here's what you'll learn inside the course:
🧠 The simple three-step counter which takes the sting out of oddball openings like 1...a6. Zoom to a pleasant advantage, without having to study more theory.
🧠 An easy-to-remember plan against the double-fianchetto. Let the Nakamura-wannabes reach their favorite setup... because when you control 62.5% of board, you've got all the winning chances.
🧠 The only playable plan for Black in the Alekhine. Throw a monkey wrench into that plan, and you get long-term attacking chances against the enemy king.
🧠 The correct mindset against the club-favorite Scandinavian Defense. Your sense of urgency can mean the difference between winning in less than 12 moves and boring equality.
🧠 How to pick apart the Pirc Defense. Vladimir shows you two positional setups which give you a firm grip on the center... plus two attacking systems that go straight for the enemy king's jugular.
🧠 A less-popular response to the French Defense which gives you a near-guaranteed attack... minus the complicated theory and middlegame structures of the classical main line.
🧠 How to secure the bishop pair and the better pawn structure against an early ...Bf5 or ...Bg4 in the Caro-Kann. With these positional trumps in your grasp, most middlegame and endgame scenarios work to your advantage.
PLUS, every chapter also ends with a summary with links to model games. Many of which were played by Vladimir Kramnik himself and other World Champions.
With their finest games at your fingertips, you've got a treasure trove of winning middlegame strategies you can 'swipe' and use for your own.
Winning with 1.e4 is a lot easier when you have the 14th World Champion's 360-degree understanding of the opening. Vladimir Kramnik took almost 40 years to achieve that level of mastery. But you don't have to because...
The Champ Himself Shows You
The Shortcuts To 1.e4 Success
The cover art for this course was designed with a photo by David Llada
