CanadianClub wrote on 06/17/22 at 08:24:25:

I know this was just a tangent in your comment, but still: In Anti-Sicilians the stronger player tends to win, whichever side of the board they're sitting.

I'm playing the Sicilian more and more as I'm reducing outings with my good old but risky friend, the Pirc. And predictably I'm getting lots of Anti-Sicilians. But I don't mind it much as most of my regular opponents are weaker than me, and these systems are mostly about understanding (plus some calculation, of course) and less about concrete theory.

The one "Anti" thorn in my side in terms of solidity/drawishness is still the c3 Sicilian, but even there I see some hope. I just need to get much better at playing IQP positions, as they often arise whether I play 2...d5 or 2...Nf6.

CanadianClub wrote on 05/07/22 at 20:44:24:


Very slow unfortunately. Life happened !

CanadianClub wrote on 05/07/22 at 20:44:24:


Wondering  the same, anyone out there get the full course and like to share a review. I will watch the short and sweet later and see how that is.

I'm afraid I can't comment on the Chebanenko Slav course but I can recommend the Colovic LTR QGD course. Very clear and very happy using it so far.

Thanks for the great feedback folks. I have purchased Colovic's LTR Chebanenko Slav without the video. So I am going to give that a try.

Stigma wrote on 05/01/21 at 13:26:31:

It's not my goal to remember the theory, but to try some different openings and variations in correspondence chess. If something sticks, then that is a bonus. Anyway I will increase my experience and hopefully my overall understanding by playing something different.

There is a Bologan book on the Chebanenko, I read parts of it, but nothing about it seems to be at the forefront of my memory.

Antillian wrote on 04/30/21 at 23:38:32:

You're missing that most of the courses can very much be used without the videos, since they contain lots of text explanations too. 
In fact I don't watch much video there at all, but I still use the site a lot.

Each course overview gives the amount of words of instruction (i.e. text). I believe those instruction figures are seriously inflated since the same text bits can be repeated many times in different variations, but still they are useful for comparing the amount of text between courses.

Though for some courses it seems there really is a difference and you'd better get the videos to get the full benefit. Usually this will have been discussed by users in the forum for the course. I've seen this said about Erwin L'Ami's Caro-Kann course and especially about the "Chess Principles Reloaded" strategy courses by Andras Toth. Also, the sheer amount of video really is ballooning on some of the recent courses, especially the "Lifetime Repertoires", which probably means quite a few things are explained only in the videos. Though if you're a strong player, a lot of that could be basic stuff you already understand.

I don't have Colovic's LTR Chebanenko Slav myself, but I expect you can do fine there without the videos. Though it's best to check the course forum for any discusson of that before you buy.