This week at Chessable, everything seemed to point back to one key idea:
Stronger foundations equal steadier progressions.
The simple lessons you learn now don’t just help in your next few games. They keep paying you back long after. Sharpening your positional feel, making tactics easier to spot, and even raising your win rate over time.
You’ll find plenty such insights in our roundup!
Kicking things off…
The Chessable Community Sale is on! It’s packed with over 300 standout courses up to 40% off.
Many were written by community authors tackling the same chess headaches we face.
And because they’ve lived through those struggles themselves, they often offer the simplest, real-world fixes — even ones a GM might miss.
But one course stood out this year, and it won the 2025 Chessable Community Course of the Year Award.
Chessablers, we present you…
The Principled & Practical 1.e4 (for Club Players) by Benner
This “dual-lens” repertoire wins up to 75%. It uses speed chess databases to find moves that are easy to play under pressure… then checks them against master-level games to make sure they hold up. The result? A repertoire that grows stronger as ratings go higher!
Check it out
Along with the sale, 3 big names in chess improvement also returned to Chessable. Check out their freshest releases:
The Complete Manual of Positional Chess – Volume 2 by GM Peter Svidler
Three super-grandmasters teach you how to command your pawns and pieces like a general. Based on a national training course for reaching 2000-2200, you can study their manual from start to finish, or use it as on-demand coaching from a 6-time World Championship candidate.
Check it out
Beyond the Basics 1: Build Up Your Chess by Quality Chess & by GM Artur Yusupov
Former world #3 Artur Yusupov gives your chess the structure it needs to reach expert level. Through 24 practice-driven chapters and rated tests, he builds up your 6 core chess skills. So you don’t become that player who shines in one area, then falls apart in the next.
Check it out
Starting Out: Queen’s Gambit Accepted
This repertoire against 1.d4 frees you from the “must defend the center” mental trap. Instead, you open lines right away, develop with attack, and stir up crisp tactics. In some lines, you wreck White’s pawn structure before move 10. So even deep into the endgame, you’re still pressing for the win!
Check it out
You’ve probably heard of the Russian Chess School.
You see it in countless chess books and courses. And for generations, it helped produce grandmasters and world champions.
But what was it, really?
Was it an actual network of elite schools… or a culture that taught players how to think about chess from the ground up? And what made names like Botvinnik and Dvoretsky so central to it all?
8-time Russian champion Peter Svidler tells it all in this YouTube video.
That’s a wrap for our roundup. See you in the next one.