Your New Opening Repertoire by IM John Watson

The experts say you have to study the endings and we're not going to argue against that, but to reach an ending you must know your openings.

You need to pick the right openings, otherwise, your game will be long over before it’s ever reached an ending.

In this superb video series, top instructor IM John Watson aims to provide you with a powerful yet easy to learn opening repertoire for White and two major lines for Black. The series allows you to construct an opening repertoire based on concepts and reasoning, not hundreds of variations you need to memorize. Many chess players are fed up with having to master openings with dry and time-consuming variations that need hours and hours of memorization. 

IM Watson hand-picks the best openings that you can learn using broader concepts, dissecting the major ideas associated to each opening, the key elements to look out for, and the typical strategies that occur when you play each opening, and how to apply common sense when playing them.

You’ll learn straight forward moves and simple variations that will improve your game, are easy to learn, and will allow you to put them into practice almost immediately without fear of losing many games in the process.

The emphasize will be on opening lines which you can score well with, the typical strategies and reasoning behind them, and how common sense can help keep you out of trouble.

This series is aimed at the majority of chess players, from beginner, up to intermediate and experienced club players.

Start now and begin to enjoy good positions out of the opening in no time!

Included in the White Repertoire:

Watson White Repertoire (01) Lets Get Started (0:22:15)
Watson White Repertoire (02) Alekhine 1 of 2 (0:33:31)
Watson White Repertoire (03) Alekhine 2 of 2 (0:33:51)
Watson White Repertoire (04) Bishop 1 of 5 (0:31:09)
Watson White Repertoire (05) Bishop 2 of 5 (0:34:00)
Watson White Repertoire (06) Bishop 3 of 5 (0:28:39)
Watson White Repertoire (07) Bishop 4 of 5 (0:30:56)
Watson White Repertoire (08) Bishop 5 of 5 (0:37:54)
Watson White Repertoire (09) Caro Kann 1 of 2 (0:30:18)
Watson White Repertoire (10) Caro Kann 2 of 2 (0:32:46)
Watson White Repertoire (11) French 1 of 3 (0:30:57)
Watson White Repertoire (12) French 2 of 3 (0:28:50)
Watson White Repertoire (13) French 3 of 3 (0:33:51)
Watson White Repertoire (14) Pirc 1 of 3 (0:29:59)
Watson White Repertoire (15) Pirc 2 of 3 (0:31:09)
Watson White Repertoire (16) Pirc 3 of 3 (0:40:09)
Watson White Repertoire (17) Scandinavian 1 of 3 (0:36:40)
Watson White Repertoire (18) Scandinavian 2 of 3 (0:35:53)
Watson White Repertoire (19) Scandinavian 3 of 3 (0:35:12)
Watson White Repertoire (20) London System 1 of 4 (0:35:56)
Watson White Repertoire (21) London System 2 of 4 (0:29:43)
Watson White Repertoire (22) London System 3 of 4 (0:33:07)
Watson White Repertoire (23) London System 4 of 4 (0:37:33)
Watson White Repertoire (24) Sicilian 1 of 5 (0:37:09)
Watson White Repertoire (25) Sicilian 2 of 5 (0:35:27)
Watson White Repertoire (26) Sicilian 3 of 5 (0:37:50)
Watson White Repertoire (27) Sicilian 4 of 5 (0:37:01)
Watson White Repertoire (28) Sicilian 5 of 5 (0:39:03)
Watson White Repertoire (29) Unusual replies to e4 1 of 2 (0:41:57)
Watson White Repertoire (30) Unusual replies to e4 2 of 2 (0:36:07)

Total Run Time: 16 hours, 59 minutes

Included the Black Repertoire:

Watson Black Repertoire (01) Chigorin 01 of 07 (0:34:58)
Watson Black Repertoire (02) Chigorin 02 of 07 (0:33:12)
Watson Black Repertoire (03) Chigorin 03 of 07 (0:31:39)
Watson Black Repertoire (04) Chigorin 04 of 07 (0:34:20)
Watson Black Repertoire (05) Chigorin 05 of 07 (0:25:38)
Watson Black Repertoire (06) Chigorin 06 of 07 (0:34:27)
Watson Black Repertoire (07) Chigorin 07 of 07 (0:28:54)
Watson Black Repertoire (08) French 01 of 21 (0:33:55)
Watson Black Repertoire (09) French 02 of 21 (0:29:08)
Watson Black Repertoire (10) French 03 of 21 (0:32:16)
Watson Black Repertoire (11) French 04 of 21 (0:34:20)
Watson Black Repertoire (12) French 05 of 21 (0:32:50)
Watson Black Repertoire (13) French 06 of 21 (0:29:18)
Watson Black Repertoire (14) French 07 of 21 (0:29:58)
Watson Black Repertoire (15) French 08 of 21 (0:31:00)
Watson Black Repertoire (16) French 09 of 21 (0:30:14)
Watson Black Repertoire (17) French 10 of 21 (0:34:55)
Watson Black Repertoire (18) French 11 of 21 (0:30:49)
Watson Black Repertoire (19) French 12 of 21 (0:32:50)
Watson Black Repertoire (20) French 13 of 21 (0:33:15)
Watson Black Repertoire (21) French 14 of 21 (0:31:57)
Watson Black Repertoire (22) French 15 of 21 (0:31:14)
Watson Black Repertoire (23) French 16 of 21 (0:34:15)
Watson Black Repertoire (24) French 17 of 21 (0:29:37)
Watson Black Repertoire (25) French 18 of 21 (0:33:02)
Watson Black Repertoire (26) French 19 of 21 (0:33:28)
Watson Black Repertoire (27) French 20 of 21 (0:26:44)
Watson Black Repertoire (28) French 21 of 21 (0:34:24)
Watson Black Repertoire (29) The English Defense 01 of 15 (0:30:08)
Watson Black Repertoire (30) The English Defense 02 of 15 (0:27:50)
Watson Black Repertoire (31) The English Defense 03 of 15 (0:31:02)
Watson Black Repertoire (32) The English Defense 04 of 15 (0:35:55)
Watson Black Repertoire (33) The English Defense 05 of 15 (0:31:06)
Watson Black Repertoire (34) The English Defense 06 of 15 (0:29:14)
Watson Black Repertoire (35) The English Defense 07 of 15 (0:36:16)
Watson Black Repertoire (36) The English Defense 08 of 15 (0:31:00)
Watson Black Repertoire (37) The English Defense 09 of 15 (0:34:42)
Watson Black Repertoire (38) The English Defense 10 of 15 (0:33:12)
Watson Black Repertoire (39) The English Defense 11 of 15 (0:34:33)
Watson Black Repertoire (40) The English Defense 12 of 15 (0:37:05)
Watson Black Repertoire (41) The English Defense 13 of 15 (0:34:20)
Watson Black Repertoire (42) The English Defense 14 of 15 (0:26:10)
Watson Black Repertoire (43) The English Defense 15 of 15 (0:37:07)

Total Run Time: 23 hours, 02 minutes

Another great ICC video collection for the ambitious chess player in all of us!

Mastering Pawn Play by IM John Watson!

When evaluating a chess position, every master considers four key factors: King Safety, Material count, Piece activity, and Pawn structure. Most amateurs tend to pay too much attention to piece activity and material and neglect how critical pawn play and pawn structure is to assessing positions and deciding on the correct strategy of play.

How many times have you played what you thought was a good game, just to realize you're now facing a lost ending? Many of these endings are lost because players neglect to account for pawn play and resulting pawn structures. But you can stop that now and master the keys of pawn play with this new video series.

1. Pawn chain 1 (0:22:50)
2. Pawn chain 2 (0:37:02)
3. Pawn chain 3 (0:40:10)
4. Pawn chain 4 (0:36:38)
5. Pawn chain 5 (0:34:19)
6. Doubled Pawns 1 (0:31:59)
7. Doubled Pawns 2 (0:29:13)
8. Doubled Pawns 3 (0:31:51)
9. Doubled Pawns 4 (0:36:08)
10. Doubled Pawns 5 (0:33:03)
11. Doubled Pawns 6 (0:33:01)
12. Doubled Pawns 7 (0:33:40)
13. Doubled Pawns 8 (0:34:09)
14. Doubled Pawns 9 (0:33:45)
15. Doubled Pawns 10 (0:31:57)
16. Isolated pawns 1 (0:34:25)
17. Isolated pawns 2 (0:37:30)
18. Isolated pawns 3 (0:36:22)
19. Isolated pawns 4 (0:33:46)
20. Isolated pawns 5 (0:35:55)
21. Isolated pawns 6 (0:36:13)
22. Isolated pawns 7 (0:30:37)
23. Isolated pawns 8 (0:30:32)
24. Isolated pawns 9 (0:34:01)
25. Isolated pawns 10 (0:28:26)
26. Isolated pawns 11 (0:31:24)
27. Isolated pawns 12 (0:32:01)
28. Isolated pawns 13 (0:34:27)
29. Isolated pawns 14 (0:30:57)
30. Isolated pawns 15 (0:32:12)

Encoding: Mp4, Standard H.264, compatible with all Windows and Apple devices.

Total run time: 16 hours, 38 minutes

Tricks & Traps - by IM John Watson

How many tricks and traps are there in the sea of opening theory?

From the simplest ones to the more advanced, IM John Watson in this amazing video series shows you how to fool (or not be fooled by!) your opponent, who might not know the intricacies of an opening.  The course is organized by general opening, and in 15 videos our opening guru IM John Watson provides you with tools that will make your opponents exclam 'How did this happen?'

Video 1 - Introduction to the course (0:23:37)
Video 2 - 1.e4 e5 - Part 1 (0:36:31)
Video 3 - 1.e4 e5 - Part 2 (0:34:53)
Video 4 - 1.e4 c5 - Part 1 (0:36:40)
Video 5 - 1.e4 c5 - Part 2 (0:37:30)
Video 6 - French (0:36:30)
Video 7 - French and Caro-Kann (0:36:00)
Video 8 - Caro-Kann and other 1.e4 openings (0:35:29)
Video 9 - Queen's Gambit Declined (0:42:12)
Video 10 - Slav and QGA (0:38:57)
Video 11 - QGA and London System (0:34:45)
Video 12 - King's Indian (0:37:48)
Video 13 - Nimzo and Queen's Indian (0:38:55)
Video 14 - Grunfeld and Benoni (0:37:15)
Video 15 - English Opening (0:36:22)

This series is aimed at everyone, from the club player to the master.

John shows, statistics at hand, that even simple tricks and traps have caught out of guard FMs, IMs and GMs, some of which rather famous!

By watching this video series, you'll sharpen your tactical sense, understand better your favorite opening, and broaden your general knowledge about openings.

Tricks and traps are everywhere: IM Watson shows how once you've learned how a trap works, it can apply not only to the opening phase of the game but also in the middlegame and even in the endgame!

In other words, learn how to use your tricks in the opening, and you'll become a better player all-around.

The King's Indian Defense (16 part series)

As in all his video series, John has an uncanny ability to break down complex ideas and make them simple, allowing you to grasp the essential ideas, the key strategies, pawn structure and critical squares to fight for in this hyper-modern defense. And it's all done without overwhelming you with hundreds of variations and sidelines; this is one video series you can't miss!! So don't hesitate, we're confident you'll enjoy this video series immensely and will be scoring impressive wins with this new weapon in no time!

The Indian defenses (1.d4 Nf6) were latecomers in chess, in the historical sense, but nowadays are the most commonly played defenses for Black. they were played sporadically until the '20s of the last century, to then become more popular in the '30s and to definitely take off after WWII. In this series. IM John Watson examines the pawn structures, the plans and the strategies of these systems, which are to be considered as the essence of modern chess in many ways.

Players: Danailov, Kasparov, Borsuk Maminski, Malakhatko, DiazCastro, Sakaev, Belov, Nikolic, Ivanovic, Babula, Pesout , Shirov, Kasparov, Paunovic, PiayGarcia, Ocampos, Hernandez, Paunovic, PiayGarcia, Gunawan, Gelfand, Blokh, Feldman, Kozul, Nu Polugaevsky, Uhlmann, Farago, VanLaatum, Palo, Nevednichy, Nedochotov, Zimmerma Petrosian, Spassky

ECO: E90, E92, E68, E86, E94, E90, E76, A68, E75, E74, E63

The Indian defenses (1.d4 Nf6) were latecomers in chess, in the historical sense, but nowadays are the most commonly played defenses for Black. they were played sporadically until the '20s of the last century, to then become more popular in the '30s and to definitely take off after WWII. In this series. IM John Watson examines the pawn structures, the plans and the strategies of these systems, which are to be considered as the essence of modern chess in many ways. 

King's Indian Defense (16 part series: 8 hours 40 minutes)

Unconventional openings (16 part series)

In this series, John Watson looks at a wide variety of unconventional openings, ranging from early flank moves to wild piece sacrifices. Everyone has to face such variations from time to time, and most players are not well-prepared to deal with the challenges they pose. Watson provides you with the ammunition to punish the antipositional or overambitious moves that often characterize irregular play.

Opening: A00, B00: Irregular Opening

Player(s): Lindkvist, Sorenfors, Bloodgood, Roberts, Van Geet, Pirc, Saratov, Andreikin, Van den Berg, Ljubarskij, Ekebjaerg, Quist, Timman, Huebner, Wojtkiewicz, Bronstein, Thierry, Van den Braak

Repertoire for White - Trompowsky Attack (8 part series)

Players: Stefanova, Paehtz, De Waal, Maisuradze, Congiu, Chernyshov, Golichenko, Maisuradze, Congiu, Chernyshov, Golichenko, Trompowsky, Endzelins, Adams, Xie, Hodgson, Tseitlin, Sokolov, Har-Zvi, Stefanova, Royset, Murshed, Ahmed

ECO: D00, D03, A45

IM John Watson, with his video course, helps us build a strong and efficient repertoire of openings, for White and for Black. In this new series John teaches us how to use the Trompovsky Attack. After 1.d4 Nf6, instead of playing the very common moves 2.c4 or 2.Nf3, White plays 2.Bg5, sidestepping the endless amount of opening theory that has been written about the Indian Defences, such as the Queen's Indian, the Nimzo-Indian, the King's Indian, as well as the Grunfeld. Study with John the interesting Tromposvky attack; make it part of your opening repertoire and use it as a weapon when you play your games!