Anyone know what month they cover QGA for white?

Month One they cover responses other than d5 to d4. Month two they cover Catalan and Slav. Does anyone know when they cover QGA from white's perspective?

I really like how their repertoire hangs together with nice transpositional possibilities, in particular their response to the Slav and to QGD have many points of transposition.

As far as i can see not. In month 5 they cover the dutch defense from blacks perspective. In month 11 they cover the dutch defense, kings indian, volga gambit, modern benoni, czech benoni from white's perspective.

CT: strange, those month 11 openings I have in month 1.

I emailed the folks at ICS to see if/when they cover QGA. It's sort of an important opening. Obviously many QGA lines will transpose to the Catalan, but not all.

Me too. But in month 11 they review them and add games to them as example.

There is also no coverage of the Albin Counter Gambit so far either, an opening I have faced before a couple of times at the low level at which I play.

I'm sure they will cover stuff eventually, especially if a few of us ask them.

Since they have updated the 1.e4 stuff in Months 1 and 2 I am much more happy with where they are going now regarding this repertoire module. I still won't be studying it properly for a few months yet at least but I'm confident it will build into a quality product now.

ICS doesn't advertise complete repertoire for d4 player and it's possible they won't cover QGA at all. In fact many authors of queens gambit type books don't even cover it.

It's not a huge system so it's probably not critical. I'm sure there are good books around for QGA.

fanat wrote:ICS doesn't advertise complete repertoire for d4 player and it's possible they won't cover QGA at all. In fact many authors of queens gambit type books don't even cover it.

It's not a huge system so it's probably not critical. I'm sure there are good books around for QGA.

That would be lame. They cover a lot of not huge systems for which I could buy a book, but it is supposed to be a repertoire.

At any rate, I emailed them about it and they responded:
"Tarrasch Defense and QGA are missing. We will do some updates on the Openings Module and these 2 openings will be uploaded probably until 29 May."

Cool.

That is good news. Maybe I should bug them about English opening

fanat wrote:That is good news. Maybe I should bug them about English opening

Or play d4.

Blue Devil Knight wrote:

fanat wrote:ICS doesn't advertise complete repertoire for d4 player and it's possible they won't cover QGA at all. In fact many authors of queens gambit type books don't even cover it.

It's not a huge system so it's probably not critical. I'm sure there are good books around for QGA.

That would be lame. They cover a lot of not huge systems for which I could buy a book, but it is supposed to be a repertoire.

At any rate, I emailed them about it and they responded:
"Tarrasch Defense and QGA are missing. We will do some updates on the Openings Module and these 2 openings will be uploaded probably until 29 May."

Cool.

It seems the opening course is still a work in progress for them. I am impressed with the way they respond to user questions and feedback though. You do get the feeling with them that if there is a part of the course that needs expansion and further clarification that they will happily add to it as their customers request.

I like these guys, even if their English is sometimes a little bizarre!

chesstiger wrote:Me too. But in month 11 they review them and add games to them as example.

Do you think it worth the hundred or so dollars to finish out the last 3-4 months?
Or in other words - is there significant new material in those months? Or just sample games and repeats of theory?

thanks!

No Chigorin coverage.....hopefully they'll add that.

Well, to their credit they've added QGA to month 3. Chigorin to month 2, Tarrasch too.

Awesome!

cofresi wrote:

chesstiger wrote:Me too. But in month 11 they review them and add games to them as example.

Do you think it worth the hundred or so dollars to finish out the last 3-4 months?
Or in other words - is there significant new material in those months? Or just sample games and repeats of theory?

thanks!

I think so since last months are lots of exercises and lessons about playing technique.

I was again thinking about cancelling the openings module but the updates will pursuade me to continue with it. It seems these guys really do listen to their customers and are attempting to offer as good value for money as they can.

As at my current pace I'm about 4 years away from actually studying the opening material anyway it doesn't really matter much that they are still working on it that much

I see they have now upped the defenses for black against 1.e4 and 1.d4 to 3 each!

In case you guys missed the advert change it now lists the opening systems for black.

Black against 1.e4: French Defense, Sicilian Kalashnikov, and Scandinavian Defense.
Black against 1.d4: Semi-Slav Defense, Dutch Stonewall and Dutch Ilyin-Zhenevsky.

I'm a bit confused about the Sicilian Kalashnikov seeing as they have already given their reportoire for the Najdorf?

I thought they were recommending the Nimzo Indian too, that's a bit disappointing as that's the one line I was looking forward to trying

I will email them I think, this is getting way too confusing for me its as if they are making it up as they go along!

Too bad it's the slav, if it was the slav I'd be psyched. My attitude has always been why play the slav if you'r just gonna lock in that light-squared bishop (that's a rhetorical question, I know it has good reasons).

That is the direction they are going it seems, going from super-sharp to more solid, from lots of memorization to a lot less memorization needed. That seems smart for the average club player who probably could spend time better than opening prep. It also seems smart for the class where they clearly don't want to (nor should they) have a 200 page repertoire like they would need for the Najdorf to even make a dent (from what I've heard, anyway, as I've never played the Najdorf).