Lifetime Repertoires English Defense by FM Kamil Plichta Chessable

The Ultimate Surprise Weapon for the Creative Counterattacker

Taking your opponent away from their opening preparation is one of the easiest ways to get an early advantage, even without a stunning novelty. If you get the game into positions you understand better, you’re far more likely to come out on top.

The English Defense offers you that opportunity. FM Kamil Plichta will guide you through this flexible repertoire and into a wide range of positions that will create problems for your opponents.

FM Plichta has taken an in-depth look at the statistics behind the opening and realized that White players will face this system in only 0.5% of their games. In contrast, you’ll be able to play the English Defense in approximately 20-25% of your games, giving you a real home field advantage.

The course is split into 4 main parts:

♟️ The English Defense – 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 will be our most frequently played system
♟️ The Queen’s Gambit Declined – avoiding move order trickery
♟️ The Catalan – a fresh counter-attacking option
♟️ d4 Sidelines – how to deal with the English, the London and other sidelines

Of course, most 1.d4 players will stick to their normal territory and follow up with 2.c4. This takes us into the English Defense and this makes up the bulk of the repertoire. These lines are rarely played and somewhat neglected by opening theory, giving us a real chance to catch our opponents off guard.

Unbalanced positions like this will become your bread and butter

The English Defense was a favorite of attacking genius Alexander Morozevich

One of the problems with building a repertoire against d4 is that there are many transpositions. FM Plichta takes great care to help you understand all kinds of move order trickery and opportunities to transpose to other openings, giving you a deep understanding of how these positions work in practice.

For example, against 2.Nf3, we’ll be playing a Queen’s Gambit Declined setup. 4…h6 is FM Plichta’s offbeat choice, which appears in fewer than 2% of online games that reach this position. Once again, the goal is to take your opponent out of their preparation and onto territory that you know better.

An uncommon line but one that Magnus Carlsen has successfully played

The third major system you’re likely to face is the Catalan. Once again, FM Plichta offers a new setup that will challenge White to show what they’re made of. He offers fresh ideas in a relatively unexplored area, where your opponents are far less likely to be booked up. We won’t be trying to defuse the Catalan, like some systems – we’ll be going for the initiative and the win.

In practice, this setup offers excellent chances to complicate the game

The repertoire starts with the moves 1.d4 e6 – keen readers will spot an opportunity for White to play 2. e4, taking you into the French. So this repertoire is the perfect partner for any French players – particularly those with Kamil Plichta’s French Lifetime Repertoire. Kamil has also included a chapter for players who don’t want to go into the French Defense.

FM Plichta spends a lot of time demonstrating the various transpositions and how these systems cooperate with each other, giving you a complete repertoire against d4 and flank openings.

You’ll be well-equipped to deal with 1.c4, 1.Nf3, 1. b3 or even 1.f4. And, naturally, FM Plichta has some awesome suggestions at taking down the London System.

FM Kamil Plichta is one of Chessable’s most prolific and entertaining authors. This is his 14th Chessable course, with over 3000 students rating his courses at 4.7 out of 5 stars. He sports a FIDE rating of over 2400 and is a feared online blitz specialist – Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen are amongst his victims. He won the vote for Best Author Support in both 2021 and 2023.