The Principled Queen’s Gambit – Part 1 by FM Daniel Barrish Chessbale

Play the mainlines – and heap pressure on your opponent

The principled player is not just content with playing good moves, or being told that he or she has played good moves. The principled player also demands to know why it is good before being satisfied that it is.

Be that principled player – play better chess.

That is the essence of this new unerringly precise 1.d4 repertoire from one of the men behind Chessable’s unique learning system, FM Daniel Barrish.

FM Barrish has poured a year of work into creating a complete classical Queen’s Gambit repertoire that is as straight and correct as openings come.

Every move strives for the ambitious mainline and aims to heap pressure on your opponent. Every move is grounded in analysis and theory.

To make it more manageable, FM Barrish has split this course into two parts: Part 1 (all the 1…d5 defences and the Dutch defence) and Part 2 (all the 1…Nf6 defences).

The author includes:

👌 Chapter dedicated to Plans, Structures and Pawn Breaks;
👌 QuickStarter Guide to get you up-and-running;
👌 Updates every three months for the first year;
👌 Repertoire Clashes: a guide to how this course matches up against some of the best Black repertoires available.

The idea is to be principled – to play the best chess, the most forcing chess, the chess that will win you games AND improve your game.

The great Emanuel Lasker said, “When you see a good move, look for a better one.” And that is what FM Barrish’s urges you to strive for.

We will be playing f3 whenever it is decent, in order to prepare to get that ‘perfect centre’ of e4 and d4. Compared to g3 lines, which are obviously very good but often require subtle play and strategic understanding to play optimally, f3 variations I think are more direct, forcing and maybe even more ambitious.

– FM Daniel Barrish on his repertoire

White starts with an advantage – and should use it. By hunting down the key pressure moves and playing ambitious, principled chess, we ensure that Black’s path to equality is a long and difficult one.

The key is to stay on target – and stick to your principles.

FM Daniel Barrish won the South African national championship in 2019 and is gunning for the IM title, already having made 1 of the norms. He has played 1.d4 all his life and says he was heavily influenced from a young age by books from the Quality Chess publishing house, which espoused the philosophy of playing mainlines. This course is the result of that.

FM Barrish knows how to get the best out of our MoveTrainer® system as well as anyone. He was one of the first on board with Chessable and started the Short &