The Romantic Italian by IM Jonas Hacker Chessable

Attack like a genius from the 19th century and teach your opponent a tactical lesson

If Morphy could use Chessable, he would love this repertoire: sacrifices on f7 in amounts you will probably not see anywhere else. The black king is fair game, the white mob drags it out of its fortress and chases it across the board in wild variations.

In short: this course doesn’t bother with positional frills; instead you’ll find a tactical revolution which usually leads to the early demise of the enemy monarch. There’s no negotiating − straight to the guillotine! At least that’s always plan A.

Let’s look at an example of a typical attack on f7:

Of course, none of the variations IM Jonas Hacker recommends are dubious. The German Bundesliga player not only has a peak rating of 2472, but also several years of experience as a chess coach. He has also previously published an attacking repertoire against the Sicilian. With such credentials, you can rest assured that in this course you will learn attacking chess the right way.

The style of Hacker’s repertoire can be described as follows: open up as many paths into the abyss as possible for Black and seize every opportunity for a sharp attack. The fighting spirit of the repertoire is unquestionable.

Now, let’s talk about concrete play:

⚔️ The Italian is the core of the repertoire, and 4.d4 immediately creates concrete problems for Black. Here you can expect tactical variations, sacrifices and simply everything that makes chess so fascinating.

⚔️ The Two Knights Defense is practically an invitation to play 4.Ng5 if you’re on the aggressive side. Therefore, we gratefully accept this invitation and make Black suffer for every inaccuracy.

⚔️ The Philidor is a provocative choice by its very nature. Here White likes to develop the bishop to c4 and, much like in the Italian, targets the sensitive point f7 where accidents happen time and again.

⚔️ The Petrov is solid, so unfortunately you can’t go too crazy right away. Compared to the Italian, however, it is rather rare. We therefore go for simple solutions that keep the position asymmetrical and interesting.

⚔️ Rare and rather dubious second moves such as the Latvian or the Elephant Gambit are of course also thoroughly refuted.

So if you’re looking to throw down the gauntlet and teach your opponent a good tactical lesson, this is the place for you. It will be a duel to the death where White chooses the weapons!