This course composed by GM Alexander Kalinin is aimed at teaching a student much of the middlegame methods and intricacies through a theoretical section which includes over 520 games/lectures each of them illustrating typical plans and methods in the following openings: Petroff Defense, Ruy Lopez (Marshall var.), Sicilian Defense (Closed System and 3. Bb5 var.), Scandinavian Defense, Gruenfeld Defense, Queen's Gambit Accepted, Reti Opening, 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 (or 2…g6) 3. Bg5, etc. More than 500 exercises for a user to solve, giving refutations of the wrong moves as well as numerous hints to help you find the correct answer As many as 100 training positions to be played against the built-in chess playing program Crafty. Multiple user profiles featured with independent ratings and statistics for each. Printing options also available. Several languages supported: English, Spanish and Russian. No additional software required.

Vista Users: If there is a problem running Chess Assistant programs with Vista, there is a free patch available. The patch may be downloaded, and the very simple instructions for using it are available at:

http://chessok.com/?page_id=19942