Chessable Roundup: December 20, 2025

If your chess lately feels like, “I kinda know what I’m supposed to do, but I’m not sure how”…

Then this roundup is for you!

Every pick below shares one thing: a proven process that turns your effort into payoff.

From square-sniping to keep your pieces on the best positions…

Attacking techniques for the opening, middlegame, and endgame…

To a study method that has you ready the first time you play a new opening…

You’ll find it all here. 

And the bonus? All of them are offered up to 50% off along with the rest of our catalog in Chessable’s Holiday Sale.

Check these out:

Micro-Plans III: Mastering Weak Squares by GM Swapnil Dhopade

When obvious threats disappear from the board, do they take away your ideas, too? Follow this 5-step “Square-Sniping” guide. It teaches you how to find and control squares that will pay off. So you know where to aim your pieces to gain an edge.

Check it out

The Fundamentals 3: Chess Evolution by Quality Chess & GM Artur Yusupov

Fix the holes in your chess fundamentals, then watch your chess evolve! Here’s step 3 of Yusupov’s award-winning 9-part guide to reaching master level. The focus? Attack! Emerge with a sharper eye for weak spots and mating attacks through 16.5 hours of video.

Check it out

French Revolution: A Fighting Repertoire for Black by GM Luka Budisavljević

Don’t defend, revolt with this innovative French! It wages mental warfare against 1.e4 by aiming positions opposite of what White wants. They played the calm Tarrasch? Now you storm their king with pawns! They play sharp with the theory-heavy 2.Nc3? Then you take them “out of book” with a mirror-move.

Check it out

Hakobyan’s Complete 1.d4 by GM Aram Hakobyan

They’ll laugh at your “mouse slip” until your attack comes together! This modern repertoire opens with the classic d4-c4. Then it pivots to a weird Ra2, “hangs” a piece not even getting a check, or cosplays a knight with the queen… moves sure to Black chuckle, until suddenly their king is on the run!

Check it out

Smash the Englund Gambit with 4.Qd5 by NM Ruben Mashal

Turn the Englund Gambit’s main idea into the seed of their own destruction! You accept the pawn and cement it with 4.Qd5. Then you ask Black: “What now?” In just 4 chapters and 50 lines, you’ll have a decisive edge against one of the most annoying gambits below 2000 level.

Check it out

Over at the blog, we sit down with WGM Adriana Nikolova at the Coach’s Corner. 

With nearly 10 years of coaching and over 300 students worldwide, she’s created simple, proven study methods… both during coaching and self-study.

Coach’s Corner: Adriana Nikolova

See her 4-part training split, so you get enough tactics reps and real games. And if you’re playing an opening for the first time over the board, use her 100×100 method to ensure you’re ready for game day.

Read the blog

That wraps up this week’s roundup. See you in the next one!