The Colle System CD

The Colle is one of the few "System" openings in chess, a pre-programmed layout of pieces and pawns. White plays d4, Nf3, e3, Bd3, 0-0, Nbd2 and possibly c3 - nearly regardless of what Black replies. Exact opening knowledge is less important than understanding the typical patterns that emerge after the first few moves. And here is where the author starts his work, concentrating on explaining plans, structures and typical mistakes. We see chapters, for example, called "Ten inspirational games" and "Eight warning games". Of course, Oleinikov also presents all of the opening theory you'll ever need, and discusses the critical variations with many new suggestions. Many club players rely on the Colle almost exclusively, and is the perfect "first" opening to learn.

This excellent CD offers a clear-cut learning database with 380 games; an opening course in 17 chapters; 100 games annotated by the author; three topical training databases; and a big database with more than 21,000 games. The ChessBase Reader is included.

A resident of Moscow, Dmitrij Oleinikov is a journalist and has worked as a trainer for various Russian teams. He has also written various CDs published by ChessBase, including the "Budapest Gambit".