Going Above and Beyond: Srinath Narayanan
Welcome back to our Going Above & Beyond series, where we celebrate authors who go the extra mile to keep their Chessable courses new and fresh.
Courses are living documents. Theory gets updated, improvements are made, and authors incorporate the latest developments. Active authors regularly refresh their material, ensuring you're learning from up-to-date content.
GM Srinath Narayanan’s latest offering covers the Queen’s Gambit Accepted - an opening that has brought him (and World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju) success in top-level competition.
What made you decide to create your course?
My primary intention in creating this course is to bring out my new ideas and pass them on to students. I picked up the QGA when I needed a reliable opening as Black against top-level opposition and no longer had as much time as I used to. I felt that several others would be in a similar situation - wanting a reliable setup, but not having the time to learn hundreds of lines. This was my motivation to create a simplified course. This is the first course of mine which isn’t a Lifetime Repertoire.
My courses generally go through this cycle - where I study the opening, try them out in my games for a considerable period of time, and then based on my own experiences and understanding, I try to pass on to others what I have learned and experienced during this process.
Are there any variations in your course that you are particularly proud of or enjoy?
I quite like the directions we explore after 3.e4 in the course. In general the variations are exciting. I can say I am proud of one of the variations that featured a 10-move win of mine against another Grandmaster in one of the online CCT qualifier events. But I quite enjoyed that lucky, miniature win.
Throwback to an old online rapid game where I got lucky enough to beat a grandmaster in just 9 moves. moves. Whilst grandmasters usually don't lose in 9 moves, it is a very plausible event in games at the lower levels. The opening that featured in the game - the Queen's Gambit… pic.twitter.com/7HL7QCRmS5
— Srinath Narayanan (@srinathchess) January 6, 2025
What else are you working on these days?
I have been working with a select few students for the last few years in what is a continuous, ongoing process. I will continue doing that. In general the names of the students will be revealed sometime in the future.
Grateful 🙏 Thanks to @PMOIndia and honourable Shri @narendramodi for a vibrant interaction and encouraging and appreciating us and giving his valuable insights 🙏 pic.twitter.com/ZeDpHsREuo
— Srinath Narayanan (@srinathchess) September 26, 2024
I also do some commentary work from time to time, the last one being for Qatar Masters 2024.
What’s your philosophy on course creation?
I find working on opening courses to be an important aspect of mastering chess as a whole. Opening courses certainly help us play the first 10-20 moves, or in some exceptional cases, even more moves. But aside from that, I believe that there is a lot of strategic understanding to be gained from looking at a lot of different variations, analyzing them, being familiar with the pawn structure, piece placement, etc. This is what I seek to inculcate in the students who study my course, by trying to explain every move and every concept as deeply as possible. In the end the student learns not just the opening, but chess as a whole.
GM Srinath Narayanan’s Queen’s Gambit Accepted: Simplified is a compact, practical repertoire against 1.d4 and is out now.
