A Black Repertoire for Ambitious Chess Improvers Fighting 1.d4 & Sidelines Apr 17, 2026

This Master-Student Repertoire Gives You Control
of the Center — And the Game — Against
1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3, and the Rest

If 1.d4 — or anything besides 1.e4 — sends your mind blank, here’s the fix. The “Lady of 1.d4” hands you her Black-side playbook. Complete with counters to the sidelines you face every week, and each line vetted by her GM-coach. The result? A black repertoire that’s easy to remember, focused on what you’ll see, and strong enough to trust.

You’ll have space to maneuver your pieces to their best squares…

With your pawns on the 5th rank, you’re in
no way worse than White. In fact, the c-
file is about to open up in your favor.

Long-term plans that don’t crumble the moment White skips a pawn push…

One of your go-to plans:
If White isn’t pressuring your center,
you bring out your bishop first. Then
you cement d5 with …e6.

And plenty of chances to seize the initiative.

Instead of hanging on to pawns and getting
cramped, you develop fast and punish White
for chasing material

Meet your coach, Angelika Valkova.

Fans call her the “Lady of 1.d4,” because she’s built her entire chess career around the queen’s pawn.

She’s posted perfect scores at the German Women’s Team Championship and Bundesliga…

…Gone into open tournaments to outplay opponents rated 150 to 300 points higher…

…And published a best-selling 1.d4 course on Chessable, earning 4.82 stars because of her focus on repeatable plans and real chances for an edge.

Now, Valkova flips the board and hands you her Black-side playbook.

She’s joined by Grandmaster Gyula Pap.

He’s a 10-time Hungarian Youth champion, 2007 World Youth Olympiad silver medalist, and 2009 European Team Champion.

His command of 1.d4 runs so deep, top-100 players have recruited him as a second and sparring partner.

Between Valkova and Pap, you get decades of experience pushing d-pawns at the highest level. All channeled into…

A Complete Counter to 1.d4 and Sidelines — Full of Fight, Minus the Overwhelm

You aim for a flexible setup to control as much central ground with as little risk as possible.

You open with 1…d5 about 90% of the time. Then you follow up with …e6, …Nf6, and …c5.

Your go-to position. Maximum central
control, minimum risk.

Along the way, you insert key moves that keep your must-learn theory light… and the pressure on White heavy.

Against the Queen’s Gambit (2.c4), you prevent mind-boggling Bg5-lines with 3…h6. Then with 5…Bb4, you turn your attention to the a5-e1 diagonal where White’s king resides.

Against the Queen’s Gambit, you pierce
through the white king’s diagonal

Watch your a5-e1 pressure snowball to
a winning queen sac against White’s
uncastled king

Against the London System (2.Bf4), you activate your bishop early with 3…Bg4, before closing the diagonal with …e6.

You’ve seen this before (…Bg4, …e6) and
in the London, it comes with attack!

Normal moves give you easy equality plus some more.

And White’s sharpest try? Still balanced. But with their queen ricocheting across the board and their development in serious trouble.

No bishop on f4. No safe triangle.
And their queen has become a hook
for your pieces

You meet the English (1.c4) with 1…e6, planning 2…d5 then 3…d4. This way, you cut off transpositions to the Catalan and other d4-openings.

Your d-pawn sits on d4 like a thorn on their side. White wants to capture it, but can’t. So they tiptoe around it, while you exploit every open line and diagonal.

Against the English, …d7-d5-d4 rules
out transpositions to 1.d4

Against the Reti (1.Nf3), you play with more ambition.

You play an early …Nd7. So you can switch the pawn layout to e5, d5, and c6, giving you more central control while their g2-bishop bites on granite.

White gives you the center in the
Reti? You take it wholeheartedly!

The rarer stuff is covered, too.

The Nimzo-Larsen Attack (1.b3), Bird Opening (1.f4), Van Geet (1.Nc3), the Grob (1.g4), even no-name openings like 1.a3 and 1.c3…

You meet each one with the same central control, same solid footing… and the same teaching that’s helping students get results like this.

Beat a 2000-rated Player on the First Outing

“I loved it, did all the Quickstarter Guide and the 1st chapters… and won my first game with it against someone rated 2000 in Classical time control. Since I finished the course some weeks ago, I have had a lot of great results thanks to this course and grew up to 1800 Elo FIDE… It changed my game because I now don’t memorize the lines, I understand them. Valkova’s explanations are very clear… The plans are also clear thanks to Valkova’s arrows at the end of each variation that I can visualize again and again when I review the lines.”

— openinG_traininG

Here’s what you’re getting:

🏆 A full repertoire against everything except 1.e4. 13 of White’s first moves covered — from 1.d4 to the most obscure like 1.a3. Its 623 lines run 12 moves deep on average — enough to handle anything without burying you under theory.

🏆 Over 32 hours of video explanations. Valkova channels 10+ years of coaching experience into every position… laying down the structures and plans. So you know what to do even when White goes off-script.

🏆 3 Quickstarter guides cut straight to your problem openings. One for d4-sidelines, led by the London System. One for the Queen’s Gambit. One for 1.c4, 1.Nf3, and the rest.

🏆 40 annotated model games show you how strong players turn the lines you just learned into wins.

You’ve spent long enough shrinking against 1.d4 and the sidelines… hopping from one opening to another that never felt like home.