Chessbase Fritz Trainer Monster <LEGIT – 2026>
Simon "The Ginger GM" Williams is the patron saint of attacking chess. His MONSTER course on the Najdorf (the king of sharp Sicilians) is a masterpiece of controlled aggression. Williams doesn't just show you the main lines; he shows you the "human" move. He tells you when to sacrifice on d5, when to push the g-pawn, and—crucially—how to survive the inevitable counter-attack. For Black players who are tired of drawish positions, this is the gold standard.
The Fritz Trainer software tracks your score. Go back to the positions you failed. If you solve them easily now, you learned. If you fail again, add them to a spaced-repetition tool (e.g., Chesstempo, Anki).
At approximately €39.95 to €49.95 per DVD (or download), the MONSTER series is more expensive than a chess book but cheaper than a single coaching hour with a GM.
The Pros:
The Cons:
Treating the MONSTER like a puzzle rush.
The series is deliberately slow and uncomfortable. A single position might teach you more about piece safety than 100 tactical puzzles from a standard app. Do not rush through 50 positions in an evening. Work through 5-7 positions per session, then stop.
Author: GM Jan Gustafsson (or similar top GM)
The rook is the ultimate long piece on open files and ranks. This course covers: ChessBase Fritz Trainer MONSTER
Rook as a long piece: Its ability to switch from file to rank (e.g., moving from a1 to a8 then over to h8) makes it the ultimate long-range piece in the endgame.
Leo was a decent club player. His rating hovered stubbornly around 1200 Elo. He knew the rules, had a few favorite openings, and could spot a one-move fork. But against stronger players, he felt like a boxer sparring with their hands down—slow, reactive, and predictable.
He owned ChessBase but used it mostly as a fancy database to look up grandmaster games he didn't fully understand. His problem wasn't a lack of effort; it was a lack of targeted training. He’d watch random YouTube lessons, solve a few puzzles, then lose the same way again: to a simple tactical shot or a positional squeeze he didn't see coming.
One evening, a titled player at his club, WGM Elena, watched him throw away a winning endgame. She didn't criticize. She just said: “You’re studying knowledge. Not skills. Try the MONSTER series on ChessBase.” Simon "The Ginger GM" Williams is the patron
The next day, Leo opened his ChessBase program and searched "MONSTER." He found the Fritz Trainer series by GM Jan Gustafsson: “Your Chess Monster Vol. 1: Tactics.” The description promised something different: “Stop solving random puzzles. Learn how to smell a tactic before it exists.”
He bought it, downloaded the 4-hour video + the interactive training database, and began.
Marin is usually a strategic writer, but his Leningrad Dutch MONSTER is a beast of a different color. He constructs a complete repertoire for Black based on the ...f5 push. The MONSTER aspect here is the "Stonewall dynamic." Marin teaches you to ignore White's queenside play and launch a human-wave attack on the kingside. It is the perfect weapon against 1.d4 players who expect you to play solid Queen's Gambit lines.
Buying the DVD or download is only the first step. Here is a proven study method: The Cons: Treating the MONSTER like a puzzle rush