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Nico Zwirs
Nico Zwirs, born in Apeldoorn in 1994,
is a Dutch International Master, chess coach and ChessBase author.
He grew up in Apeldoorn and now lives in Amsterdam.
Zwirs earned the International Master title in 2019 and reached his peak rating of 2494 in May 2024.
His greatest tournament successes include sharing first place at the prestigious Cappelle-la-Grande Open in 2022
and winning the Dortmund Chess Days A-Open outright in 2024 with 7½ points from nine games.
Zwirs remains active in both individual and team competitions and played in the Dutch,
Belgian and German leagues during the 2025/26 season.
In Germany, he represents Hamburger SK.
He also works as a chess coach and produces training courses for ChessBase,
most recently Reversed Sicilian Power in 2026.
Published by ChessBase
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
One of the major battlegrounds of the Queen’s Gambit Declined is the Catalan, and against it Zwirs chose an ambitious strategy: accept the pawn and hold onto it with …c6 and …b5, aiming for an unbalanced fight from the very start.
In this course, IM Nico Zwirs presents the Reversed Sicilian as a powerful and practical weapon for White
IM Nico Zwirs turns the tables on the Caro-Kann — using Carlsbad-style ideas with White for a solid, practical, and surprising weapon!
In this brand-new 60 Minutes course, Nico Zwirs shows you how to combine direct attacking play with the powerful light-square strategy to tackle the Najdorf
If you're looking to revamp your opening repertoire and surprise your opponents with powerful, modern ideas, The Ultimate Scotch Gambit is the perfect choice.
If you're looking to expand your opening knowledge with a modern, cutting-edge approach, the Ragozin Carlsbad is a must-have addition to your repertoire.
Whether you’re looking for thrilling attacks, or steady positional play, the Löwenthal Variation has more to offer than meets the eye.
One of the easy, sharp and semi-rare options is the Popov variation. It starts with 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2, which seems like white is intending to go for an English Attack set-up, but then after 7…Nf6 8.f4 will follow, the Popov variation.
The Kupreichik starts with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bd7. It is a flexible move, as it doesn’t tell white much about the set-up black will choose. Most often black goes for a Dragon or a Classical Sicilian set-up.
The Hungarian variation provides white an attacking plan against the KID. With 5.Nge2 White will play 6.Ng3, close the centre with d5 after …c5/…e5 and start playing on the kingside for an attack.
In this 60 Minutes video course you will learn the ins-and-outs of the Grivas Sicilian which starts after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6!
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