A New Name in the FritzTrainer Catalog: Kavutskiy's Two Courses, One Reviewer, and an Unfinished Ledger

Eleven at night in Mumbai. ChessBase's shop is open on the laptop, and I am counting the new releases. Two: “Mastering Calculation” and “The Fundamentals of Positional Play.” The author is Kostya Kavutskiy — International Master, FIDE Trainer. The list is smooth, but one box is empty. How many reviews? One. One reviewer, two courses, zero sample game lines.

In 2026 I tagged all 169 goals of the Russia World Cup into a single spreadsheet — phase, minute, build-up length. Since then I have kept one rule: three tagged examples before any assertion. Applying that rule here, I find there are no examples at all. When I reported the 2026 FIDE Online Olympiad, I learned that the first question in chess is not “who won” but “in which square, on which clock, over which connection.” So I look for the same conditions here: which format, which reader, how many independent voices. I opened the ledger. Half the boxes are still empty.

Context: what FritzTrainer is, and what is actually being sold

ChessBase is a chess software and publishing house — databases, engines, and training material under one roof. Inside it, FritzTrainer is the video-course format: lectures, annotated model games, and usually interactive exercises, typically bundled with the database software ecosystem. Kavutskiy's two courses sit inside that format — one on calculation, one on the fundamentals of positional play.

The two titles make the category clear. These are not opening-novelty or engine-driven-novelty courses. Two core middlegame competencies — calculation accuracy and positional decision-making — are the target here. For club-level players those are exactly the highest-leverage areas, because amateur games break in those two places: a tactical miss, a wrong positional plan.

The market is old. Kavutskiy is compared with two established names — Robert Ris and Ivan Sokolov. The comparison is author-versus-author, not player-versus-player: who teaches better, who explains calculation more clearly. The review is written by Jochen Schwarz, a familiar reader of the FritzTrainer series. That is the whole journalistic frame of this release: one new author, two courses, one reviewer's comparative verdict.

This is where I stop. At the 2026 Chennai Olympiad I left the medal story and picked one board — D. Gukesh, board one for India-2 at 16, scoring 8/11. Eleven days, eleven board reports, plain sentences about diagonals and the seventh rank. I learned there to write boards, not tournaments. The same method applies here: take one course as a specimen and ask what is actually inside, and what is not.

Core analysis: who keeps the accounts of a calculation course

In the training market a course is priced at three levels. First, the author's title. Kavutskiy is an International Master — meaning, under FIDE rules, a rating above 2400 — and a FIDE Trainer, a formal coaching credential. Second, the publisher's editorial imprint, here ChessBase. Third, the review: whether someone outside prices the product against its quality.

The first two levels are solid here. In the chess-education market “International Master” and “FIDE Trainer” are two separate gates; a strong player and a strong teacher are not the same thing, and Kavutskiy passes both. For club players that is the biggest signal: the man teaching was at least a verifiable player, and he holds the coaching certificate too.

The third level is the problem. There is one review, and it is subjective. I built three boxes in the ledger: how many annotated model games does the course contain? How many practice positions? Is there any information on student outcomes? All three are empty, because the Stage-1 information contains no sample games, engine evaluations, or student-improvement figures.

Those empty boxes are the real story of this release. If a course that teaches calculation cannot show its own accounts, what can a buyer verify? The answer is plain — he is paying for a title, not for an outcome. And here a familiar market picture returns: the name premium. By the same logic that a teenager with fifty matches is bought for a huge fee, someone buys a brand name before verification. In the training market a title is a starting rating, and the review is the game — but here the game was never played.

The comparison list says one more thing. Sokolov — if this is the well-known Dutch grandmaster — has a far higher over-the-board career profile than a typical IM trainer. The Stage-1 information does not state Sokolov's title. So the comparison may lean toward Sokolov on raw strength, even if the teaching field looks different. Ris and Sokolov are both established teacher-authors; Kavutskiy is the newest name. In the training market all three target the same reader: the club player who wants to learn calculation and positional play.

My Chennai experience keeps one simple truth close. Bangladesh's delegation there was five players — no analyst, no press officer. I swapped numbers with a Dhaka club organiser who later called me at three in the morning. The training market fills exactly this gap, because where there is no salaried league, the cheapest route to extra rating is a course, a video, a database.

And that is where the accounts press hardest. Bangladesh's five Grandmasters — Niaz Murshed in 2026, Ziaur Rahman in 2026, Reefat Bin-Sattar in 2026, Abdullah Al Rakib in 2026, Enamul Hossain Razib in 2026. Then sixteen years without a new Grandmaster. The federation's annual government support is roughly Tk 11 lakh; school chess died in 2026. A 2570-rated man still needed prize money to eat — that was July 2026. In that reality a foreign training course is not merely a purchase; it is a substitute, bought precisely because there is no coach.

Why the price does not yet say everything

Here is the most uncomfortable part. A product review written by one hand is useful for the market, but not sufficient as evidence. Schwarz is an experienced reader of the FritzTrainer series, which strengthens his verdict. But the question remains: did the publisher supply a free review copy? That is normal practice in this market, and the Stage-1 information does not answer it.

The second discomfort: in the training market the price is set by credentials and branding, while the teaching outcome is measured by student results. If someone asks before buying, “whose rating rose how much after these two courses,” there is no number anywhere. No sales data, no ratings, no cohort results. That information vacuum is the biggest risk — not competitive, but qualitative.

The third discomfort is subtlest. If a calculation course cannot show a single sample line, where is the verification of its teaching method? The Stage-1 information has no games, no engine lines, no ACPL. I want the arithmetic, and here there is none. A product that teaches calculation but will not show its own calculation is an open ledger to the buyer and a closed one to the author.

One more risk is the author's own. These are Kavutskiy's first ChessBase releases; his brand is tied to how they are received. Good reviews open the door to his next course; poor reception slows it. There is also a dependency — ChessBase is effectively the single distribution platform, with almost no market diversification.

On governance the risk is near zero. FIDE Trainer is a formal, verifiable credential; there is no anti-cheating, eligibility, or tiebreak dispute here, because this is not a tournament. The Stage-1 information shows no FIDE decision or conflict.

Next verification: the buyer's calendar

So what should a buyer do? My rule is simple — I trust the spreadsheet only after it survives a cold, rainy match. Here the pitch is not wet; it is empty. Three steps: first, watch the free previews and count the model games and exercises. Second, find independent reviews beyond Schwarz — YouTube, forums, blogs. Third, keep a calendar — whether a third Kavutskiy course appears in the coming months.

That third course is the real signal. A single release is an event in the market; a second and third release is a relationship. If a third course appears, ChessBase is treating Kavutskiy as a long-term author — and the club player's accounts change, because a stable teacher list stabilises course quality.

In the chess-education market the truth moves slower than in cricket or football; news arrives quietly, and prices are set on names. These two courses are one specific moment in that: a new name, an old market, and the weight of one review. If buyers watch the previews before paying, and the author opens his sample-game accounts in a third course, this unfinished ledger will one day balance. The question stays plain: are you buying a name, or an outcome?