An opening course for White (ECO D35)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 is not really a gambit. Black can take the pawn, but he cannot keep it, and the price of trying is the whole centre. This course plays the Exchange Variation against the main declining move, which trades on d5 early and fixes a pawn structure White knows and Black usually does not: the minority attack, two pawns marching at three, aimed at one square. The same structure and the same plan come back against the Slav, so the work is done once and used twice. The Accepted gets the sharpest answer in the book, 3.e4, taking the entire centre while Black is still holding a pawn he will have to give back. What this course does not cover is 1...Nf6 and the Indian defences: those are a different opening, and you need a separate answer to them.
This course is part of your daily work.
After 2...dxc4 Black owns a pawn on c4 and no way to hold it. Trying costs him tempo (...b5 and ...a6) and the centre, and White regains the material with e4 and Bxc4 while every white piece comes out with a job. Never chase the pawn back in the first three moves; take the centre and let it fall into your hand.
Trade on d5 and the pawns lock into a shape: White has pawns on d4 and e3 against Black's on d5 and c6, and each side has a majority on the opposite wing. That structure tells you where to play without any memorised moves. White works the queenside with b4 and b5; Black plays in the centre and at the king. Learn the structure once and the Exchange Slav is the same lesson.
The minority attack sounds backwards: send fewer pawns at more. The point is not to win material but to leave Black with a weakness that cannot move. After b5, whatever Black chooses gives you a target for the rest of the game, either an isolated pawn on d5 or a backward pawn on c6 with your rooks already on the file.
The bishop on d3 with the queen behind it is the standard attacking battery in these positions, and it is why Black spends moves putting a knight back on f8. It cuts both ways: with his bishop on d6 aiming at h2, ...Bxh2+ and ...Ng4+ are real enough that strong players slip in Kh1 before anything else goes wrong.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
One line, no theory to memorise. It shows the pawn offer, the trade that defines the course, and the structure everything else hangs on.
White's main weapon, and the reason this course exists. The pieces go to the same squares almost every game; what you are really learning is where the pawns go and why.
One where Black's natural setup loses a pawn on the spot, and one where White's natural move loses a piece. Both come up at club level far more often than the theory in the last chapter.
The Queen's Gambit Accepted. Black cannot hold the pawn, so this chapter is about taking the whole centre while he is busy trying.
Black's other main defence, and the reason the Exchange is worth learning properly. Trading on d5 here reaches a mirror-image structure where you already know the plans.
Three answers you will meet a few times a year: a real counter-gambit, an old provocation, and a defence with a bad reputation it does not entirely deserve.
Club games that started in the Queen's Gambit produced these tactics, and you solve every one from White's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.