The Unorthodox. English IM and chess teacher famous for refusing to play normal openings, 1.g4, 1.a3, the St. George Defence, all his children.
One-time purchase · Windows download · UCI compatible · works offline · instant download after purchase
The browser version lets you meet the personality before buying. The installed engine plays locally, in CZUBATRONIC 2400 and your own chess software, with the full personality model.
Basman abandons the book on move one. The Grob, the St. George, early wing thrusts: his openings look wrong by every classical rule, yet they lead to genuine positions that he understands and you do not.
Against him, the game is yours to build from first principles. There is no theory to lean on, which exposes exactly how much chess you understand once memory is useless.
Regular games against Basman are a cheerful kind of lesson. You learn why the classical rules exist by watching someone break them with a plan, you practise punishing provocation soundly and you stop fearing unfamiliar positions. The most original opponent in the catalogue, and a surprisingly instructive one.
A single game shows part of the personality. Repeated games reveal more: you begin to recognise familiar structures, recurring plans and the kinds of positions this opponent prefers. That is where the collection becomes interesting, because different personalities put different questions to your chess.
Michael Basman was English chess's great eccentric, an IM strong enough to beat grandmasters but uninterested in beating them with normal moves. His repertoire was a parade of openings that no respectable book recommended, 1.g4 (the Grob), 1.a3, 1...a6 (the St. George Defence, immortalized when Tony Miles used it to beat Karpov), 1...h6, 1...g5. He wrote books on every one of them and made a serious case that they were playable. Beyond competitive chess, Basman's legacy was educational. He founded the UK Chess Challenge in 1996, a school competition that has introduced more than a million children to tournament chess. He continued playing and teaching until shortly before his death in 2022.
Notable: Founded the UK Chess Challenge (1996), the largest junior chess tournament in the world. Author of works on 1.g4 and other unorthodox openings. Played top-board for English clubs for over forty years.
| Era | Modern |
| Years | 1946–2022 |
| Peak rating | 2440 |
| Born | London, England, 1946 |
| Title | International Master, two-time British Championship medalist |
| Style | Unorthodox openings, flank attacks, hypermodern provocations, original middlegame plans |
The ChessGate personality of Basman, reconstructed from the historical player's games, with their own style, their own plans and their own idea of chess. A chess partner with real character, at any level, whenever you like. Play it inside CZUBATRONIC 2400 and the built-in Coach can flag weak moves and show a stronger one. The engine runs offline on your machine, in CZUBATRONIC 2400 and any UCI chess interface.
| File | ChessGate_Basman.exe · 25 MB |
| Runs in | CZUBATRONIC 2400 (as an external engine) and any UCI chess interface |
| Requirements | Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit; any UCI chess interface; CZUBATRONIC 2400 lists it as an external engine |
| Delivery | Instant download after purchase. Installer, no administrator rights; if CZUBATRONIC 2400 is installed, the personality registers itself there as an engine. |
| Works offline | Yes. No account, no server. |
| Packs | – |
| Collection | Complete Personality Collection |
| In the browser | A lighter version of ChessGate Basman plays on ChessGate. |