The Theorist. Soviet master and theoretician who built an entire opening system around 1.b4, now called the Sokolsky Opening.
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.
Sokolsky plays the opening he spent decades analysing. 1.b4 and related queenside expansion lead to structures he knows from the inside: fianchetto pressure on the long diagonal, pawn storms far from the kings and plans that look odd until they work.
Against him, you are the one out of book. The positions are quieter than Basman's provocations but just as unfamiliar, and his home-ground advantage is real.
Regular games against Sokolsky teach you to meet prepared systems. You learn to find sound setups against unusual openings, to recognise where flank play is strong and where the classical centre refutes it, and to handle the long light-square diagonal with respect. A quiet original, and good training against every system player you will ever meet.
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.
Alexey Pavlovich Sokolsky was a Soviet master whose name is permanently attached to the opening 1.b4, the Sokolsky Opening, sometimes also called the Orangutan or Polish Opening. Far from being a curiosity, Sokolsky devoted decades to analyzing the unusual flank move and wrote what is still the definitive treatise on it. He was a strong tournament player and a respected trainer in Belarus, where he settled and worked for most of his life. His chess was characterized by a willingness to enter offbeat structures and out-prepare his opponents on his own theoretical ground. He coached several future grandmasters and his analytical work influenced Soviet opening theory long after his death.
Notable: Author of 'The Strategy of the Opening 1.b4' (1963). Belarusian Champion multiple times. Pioneered serious theoretical work on flank openings.
| Era | Soviet Era |
| Years | 1908–1969 |
| Historical rating (estimated) | 2450 |
| Born | Khvostovichi, Russian Empire, 1908 |
| Title | International Master, theoretician |
| Style | Original openings, queenside expansion, deep theoretical preparation, fianchetto structures |
The ChessGate personality of Sokolsky, 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_Sokolsky.exe · 23 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 Sokolsky plays on ChessGate. |