Monthly Archives: March 2014

In this second DVD focused on King’s Indian for Black, International Master David Vigorito explains many variations of the King’s Indian including: Orthodox Variation: Modern System, Bayonet Attack, Glek Defense. Favored by Fischer and Kasparov, the King’s Indian is a modern dynamic opening, exceptionally complex. A popular choice since its introduction into competitive chess in the early 20th century. This DVD is a continuation of David’s series on the subject ( see King’s Indian for Black for the first 5 lectures).  This DVD is recommended for Advanced Players.  For more information, click here.

PGN’s Included

ECO: E94, E97

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this DVD a 4.02 out of 5

Members said: Really terrific lecture! Absolutely mandatory viewing for the KID player.

Content : 1.7 hours in a series of 4 lectures.

ChessLecture.com master IM David Vigorito was the 2007 Massachusetts Champion. He has been the state champion of New Hampshire and Nevada. David rated at 2479 in USCF and is the Champion of the Boylston (Boston) Chess Club. He played in the 2006 U.S. Championship after finishing in a tie for 3rd place at the U.S. Open in Phoenix. David is a successful chess author – his Challenging the Nimzo-Indian is very well received by critics and players alike.

Monday, March 31  IM Valeri Lilov Keys to a Successful Attack (Middlegame, Strategy)
Everybody loves attacking. There is no question about that. But what are the most relevant things we need to know about attacking? Check the keys to deliver smashing combinations against your opponent!

Tuesday, April 1 Bill Paschall Letting the Cat out of the Bag (Middlegame, Strategy)
IM Paschall faces the oldest of Nimzo-Indian Variations…the Samisch, whereby white quickly plays a3 to gain the bishop pair at the detriment of his pawn structure. Black plays a flawless game until a point; creating a textbook blockade position against the bishop pair and doubled pawns. Paschall missed the key chance to win a pawn and eliminate the opponents bishop pair as the game begins to open up. Just when all hope seems lost for white, the talented Petrisor finds his only chance! A brilliant knight sacrifice to open the black king; with chaos ensuing

Wednesday, April 2  Dennis Monokroussos The Queen’s Gambit and Friends. Part 4.  (Openings, Strategy)
By playing 3…Be7 in the Queen’s Gambit Black can avoid the potent plan we looked at in part 3, but it doesn’t mean that White is without resources after 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4. Knaak pushes his g- and h-pawns, and Geller quickly wound up with a cramped position and an endangered king. This form of the Exchange Queen’s Gambit is also quite dangerous for Black!

Thursday, April 3  Eugene Perelshteyn The power of the Dark Square Bishop on the Long Diagonal (Middlegame, Strategy)
White plays a dubious line in the Trompowsy by giving up his dark square bishop and the long diagonal.  The result is a strategy victory by the g7 bishop that GM Gufeld would be proud of!  However, White doesn’t want to go down without a fight and after a series of tricky maneuvers Black has to resort to tactics to trap White’s queen.

Friday, April 4  David Vigorito Another Look at a King’s Indian Sideline (Middlegame)

Monday, March 24  IM Valeri Lilov Attacking Potential (Middlegame, Strategy)
The key principle to a successful attack is one’s potential. The following lecture provides some good ideas on how to analyse and build up the potential for a prominent attack against the opponent.

Tuesday, March 25 GM Eugene Perelshteyn  Unexpected Tactical Blow in the Middlegame (Middlegame, Tactics)
Black wins a pawn in the opening and plays creatively to keep it. However, White identifies the real weakness in Black’s position — his King, and finds a nice tactical blow in the Middlegame to start a deadly attack. The ensuring tactics are both instructive and beautiful to watch.

Wednesday, March 26 IM Dennis Monokroussos  The Queen’s Gambit and Friends. Part 3 (Middlegame, Tactics)
When one has an extra central pawn, sometimes it’s possible to create a mobile center that sweeps away everything in its path. Mikhail Botvinnik discovered ways to use such a plan in both the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit and the Nimzo-Indian, and in today’s game we see some examples of this potent plan in action – a plan we can still use today.

Thursday, March 27 GM Bryan Smith  An Exciting Answer to the Leningrad Variation of the Nimzo-Indian (Opening, Middlegame)
In this video, GM Bryan Smith looks at a sharp, gambit answer to the Leningrad Variation of the Nimzo-Indian (4.Bg5) in the context of his game against IM Elmir Guseinov.

Friday, March 28 IM David Vigorito Grandmaster Versus Amateur (Middlegame)

King’s Indian: Main Line 9.Nd2, 9.Ne1, 9.b4 by GM Leonid Kritz

Recommended for Advanced Players, for more info, click here.

Presented by Grandmaster Leonid Kritz for ChessLecture.com

GM Kritz outlines several variations of the King’s Indian including:

—The Mar del Plata variation of the King’s Indian 9. Nd2. No longer as popular as it once was, it is still played rather frequently even at the top levels of chess. The third most popular white move, it has been played by contemporary grandmasters Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand.

—Orthodox, Aronin–Taimanov 9.Ne1 named for Mark Taimanov vs Lev Aronin Moscow 1952. GM Tigran Petrosian said “ for Kings Indian Players, this game made people think that the King;s Indian was at its demise.

—The Bayonet Attack 9. b4 which has many forks in the road.

Content: 2.25 hours of instruction and analysis in a series of 6 lectures.

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this series a 5 out of 5

Fans on Chesslecture.com said: Brilliant video. Excellent Video!

GM Leonid Kritz was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1984. He started playing chess at age of 4, at Spartak Moscow Chess School. Youth World Champion under 16 in 1999, became grandmaster at the age of 19 years in 2003. Participated at FIDE World Cup in 2004, represented Germany at Chess Olympiad 2004, and European Team Championships 2005 and 2007. Co-winner of SPICE Cup 2008

This is the last week to see Part 1 of Grandmaster Bryan Smith’s series on his final GM Norm. In the Michigan Fall Festival, Smith got his final norm for the grandmaster title. In this series he shows some of the games from that tournament – part 1 covers his game with GM Timur Gareev from the second round.  Smith has been a regular contributor on ChessLecture.com since 2007.

• Matchup: Bryan Smith vs. T. Gareev
• Skill Level: Intermediate
• Category: Strategy; Annotated Games
• ECO: E42
• Opening: Nimzo-Indian Defense; Rubenstein Variation
• Run Time: 00:50:02

If you enjoyed this video by Smith, become a member and see parts 2 through 4!  Just click here: Join

Monday, March 17, IM Valeri Lilov A GM Approach to the Middlegame (Middlegame, Strategy)
The lecture provides some important ideas on how Grandmasters approach the middlegame and planning. Learn by following the play of the great masters!

Tuesday, March 18, IM Bill Paschall A Problem for White in the English Flohr-Mikenas Variation (Openings, Middlegame)

Wednesday, March 19, FM Dennis Monokroussos The Queen’s Gambit and Friends, Part 2: Dynamics Beat Statics (Openings, Tactics)
The game we’ll look at was a Queen’s Indian, but there are such strong Queen’s Gambit motifs (e.g. the hanging pawns and the way both sides developed their pieces) that a careful look at this game will help us better understand the Queen’s Gambit. As in the game featured in part 1, White hoped to enjoy a long-term plus based on the static features of the position, but a pawn sac created a dynamism that White was unable to cope with. Akopian never managed to resolve the shaky situation of his king, and it finally cost him the game.

Thursday, March 20, GM Eugene Perelshteyn Teaching a Young Star a Lesson or Two in the Exchange Slav (Strategy, Tactics, Opening)
White completely outplays the young star, IM Sam Sevian using the classical approach and c5 outpost in the Exchange Slav. Tha game is very instructive from both strategy and tactics, as White needs to find the finishing blow to open up the enemy king. The rest is just massacre.

Friday, March 21 LM Dana Mackenzie The Mike Splane Question (Middlegame, Strategy)

Two Knights Defense by LM Dana Mackenzie

Recommended for Intermediate Players

Bronstein once suggested that the term “defense” does not fit this strategy, and suggested the name “Chigorin Counterattack” as this line is adopted as Black by many aggressive players including Chigorin and Keres. Here Dana takes you through the strategy and how it plays out in real games.

Content: 3 hours and 9 minutes of instruction and analysis in a series of 4 lectures.

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this series a 3.75 out of 5

Fans on Chesslecture.com said: A terrific lecture! When you see games like these you understand that chess is still an art rather than a skill!

LM Dr. Dana Mackenzie is a USCF Life Master, a PhD mathematician, and an award-winning mathematics and science journalist and author. LM Dana Mackenzie started playing tournament chess during the “Fischer boom” of 1971-72 and never quit. Champion of North Carolina in 1985 & 1987, and became a master in 1988. Mackenzie now lives in Santa Cruz, CA and runs a chess club for kids at the local library. His passion for chess and his enthusiasm for teaching is unmistakable.

Mon March 10 IM Valeri Lilov Carlsen’s Kings Gambit
Every chess player has had the beautiful experience of learning from the incredible attacks of Anderssen, Morphy, Tal and others. Nowadays, it’s not easy to see such magnificent attacks on a high level as the fashion has changed and chess has become a lot more balanced, so positional play is essential for any combination to exist. Check out this video to see how to reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen was able to utilize one of the oldest openings with great success.

Tues March 11 IM Bill Paschall An Instructive Rauzer Endgame

Wed March 12 FM Dennis Monokroussos The Queen’s Gambit (and Friends), Part 1
For reasons that remain mysterious Boris Spassky failed to use the brilliant idea of his second, Efim Geller, in his 1972 world championship match against Bobby Fischer, and got crushed in a beautiful game. Geller therefore played his own novelty a year later and showed what could have been, defeating Jan Timman in great style. His new move and new concept involved a pawn sac for long-term compensation against the white king, stranded permanently in the center. This game, the first in a series on the Queen’s Gambit (with an occasional visit from openings that result in similar structures) offers a first glimpse into the richness of this opening, one of the most popular in chess history and one that remains important to the present day.

Thurs March 13 GM Leonid Kritz Sicilian 2….Nc6.3.Bb5: Rare Continuation by Black, Part 2
This is a continuation of last week’s lecture. We continue with the study of the main line and get to a position that will definitely require some additional analysis on your side. I think, however, that the exchange sacrifice offered in this lecture is very promising.

Fri March 14 GM Bryan Smith The Best of Lone Pine 1979, Part 2
In the second part of his series on the 1979 Lone Pine tournament, Bryan Smith looks at a fantastic ‘flawed brilliancy’ – a king hunt which took place in round three between Edward Formanek and Joseph Bradford.

Queen’s Gambit Declined; Tarrasch by IM David Vigorito

Recommended for Intermediate – Advanced Players

Content: 1 hour and 39 minutes of instruction and analysis in a series of 4 lectures.

IM David Vigorito gives an overview of a system advocated by the German master Siegbert Tarrasch in which the main line is: 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. g3 Nf6. A complete and active system against the Queen’s Gambit

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this series a 3.95 out of 5 ECO D32

Fans on Chesslecture.com said: Great series David. I feel I am learning about the middlegame as well as a specific opening with all your comments about the minor pieces.

IM David Vigorito was the 2007 Massachusetts Champion. He has been the state champion of New Hampshire and Nevada. David rated at 2479 in USCF and was the Champion of the Boylston (Boston) Chess Club. He played in the 2006 U.S. Championship after finishing in a tie for 3rd place at the U.S. Open in Phoenix. David is a successful chess author .