Monthly Archives: July 2014

Monday, July 28 IM Valeri Lilov The Advantage of Fast Development (strategy, openings)
Many chess players know that fast development is essential for a solid opening and good start for the middlegame. The question asked is just one: Why is it so important to develop fast? Answering that question is the key to unlocking the secrets of the successful opening play. Let us dig into this direction and improve your understanding of opening play.

Tuesday, July 29 IM Bill Paschall A Creative Nimzo by Karjakin (openings, tactics)
Karjakin gets creative with Black in a fairly rare line of the Nimzo. The move 8.b4 by GM Milov is uncommon in the Reshevsky variation , and Karjakin uses the classic Queen’s Gambit plan of b5 , and Nb6 to c4 to create a monster knight within the white position. Milov hesitates in the opening and is unable to achieve the classic plan of f3 and e4 with the central pawn majority. With White’s play stopped in its tracks, Karjakin turns the game into a King’s Indian, and with his dark squared bishop still on the board, conducts a decisive attack on the white king. Not your typical Nimzo-Indian !

Wednesday, July 30 FM Dennis Monokroussos How to Exploit Weak Squares (openings)
Most of us are familiar with ready-made holes, like the d5 square in the Najdorf Sicilian, but sometimes one must create such holes seemingly from scratch. That’s what Dutch great Jan Timman does in this game, and he offers a positional master class. First he creates the hole, then he makes sure his opponent can’t fill it, and then finally he occupies and uses it on the way to winning a positional masterpiece.

Thursday, July 31 IM David Vigorito The World Champion Falls to the King’s Indian (opening, strategy)
Carlsen plays his “customer” Radjabov and goes for a rather quiet line in the King’s Indian. It is Black, however, who has a better grasp of the King’s Indian’s subtleties. Carlsen gets a little too creative and Radjabov takes what he is given and finishes off the champ very efficiently.

Friday, August 1 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Grudge Match vs. Macieja in the Advanced Caro-Kann” (endgame)
White chooses the aggressive Short system to take revenge for the previous loss against Macieja (see previous lecture “Spectacular Queen Sac for Domination”). However, Black is up to the challenge and finds a way to simplify intro an instructive R+N vs R+B endgame. Clearly White’s bishop is better, but the tide turns and he finds himself defending. Watch and learn not to repeat the same mistakes!

The Najdorf Poisoned Pawn: Then and Now

by GM Bryan Smith

            Recommended for Intermediate-Advanced Players

A pawn is said to be poisoned because its capture can result in a positional disadvantage and or the loss of material l. The best known of these is a line of the Sicillian Defense, Najdorf Variation . One of the pioneers of this line was David Bronstein , who tied the 1951 World Championship match against Mikhail Botvinnik 12–12. Bobby Fischer later became an practitioner, playing it with great success.

Recently revived GM Bryan Smith shows you how it was historically used, and how our modern top class players such Anand are using it.

Content 2 hours of chess theory and discussion in a series of 3 lectures.    ECO: B97

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this series a 3.62 out of 5 .

Fans on ChessLecture.com said: Bryan: These two lectures on the Poison-Pawn you did are fantastic! Can you please do at least one more poison-pawn lecture to update where this opening stands today?

GM Bryan Smith grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, and resides in Philadelphia, PA. Some of his accomplishments include clear first in the 2008 National Chess Congress, first place in the 2006 U.S. Masters (qualifying to the 2007 U.S. Championship) and first place in the 2008 King’s Island Open, as well as winning many other Grand Prix tournaments. He was on the national champion UMBC chess team from 1999 to 2001. Bryan is the highest rated player ever from Alaska. Brian became a Grandmaster in 2013.

Basic Ideas Behind the Pirc Defense

by International Master Attila Turzo

Recommended for Beginner to Intermediate Players

The Pirc Defense sometimes known as the Ufimtsev Defence or Yugoslav Defense normally refers to the opening 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6. It is named after the Slovenian International Grandmaster Vasja Pirc.

On this DVD IM Turzo walks you through the basic variations and shows you the things to consider at every step.

Members of Chesslecture.com rated this series a 3.79 out of 5

Content: 140 minutes of instruction and analysis in a series of 5 lectures

Members said: I play the Pirc defense and learned a lot about the plans against the various setups white might choose. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the series. 5 stars.

IM Attila Turzo currently resides in Hungary. Attila’s his achievements are 1998 Hungarian Junior Champion and earned his IM title in 1997. Attila also won the First Saturday Chess Tournament in May 2004. Turzo is a professional chess coach.

Monday, July 14 IM Valeri Lilov Karpov’s Approach to Weaknesses (strategy, middlegame) One of the greatest players of all time is the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov. He was undoubtedly the greatest positional player for his time and one of the greatest technical players of all time. The secret behind many of Karpov’s victories lies within his strong ability to accurately find and attack weaknesses in his opponent’s position.

Tuesday, July 15 IM Bill Paschall A Smashing Sicilian! (tactics)

Wednesday, July 16 FM Dennis Monokroussos The Frenchman’s Attack Defeats the English (openings) Luxembourg GM Alberto David played an interesting sideline of the English, using an early b4. Sometimes this can save time, but sometimes – as in this game – it can end up being a loss of time if White must spend tempi defending the prematurely developed pawn. The game remained equal for quite a while, but when David underestimated super-GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s attacking potential for just a single move, he paid a heavy price. The young Frenchman won with a beautiful attack that seemed to come out of nowhere, and reminds us that if we’re pressing for an initiative on the opposite side of the board from where our king is, bad things can happen if we’re not careful!

Thursday, July 17 IM David Vigorito Opening Trends: Five Openings in One (openings) A new trend that is being seen at high level is a harmless-looking setup with e3 and Be2. White’s idea is essentially an Anti-Grunfeld, but the game can quickly turn into a Benoni, a Benko, a King’s Indian, or even a French of sorts! In this game Black scores a notable upset with a direct attack. White avoids getting mated, but he gets bound hand and foot.

Friday, July 18 GM Eugene Perelshteyn On the Ropes Against the Super-Strong Youngster (middlegame, tactics, strategy) Black finds himself on the ropes against the soon-to-be GM, Jeffrey Xiong, after getting on the worse side of the reversed Benoni structure. Watch and learn how the youngster attacks the GM with vigor after g4! Black missed a brilliant defensive idea and was closing to losing. However, White missed a beautiful tactic to finish off the game and allowed Black in the game with an exchange sac. The resulting endgame is a well-known theoretical draw, K+B vs K+R.  Just remember the rightcorner!

Monday, July 7 IM Valeri Lilov The Balance Between Attack & Defense (strategy, middlegame) Being able to balance between attack and defense is one of the hardest parts for any chess player. Choosing the right pace and timing to strike or simply make a prophylactic move seems way too complicated. The truth is that there are some fundamental principles that can help you to stay on track with your attack while at the same time, you can check your opponent’s possibilities and counterplay. What are the right steps? Study IM Valeri Lilov’s lecture to learn more.

Tuesday, July 8 GM Leonid Kritz Second Loss of New World Champion (tactics) This game is especially interesting because we can observe how the new world champion attempts to take revenge after his loss against Caruana. The strategy Carlsen choose was simple – get out of the way of theoretical variations and try to play a complicated position. With white, not a really good choice. Radjabov equalized after 15 moves and got superior position which he then converted to a full point. Pretty complicated game and a good idea of how to play against 5.Nge2 King’s Indian.

Wednesday, July 9 FM Dennis Monokroussos From Athens with Love (openings, tactics) Unless we’re grandmasters ourselves we probably all dream of beating a grandmaster in tournament play, and while we’re dreaming we might as well add that we should do it in style. For many of us we must accept the dream in attenuated form: maybe a win in blitz or in a simul. For a fortunate few, the dream comes true in all its glory, as it did one day in 2004 for Angelos Tzermidianos. His brother is an IM best known for an excellent book on the Tarrasch French, but Angelos is a good but untitled player. On that one happy day, however, the dream came true, as he unleashed a cavalcade of attractive sacrifices on his poor victim, Grandmaster Dmitry Svetushkin. Tzermiadianos did have a bit of trouble finishing his opponent off, but eventually succeeded, and the game is worth seeing both in its own right and for its inspirational value.

Thursday, July 10 IM David Vigorito Waving a Red Flag at a Bull (opening, tactics) Black is forced to move his king early in an innocent looking Caro-Kann. While the Black position is tenable, it only takes a couple of small inaccuracies from Mamedyrov and Nakamura is all over him. Black’s opening is probably ok, but the margin for error is small.

Friday, July 11 LM Dana Mackenzie Terrific Teens Episode 3: The Next Polgar Sisters? (middlegame, endgame) In the 2014 U.S. Women’s Championship, 13-year-old Ashritha Eswaran made a splashy debut with a sensational first-round victory over Viktorija Ni. The game highlights her aggressive counterattacking style, her tactical awareness, and her calm approach to an ultra-sharp position. First she sacrifices a queen to derail Ni’s attack; then she outplays Ni in an exchange-down endgame, with a winning move that even the grandmasters commenting on the game overlooked. And by the way… Eswaran has a younger sister who is progressing at least as rapidly as she did! I’m sure I won’t be the last to compare them to the Polgars.