Monthly Archives: July 2015

Monday, July 27 GM Leonid Kritz Ambiguous Experiments in the Opening (openings, tactics)
Strange enough – Grischuk who has an excellent opening repertoire plays a line that is considered bad and… gets a bad, almost lost, position right after the opening. All Giri needed was to show certain degree of precision, which he partially did, but at some point Grischuk was able to get into complications and almost equalize. A very interesting game in a rare opening and with many tactical and strategic aspects.

Tuesday, July 28 IM Bill Paschall Classic Karpov, Part 2 (openings, tactics)
Karpov finds himself right at home in a line of the Catalan which he has played with both colors. His opponent, super-GM Beliavsky, makes a very audacious capture with the queen on d5 on black’s 13th move. Karpov uncorks a powerful novelty with the move 14. h4 !, which guards the bishop on g5 and leaves the black queen in great danger on d5. Black is never able to neutralize white’s pressure on the the h1-a8 diagonal in this classic Catalan encounter. Black, in desperate trouble, quickly goes astray, trying to solve his problems tactically but missing a classic Karpovian quiet move.

Wednesday, July 29 FM Dennis Monokroussos In Praise of Kieseritzky (tactics)
Lionel Kieseritzky is best known today as the loser of the “Immortal Game” and for the variation named for him in the King’s Gambit. But he was really a talented player in his own right, as we’ll see: a gifted attacker with a nice eye for sacrifices. (See especially the second game fragment in the video, which suggests that he was the first discoverer of a mating pattern named for someone who found it a generation later!)

Thursday, July 30 GM Eugene Perelshteyn How to Win 1st Place Outright Ahead of 7 GMs If You’re Only 14! (endgame, strategy)
Learn endgames from the best! Kamsky slowly outplays his younger opponent in what looks like a equal endgame. Where did White go wrong? Watch and learn how to think in terms of “schemes” and plans and how to attack in the endgame!

Friday, July 31, GM Bryan Smith A Repertoire for White in the Ruy Lopez: Part 1 (openings, strategy)
In this first part of his repertoire series, GM Bryan Smith looks at ways for White to meet the Classical Variation (3…Bc5) against the Spanish.

Monday, July 20 IM David Vigorito Prophylactic Mating Attack (middlegame, tactics)
After an unusual opening transposition, a highly unbalanced middlegame is reached. Here we see how a flank attack can work well even when the center is not closed. The key to success here is always remembering to think, ‘what can my opponent do?’.

Tuesday, July 21 IM Bill Paschall Classic Karpov, Part 1 (openings, tactics)
Karpov gains the bishop pair and a spacial advantage in the opening. Timman misplays in some early situations, deploying the wrong knight to b4 as well as deferring e6, thus allowing Karpov a very disruptive pawn sacrifice. Black is unable to coordinate or generate counter-play in this sharp situation with king his castled long. Karpov brilliantly sacrifices his queen and gains a devastatingly powerful passed pawn, which is the key to his victory. The former World Champion displays excellent technique in this imbalanced endgame.

Wednesday, July 22 FM Dennis Monokroussos Remembering Walter Browne (openings, tactics)
Walter Browne died this June, and as one of the legends of U.S. chess and a world-class player in the 1970s and early 1980s, he deserves to be remembered. In this game he shows his mettle, crushing one of the world’s best players. He found a brilliant idea against his opponent’s opening idea, and finished the game with an impressive attack. Browne’s high-energy play may have made it look easy, but it wasn’t!

Thursday, July 23 GM Leonid Kritz Time Trouble (tactics)
Even though every game of the World Champion is interesting to watch, this one is something special. And it is not because of chess attributes. Yes, Carlsen played very strong and outplayed his opponent as he does so often, but then… Mistakenly, the world champ expected additional 15 minutes after move 60, but he did not get them and… lost on time in a position where he was winning by force. That does not happen too often. Besides, the most important moment of the game is the idea that almost always you should play h5 once your opponent plays h4 with the idea of weakening your king. Topalov did not do it and got in trouble in a position that was absolutely OK.

Friday, July 24 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Play the Endgame Like Kamsky! (endgame, strategy)
Learn endgames from the best! Kamsky slowly outplays his younger opponent in what looks like a equal endgame. Where did White go wrong? Watch and learn how to think in terms of “schemes” and plans and how to attack in the endgame!

Monday, July 13 IM David Vigorito Pawn Tension From the Opening Into the Endgame (openings, endgame)
In this lecture I present one of my own recent games. Facing an experienced Canadian IM I used my preparation for a previous round to get a comfortable ending. There is lasting pawn tension in the center and both sides have half-open files for their rooks. Who will handle the tension better? (me!)

Tuesday, July 14 IM Bill Paschall Miles on Hypermodernism, Part 5 (openings, strategy)
Miles sidesteps white’s preparation in the Queen’s Indian. The resulting Nimzo is played in very hypermodern fashion by Miles. Black benefits from a better structure and fewer weaknesses than white. Gheorghiu is not so much overextended, but does incur long-term weaknesses and a lack of coordination. White could have improved by castling queenside at some point. The plan by Miles of avoiding f5 in the opening and developing with Nc6 and Qe7 is particularly interesting.

Wednesday, July 15 FM Dennis Monokroussos The Mighty Chigorin, Episode 2 (tactics, middlegame)
Last time we saw Chigorin defeat the world champion with the white pieces in game 1 of their two-game cable match; this time we’ll see Chigorin finish him off with Black in another theoretical duel. Chigorin enters the early middlegame with the better prospects, as Steinitz again undervalues his opponent’s initiative. This time, however, Steinitz decides to mix things up, and in the ensuing complications it’s again Chigorin who comes out ahead, seeing a couple of nice zwischenzugs that leave him on top. The great Russian finishes smoothly as well, making it clear to Steinitz then and to us today that he really was a great of the era, a player who deserves our appreciation and attention even now.

Thursday, July 16 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Facing the Youngest GM in the Country: Sevian’s Queen Triangle Wins the Game! (tactics)
Eugene faces the youngest Grandmaster in the country. Watch and learn great tactical queen triangle from the young Sevian!

Friday, July 17 LM Dana Mackenzie Returns and Farewells (strategy, tactics)
In his valedictory lecture for ChessLecture, NM Mackenzie shows the game that finally returned his rating to the 2200 (master) level, after nearly twenty years. He points out areas where his play has improved in the last 5-10 years and a number of themes from his previous ChessLectures, including: controlling the pace of the game, choosing between strategy (“building” moves) and tactics (sacrifice), piece coordination, passed pawns as a weapon in the middlegame, the Mike Splane Question (“how will I win this game?”), and sacrificing pawns for tempi in a rook and pawn endgame.

Monday, July 6  IM David Vigorito Punishing Indifferent Play (opening, endgame)
In this game a 2600+ player is seemingly caught off guard by Nakamura’s opening choice. After Socko plays a harmless exchange of pieces in the opening, he quickly ends up in a slightly worse position. The American super-GM seems to easily increase his advantage in methodical fashion.

Tuesday, July 7  IM Bill Paschall Miles on Hypermodernism, Part 4 (opening, middlegame)
Miles uncorks another hypermodern staple from his repertoire; the Nimzovich Defense. The game takes on a Scotch type of structure and white gains an opening advantage due to his strong central e4 pawn.Later, white fails to consolidate his space advantage and Miles takes the initiative with an early queen sortie to h4. We see another example of weaknesses and over-extension exploited by black. In particular, the move 12. g3 leads to serious weaknesses in white’s camp and Miles launches a decisive counter attack in the hypermodern style.

Wednesday, July 8  FM Dennis Monokroussos The Mighty Chigorin, Episode 1 (opening, tactics)
Tags: Chigorin, Steinitz, Evans Gambit, positional play
Description: We’ve recently seen the great Russian player Mikhail Chigorin at his worst, but in fact he was a terrific player who deserved his two shots at the world championship. Here we see him comprehensively outplay the world champion with White in an Evans Gambit, showing good opening preparation, better judgment, a fine tactical eye and great creativity on his way to an impressive victory in the first game of a two-game match played by cable.

Thursday, July 9  GM Eugene Perelshteyn How to Win Without Ever Moving Your King! (opening, tactics)
In the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, White chooses a very sharp idea with an early h4 pawn push. But Black can just leave the king in the center and activate all the pieces! Watch how the king has never moved from e8 when White resigned.

Friday, July 10  GM Bryan Smith The Clear Play of Bobby Fischer, Part 8 (opening, tactics)
For the final game of the series, we look at one of Fischer’s last publicized games – from his 1992 rematch against Boris Spassky. In this match, the off-the-board events somewhat overshadowed the play, so the games are not so well known. But here we can see how Fischer has adapted to the changed opening theory, using the relatively-new English attack against the Sicilian, and showing clear and purposeful play in the opposite-side castling situation.