Monday, June 29 IM Valeri Lilov Carlsen’s Mastery (middlegame)
Many players wonder what is the secret of Carlsen’s success in his games. In his newest lecture, IM Lilov will try to uncover some of the key ideas the world champion is using to win his games!
Tuesday, June 30 IM Bill Paschall Miles on Hypermodernism, Part 3 (openings, tactics)
Miles stuns Karpov by playing the St.George Defense , 1…a6 . Karpov achieves a slight advantage in the opening, but slightly overextends himself. Instead of playing to consolidate, and equalize, Karpov gets tempted by a risky and unsound plan which leaves him uncoordinated. White must surrender the bishop pair and black gains a serious advantage. Eventually, Miles wins a pawn and then another and despite the presence of opposite colored bishops on board, his advantage is decisive. Yet another example of the dangers of overextending yourself when facing hypermodern systems against a strong counterattacking player.
Wednesday, July 1 FM Dennis M. Great Tragedies in Chess History, Part 4 (openings, tactics)
Hastings 1895 was Harry Nelson Pillsbury’s breakout tournament, the first and greatest success of his short career. The tournament was a Who’s Who of the top players of the era: new world champion Emanuel Lasker played, the just defeated Wilhelm Steinitz participated, two-time challenger Mikhail Chigorin, Siegbert Tarrasch, future challenger Carl Schlechter and many other stars of the time as well. Pillsbury’s accomplishment was great, but many forget that he was helped mightily by a couple of terrible failures by his main competitors in the penultimate round. At that point Chigorin was leading, with Lasker and Pillsbury half a point behind. Lasker had White against Blackburne, and after achieving a great position from the opening played rather poorly, and Blackburne outplayed him rather badly. Chigorin also had White, against Janowski, and his play was shockingly bad – probably one of the worst games ever played by an elite player still at or near the top of his form. We’ll have a look at these two shocking games in this video.
Thursday, July 2 GM Eugene P. Battle vs the Youngest Female Master in the Country! (middlegame, tactics)
In this battle of Youth vs Experience, young Carrisa proves a worthy challenger. In complex King’s Indian position she comes up with interesting tactical ideas to keep the tension. The game is very instructive of the tactics behind the scenes!
Friday, July 3 GM Bryan Smith The Clear Play of Bobby Fischer, Part 7 (openings)
In this 1970 game against Svetozar Gligoric from the pinnacle of his career, Fischer gave a great demonstration of the “Spanish torture”.