New Chess Videos for April 21 – 25
Monday, April 21 IM Valeri Lilov Exploiting a Space Advantage
The most common advantage in chess is the space advantage. Often many players get to a position where they have a lot of space and control of many squares, but they don’t know how to use them. In this lecture, IM Valeri Lilov provides a good direction on how to plan once you get that kind of advantage.
Tuesday April 22 IM Bill Paschall Candidates 2014: Aronian’s Lucky Bluff
Aronian fails to seriously challenge Mamadyrov’s Queen’s Gambit Ragozin with the backward looking Nd2. The game morphs into an innocuous looking exchange variation when suddenly Aronian plays f4 ?!? White creates an ugly looking backward pawn on e3, along black’s own half open file. Objectively unsound, the space gaining trick f5 by Aronian works as Mamadyarov misses the key move …Qg5 ! Aronian uncorks a devious, hidden queen trap and Mamadyarov loses, despite fighting down to the bitter end.
Wednesday April 23 FM Dennis Monokroussos Queen’s Gambit & Friends, Part 7: A Common Trap in the Slav
Our subject this time isn’t a great historical game or some cutting-edge theory, but rather a simple but important trap that is surprisingly prolific at the amateur level. After 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Black would love to play 4…Bf5, but as we’ll see it isn’t safe to do so. Be sure to avoid it, and know how to exploit it!
Thursday, April 24 GM Leonid Kritz Sicilian Paulsen 2…. e6-a6-Bc5-Ba7
A very modern variation where black shows good results in recent times. There are many ways white can play against it. I think, however, that the idea with putting knight on d2 is pretty interesting and can be played at any level. Certainly, it is impossible to claim a feasible opening advantage, but it looks like it is easier to play this kind of position with white.
Friday, April 25 IM David Vigorito Understanding a Typical Pawn Structure in the Sicilian
In this game I face a very young and talented your player who quickly reels off 14 moves of theory. The position is not tactical however, and it is an understanding of the typical middlegame that allows Black to get the upper hand.