Monday, July 21 IM Valeri Lilov How to Beat a Grandmaster (strategy)
Fighting a grandmaster sounds like a tremendous task. How about winning against one? The secret to winning against highly rated and experienced players has everything to do with a good strategy. If a player follows the key rules for playing strong players, he has a chance of standing and even defeating very strong opponents.
Tuesday, July 22 IM Bill Paschall A Great Battle from Norway 2014 (middlegame, endgame)
GM Kariakin plays a theoretical line against the Grunfeld, where perhaps his opponent, Alexander Grischuk, was more well prepared. Kariakin is forced to give up the exchange and basically has to fight move to move to avoid being clearly worse. As the battle goes on , Grischuk misses his chances and fails to go for a bailout line basically ensuring a draw. The endgame is pure genius, where Kariakin instructively wins down the exchange with great central pawns and a super active king!
Wednesday, July 23 FM Dennis Monokroussos Sacrificing the Queen for Two Minor Pieces (tactics, middlegame)
Standard chess wisdom has it that if one wants to sacrifice a queen for a couple of minor pieces he should only do so if a couple of pawns are also thrown into the bargain. Assuming, obviously, that the sacrifice is somewhat speculative and not an immediate winner. As a general rule it makes sense, but as usual in chess there are plenty of exceptions. Today’s game offers a glorious exception, and serves as a bit of an opening trap to boot. Florian Handke came up with a new and interesting idea on the spot in a 6.Rg1 Najdorf, and his opponent’s principled play rapidly backfired as the then-future GM won an attractive miniature.
Thursday, July 24 GM Bryan Smith Fighting the Quiet D-Pawn Openings: The Colle System (openings)
In the third part of his series on battling the less-common d-pawn openings, GM Bryan Smith shows a system to combat the Colle, where Black uses the mysterious advantage of being the second player in a symmetrical position
Friday, July 25 Eugene Perelshteyn Simple Endgames Are Not Easy! (endgame)
In a GM vs GM battle, a seemingly simple position was reached after the opening. Yet, it wasn’t simple at all! After minor concessions by Black, White obtained an open file and pressure against the weakened Queenside pawns. White missed the only opportunity of the game with g5! and Ng4! idea to attack the king in the endgame. Instead, he chose a promising rook endgame that turned out to be an easy draw.
