New Chess Videos for October 27-31
Monday, October 27 IM Valeri Lilov Mastering the Opened Positions (strategy)
Understanding how to play opened positions has always been a prerogative for beginner and intermediate players. Learning these positions requires knowing a few key principles, so that you can apply them as a part of the plan. Come learn them from IM Lilov in this lecture!
Tuesday, October 28 IM Bill Paschall Sealer Sweeper a la Gelfand
Gelfand faces a rare variation of the Queen’s Indian with an early c5… for black. Instead of the standard plan with d5 and Nh4, he employs a different pawn sacrifice for which his opponent was unprepared. In the middlegame we see white with a clear superiority in the center. Gelfand illustrates the classic sealer sweeper pawn sacrifice with e4-e5 and then f5 ! Black’s kingside dark-squared weaknesses are telling and white crashes through with a mating attack.
Wednesday, October 29 FM Dennis Monokroussos When Hackers Meet (openings, tactics)
Emil Sutovsky and Julian Hodgson are both known as creative attackers who love to sacrifice material, so one would expect their games to be battles royale. That’s certainly the case here, and on this occasion it was Sutovsky who was on song. (A little pun – Sutovsky is known to be an outstanding singer as well as a chess player!) It’s a great game, and many of you may find the opening of interest as well as a way for White to enjoy the sharpness of the Open Sicilian without having to dive into as much theory as you might find in the main lines.
Thursday, October 30 GM Leonid Kritz Sicilian Paulsen e6-a6-Bc5-Be7 (openings)
This is another very popular opening for black. One of its advantages is that there are many different move orders black can choose to get white go in the wrong direction. The best way to play against it is certainly to provoke g6 by playing Qg4! Afterwards, white goes back with the queen and plays standard hedgehog position with the additional weakness of square h6. The position offers both players great chances to play for win.
Friday, October 31 GM Bryan Smith A Fascinating Endgame from the Match of the Century (endgame, tactics)
GM Bryan Smith examines the dramatic thirteenth game of the 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Here we see how both players navigate a treacherous and unusual ending, full of twists and turns.”