New Chess Videos for January 26-30
Monday, January 26 IM Valeri Lilov Pawn Structure Essentials (strategy, middlegame)
Getting a good pawn structure isn’t that easy. In most games, the pawn structure for both players is quite equal. It takes strong discipline and analysis to setup a more beneficial pawn structure to make your development successful in the middlegame.
Tuesday, January 27 IM Bill Paschall Busting a Bad Benoni (opening, middlegame)
The following game from the Hungarian Team Championship illustrates the ease with which an inexperienced player can find themself in an unpleasant position in the Benoni Defense. Black should try to remain active and preserve the Benoni bishop if at all possible.. In the example , white freezes black’s queenside majority with the key maneuver b4 ! After the queenside is blocked, white then has a free hand in the across the board and black no counterplay with his dark bishop exchanged and his kingside weakened.
Wednesday, January 28 FM Dennis Monokroussos Tal-Platonov, Episode 2 A Tal Tale of a Trap (opening, tactics)
Last time we saw that the little-known Igor Platonov was a fine player, capable of going toe-to-toe with Mikhail Tal and even coming out on top. This time we’ll see Tal get his revenge, once again in a Najdorf Sicilian with 6.Bg5. Platonov played very well for quite a while in this complicated game as well, but Tal set a nasty little trap that worked. Some beautiful lines remained behind the scenes, so tune in not just for Tal’s win but for some great variations – and some useful opening theory – as well.
Thursday, January 29 GM Leonid Kritz Playing the Dutch Stonewall for a Win, Part 1 (opening, strategy)
Friday, January 30 GM Bryan Smith Rubinstein’s Great Endgames, Part 3 (endgame, strategy)
In Part Three of GM Bryan Smith’s series on the endgames of Akiba Rubinstein, we see how the great master extracts a victory from a seemingly-small advantage, in a manner almost like demonstrating a mathematical theorem.