New Chess Videos for December 14 – 18
Monday, November 14 IM Valeri Lilov Anand’s Winning Blitz (middlegame)
Even wondered how strong masters play fast chess so easily? The simple answer is that they get to keep a very harmonious position for the most part. The great Vishy Anand is a brilliant example of using such strategy to win many of his rapid and blitz games. Check out this lecture to learn more!
Tuesday, November 15 IM Bill Paschall Boris Spassky’s Spasstacular Attacking Miniatures, Part 10 (tactics, strategy)
White plays a rare line against the Slav; the ultra aggressive Geller Gambit. Black weakens his kingside with h6 and later with f5 as well. White has kingside threats as well as play along the c-file, where black is backward. The timely break by Spassky with 23.d5 opens decisively the lines into black’s position. There are far too many weak points in the black position and white wins easily with his better mobilized forces. Time and coordination prove more important than material!
Wednesday, November 16 FM Dennis Monokroussos How To Win With a 33-move Combination (endgame)
A 33-move combination, really? Strictly speaking, no. But in another, purely practical sense, yes. After 18 moves only the queens, a pair of knights and a pair of pair of pawns have been traded, but Laurent Fressinet sees that through a fairly long and mostly forced series of moves and exchanges the contours of a hugely better endgame will arise. Not every move is absolutely forced, but there really wasn’t all that much that poor Nils Grandelius could do. The game is a brilliant illustration of the power of a dominant, outposted, blockading knight against an irrelevant bishop, and as a fringe benefit the game might even be of theoretical value and constitute a sort of positional trap.
Thursday, November 17 GM Leonid Kritz An Unforgettable World Cup Finals – Part 4 (tactics)
This was the last of four classical games that Karjakin needed to win in order to save the match. Svidler played a
terrible opening and was basically lost after 10 moves. However, Karjakin did not find the right way to play and the game turned into an almost equal endgame with small, symbolic advantage of white. I’m pretty sure that under normal conditions Svidler should be able to keep the draw, but in this game he probably could not keep his nerves. And so, another series of bad mistakes and the match moved into tie breaks.
Friday, November 18 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Important Lesson on Pawn Structures and Opening Transpositions (tactics, strategy, openings)
It’s important to know pawn structures that can arise from many openings. In this game, when faced with a new move as early as move four, White juggles many ideas from Reti, Catalan, QGD, and QID to get a nice edge. Black puts up a good fight to keep the game balanced; however, he falters in the late middlegame and allows White a nice attack with a rolling center and two bishops. A bonus with nice tactics at the end!