New Chess Videos for June 11 – 15
Monday, June 11
IM Valeri Lilov The Method of Center | Strategy, Middlegame
The center is the most important area of the board in chess. Controlling it means to improve your piece effectiveness and speed up while attacking. Learn how to do so in IM Lilov’s instructive video!
Tuesday, June 12
IM Bill Paschall Top Flight Fights – Russian Team Champs 2018, Part 1 | Opening, Strategy
Former world top 10 Alexey Shirov finds himself the underdog against journeyman GM Evgeny Najer. Najer’s preparation is strong and his strategic play too much for Shirov to handle. White gains a space advantage and used a classic pawn break to dismantle Shirov’s position. This is just one of many great games in this series on the Russian Team Championship 2018.
Wednesday, June 13
FM Dennis Monokroussos Sometimes the Best Plan is the Second-Best Plan | Tactics
The standard recipe against Seirawan’s Caro-Kann with 4…Nf6 and 5…exf6 is to castle queenside, hoping to whip up a kingside attack. When Khalifman played the calm, unpretentious 9.0-0 it seemed that he was going for a more “normal” middlegame, but only a couple of moves later (provoked by Seirawan’s inaccuracies on moves 9 and 10) the bull went full snort. Khalifman showed that it was possible to go full steam ahead with a successful kingside attack, despite the relatively open center and without launching the pawns to break open lines. Back to the title: while the plan with 9.Qc2 might be the best plan, Black’s vigilance was so quickly dulled by 9.0-0 that the objectively second-best plan proved the best practical choice.
Thursday, June 14
GM Nadya Kosintseva Active King in the Endgame | Endgame
Usually, in the beginning of the game as well as in the middle game the king cannot do much and when we evaluate its positioning, we mainly want to be sure that the king is safe and cannot be attacked by enemy pieces. However, in the endgame the role of the king increases and often the difference in the positioning of the kings may decide the game. If your king is not active enough it can be hard to convert a material advantage, whereas an active king can help you to hold a worse position even if you a pawn or two pawns down. In this lecture, I will show you two instructive rook endgames that demonstrate the importance of active king in the endgame and reveal the hidden potential of this mysterious chess piece.
Friday, June 15
GM Eugene Perelshteyn A Fresh Idea in the Maroczy Bind for Black | Opening, Strategy
In this game GM Perelshteyn resurrects an old setup vs the Maroczy Bind. White wasn’t too impressed and decided to get 2 bishops at the cost of his pawn structure. Was this the smart decision? Watch and learn how Black stops White’s attack while executing the key strategic ideas in this opening.