New Chess Videos for March 18 -22
Monday, March 18
IM Bill Paschall Crushing the Caro-Kann, Part 6 | Opening, Strategy
The variation with 4.h4 in the Advance Caro-Kann has arisen in the 21st century as one of White’s most aggressive and successful lines. In this battle, a veteran Caro-Kann expert uses the modern 4…h6, a system which has seen renewed interest in recent years. White exploits the classic and key concepts of space and development to overwhelm Black.
Tuesday, March 19
FM Dennis Monokroussos – English or Benoni? Either way, Kramnik Wins | Opening
Once again, we’ll have a look at an exciting, combative game between two of the absolute best players of the past 20 years. Our tendency is to think of Vladimir Kramnik as a paragon of positional play and Veselin Topalov (at his best) as a player with an unsurpassable ability to seize and use the initiative. But as we’ve seen, and see once again in this this game, Kramnik at his best can successfully fight for the initiative against anyone, and use it once he has got it. That’s what happens in this game. Topalov declines the chance to play a Hedgehog with Black, preferring to head for a Modern Benoni-like middlegame. Kramnik had no trouble adapting, and overwhelmed Topalov with his energetic play. No boring Berlins or calm Catalans here!
Wednesday, March 20
GM Leonid Kritz – Great Lesson on Pawn Structure | Strategy
This game is particularly important because of the pawn structure that occurred after Black played 16…f5. First of all, it’s very important to understand that the White’s whole idea – to play f4-f5 – was not good, because eventually he ended up with a bad bishop on g2. Also, it is a good example of how to play against two bishops – in the rigid pawn structure we have in this game, the white bishop pair was pretty helpless.
Thursday, March 21
GM Nadya Kosintseva – (Nimzo for Black) part 2 | Strategy
In this lecture, we start learning the popular 5.a3 move after 4.Qc2. Playing these two moves, white forces the trade of the black’s dark-squared bishop for his knight, while keeping the flexible pawn formation on the queen side. From black’s point of view, I suggest to play d6 right after the castling. As for me, it’s a very flexible set-up that allows black to build a barrier limiting white’s bishop pair. Specifically, in this lecture we will go over schemes of development of white pieces that imply keeping his dark-squared bishop in the initial position; lines with Bg5 will be examined in Part 3. Depending on how white plays, black can increase his presence in the middle with either d5, c5 or e5 pawns. As a result, he gets a solid position in the center, enhanced by opportunities to create a counter play on the sides.
Friday, March 22
IM Valeri Lilov – When to Start an Attack | Strategy, Middlegame
Ever wondered what makes an attack successful? Well, obviously it all comes down to execution but what really makes the execution flow is the ability to situate and regroup our pieces, as well as the opening of files which we get to use against our opponent. Check out more principles in IM Lilov’s new lecture!