Daily Archives: April 30, 2019

Monday, April 29
IM Bill Paschall – Best Games from the 2019 Euro Championship, Part 2 | Openings
Journeyman super-grandmaster Boris Gelfand is undoubtedly the most accomplished player in the 2019 European Championship. Gelfand was running just behind the leaders after six ro | Openingund with 5/6. In this positional lesson, he takes down the creative young GM Nikita Petrov. Black risks leaving his knight on a5 in a King’s Indian position and it never can join the battle for the King side. Typically instructive is the way Gelfand takes the play to the King side as White in what is effectively a variation of the King’s Indian Defense.

Tuesday, April 30
GM Leonid Kritz – Don’t Wake the Tiger! | Openings, Tactics
Karjakin was too brave from the very beginning of this game – he decided to test Carlsen’s preparation for the World Championship Match against Caruana and ran into the same openings line as Caruana did. With the same success. Carlsen demonstrated a very interesting pawn sacrifice, got great compensation, and clearly showed who is the owner of the house in this opening. Great example of positional sacrifice!

Wednesday, May 1
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Sacrificing a Piece in the Middlegame for Domination in the Endgame | Middlegame
In a rapid event shortly after their world championship match, Kramnik again came out ahead in their mini-match. Kasparov had no problems in the opening, but got too ambitious with 17…Ke7. He may have felt it was a good idea to avoid a technical position against Kramnik, but Kramnik was more than a match for him in the sharp middlegame that ensued. Kramnik first sacrificed a pawn and then a piece, and what was remarkable was that the aim was to reach an ending where Kasparov had an extra piece but all four of his pieces, including his king, were dominated. Kramnik’s idea wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good in its own right and the practical problems proved too much for Kasparov to handle.

Thursday, May 2
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – How to Neutralize White’s Queenside Plan in the Accelerated Dragon | Strategy, Tactics
The point of the Accelerated Dragon is force White to castle kingside. But how do you handle White’s queenside play? Watch and learn how Black uses strategy and tactics to solve this problem. The secret is…intermezzo tactics! However, White looks like he gets compensation. Black again, steps up to the challenge with an instructive exchange sacrifice. The rest is easy!

Friday, May 3
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Facing the Scotch Game, Part 1 | Openings
The Scotch, with its early d4, is one of white’s most solid and practical ways to meet 1.e4 e5. The practical nature of this opening gives white an edge in terms of preparation (white will usually be better prepared than us), but the flip side is that with accurate play, white’s position can become passive rather quickly. Therefore, our goal will be to seize the initiative as soon as possible by quickly putting pressure on white’s center (normally this implies playing for the …d5 break).

In this first of three lectures, we will examine 5.Be3, which is white’s most theoretical option since there are several important branches within the line itself.

Monday, April 22
IM Bill Paschall – Best Games from the 2019 Euro Championship, Part 1 | Opening, Tactics
An apparently normal opening leads to Black’s advantage as White decides to manually castle with 15.Nf1 and 16.Kg2. Although Black has no obvious breakthrough in this solid, symmetrical position, Cheparinov instructively sacrifices a piece long term to open the White king. An incredibly effective attack follows with decisive results. Cheparinov should be one of the favorites in a strong field, as always.

Tuesday, April 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Winning with the Bayonet…on the Kingside! | Strategy
Garry Kasparov was probably the greatest exponent of the King’s Indian Defense in the history of chess, but Vladimir Kramnik often gave him fits in that opening. In this game we see Kramnik making good use of the Bayonet Attack (9.b4), a line he helped put on the map in the 1990s. What is especially remarkable about this game is the way he turns Kasparov’s attempts to create a kingside attack against him; in the end it is Kramnik who wins the game in crushing style with some beautiful attacking play of his own. It is stunning to see how Kramnik just manhandled Kasparov, who had been the world champion for a dozen years at that point.

Wednesday, April 24
GM Leonid Kritz – A Dangerous Caro-Kann | Strategy
A very interesting game from a strategic point of view. It looked like White was doing everything right, but then somehow Black managed to solve all of his problems and eventually got a better position. From a practical standpoint, once White overlooked 21…Na2, he had to equalize immediately by taking Nxg6. However, he played for the win, overstretched his position, and got destroyed. An excellent example how dangerous Caro-Kann can be.

Thursday, April 25
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Nimzo-Indian Repertoire for Black, Part 7 – Meeting Minor Alternatives | Strategy, Tactics
In this lecture, we will finish the Nimzo-Indian and focus on the lines that White can use on the 4th move to surprise Black and/or to avoid a theoretical discussion. Theses lines are less popular compared to what we learned in the previous parts, but still can be instructive and help better understand Black’s options in the opening. As usual, Black tries to target the center by pushing his pawns there. c5, d5. If White does not play a3 for a while, the black f6-knight can jump to e4 and create more pressure before White castles. The positions are solid but at the same time interesting in their strategic and tactical variety.

Friday, April 26
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – How to Attack White in the Sicilian with the King in the Center! | Openings
It’s not often that you play chess with delayed castling, much less with no castling at all! Yet, in the Rauzer variation, this is exactly what Black should do! Watch and learn how Black leaves his king in the center and starts his counterplay on the queenside. The rest is very instructive dark square strategy attack! Can you solve some beautiful tactics at the end?