New Chess Videos for September 23 – 27
Monday, September 23
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – 21st Century Chess – Attack Nepo Style! | Openings
How can you whip an attack from being behind in development and with a king stuck in the center? Welcome to 21st Century Chess, Attack Nepo Style! He disregards all classical principles and unleashes a pawn storm on the kingside that proves decisive. Can you play chess like this? Well…watch the video and you will be able to answer this question yourself. Can you spot the pretty mate that made Bacrot resign?
Tuesday, September 24
IM Bill Paschall – Great Matchups: Tal vs Botvinnik Rematch 1961, Part 4 | Openings, Endgame
Game nine represents a turning point in the match from which there seems to be no return. Tal attempts to avoid the Nimzo, but plays a risky variation against the English instead. Black sees his pawn structure devastated in the opening and lags in development. Tal should have gone for the Benoni or King’s Indian, and does later in the match but it seems too late. Botvinnik conducted this game in perfect style achieving a winning endgame after 25 moves. The match seemed nearly beyond reach for Tal, now down two games. Perhaps the biggest problem lay in the fact that Botvinnik was simply much better prepared in the openings.
Wednesday, September 25
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Facing the Pirc/Ufimtsev/Modern Defenses, Part 3 | Strategy
To finish the series about Pirc Defense we will consider specific move orders 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 followed by 4..d5 as well as 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c6 4.f4 Qa5. These move orders can be pretty tricky and require active but accurate play from white.
Thursday, September 26
FM Dennis Monokroussos – A Fresh Look at a Classic Endgame | Opening, Tactics
Two of the greatest players of the 20th century, Mikhail Botvinnik and Bobby Fischer, only played each other once, and that’s a pity for chess history. (They almost played a match in 1970 though – more about that in the video.) Still, the one game they did play was a classic, with each player getting in one big surprise against the other. For Botvinnik, the surprise came in the opening, when he had everything prepared up to move 17 and beyond, but was shocked by Fischer’s 17th move, which he had overlooked beforehand. Fischer was soon better, as Botvinnik went awry while dealing with the surprise, and managed to reach a winning ending. At this point Fischer prematurely relaxed, however, and a great defensive idea found by Efim Geller during the adjournment gave Botvinnik the key to a draw. Fischer missed everything in his sloppy adjournment analysis, and Botvinnik saved the game without difficulty. This is the beginning of the story, but not the end. Botvinnik and Fischer waged a war in print afterward, with with Fischer maintaining that he could have won the ending with best play while Botvinnik strove to refute Fischer’s analysis. Moreover, the 13-year-old Garry Kasparov, a pupil of Botvinnik’s in the mid-70s, found his own improvement on the analysis, achieving an even easier draw. All this is fascinating, and thanks to today’s computers it turns out that there are even more interesting lines to be discovered. So even those of you who already knew about Botvinnik & Kasparov vs. Fischer have a reason to tune in – there’s still more to the rook ending than you might have imagined!
Friday, September 27
GM Robert Hungaski – Carlsen’s Homage to Botvinnik | Strategy
It seems that Magnus Carlsen’s winning streak has come to an end (though barely!) after he tied for first place at the Sinquefield Cup and lost in the tiebreak playoff to Ding Liren. However, after a clutch last-round win against Wesley So, it seemed that Magnus had overcome his slow start and was poised to take yet another title. Fate would not have it so, but nevertheless during the press conference he gave after that game he qualified his game as a “homage to Botvinnik”. In this video I explain what he meant by this and explore the pawn structure that were featured in Botvinnik’s game and his own – and perhaps, also, I give you a new perspective on the value of doubled pawns!