New Chess Videos for April 13 -17
Monday, April 13
FM Dennis Monokroussos – The Immortal Draw (1922) | Opening, Endgame
Alexander Alekhine was one of the all-time greats, the world champion from 1927 to 1935 and from 1937 until his death in 1946. Richard Reti didn’t reach that level of chess immortality, but he achieved a level of fame as a player, study composer, and the inventor of the Reti Opening. That he was a great player in his own right can be seen in this game, which was for decades known as the Immortal Draw. Even now, in the age of computers, the game holds up very well; there are few places where their play can be improved, and in no cases were there clear oversights. The game is a thriller: a wild opening, a long series of combinations and counter-combinations, and finally a challenging ending where Reti’s fine defense lets him save the game despite his opponent’s extra pawn. The play is rich and beautiful, and worth your time.
Tuesday, April 14
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Instructive Central Pawn Sac for White in the Semi-Slav | Opening
Have you heard of a concept called Pawn Shield? You use your opponent’s pawn to shield your king against direct attack. GM Perelshteyn teaches you a cool trick that you can use in the middlegame by sacrificing a key central pawn! He demonstrates in his game vs GM Paragua how the extra pawn was only paralyzing Black’s pieces and enabled White a quick attack. A nice bonus, can you find the mating sequence at the end?
Wednesday, April 15
IM Bill Paschall – Botvinnik: Exploiting Space Advantages, Part 1 | Middlegame, Strategy
The 6th world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, was one of the greatest strategists of all time. He accumulated the knowledge of his predecessors and passed on HIS strategic understanding to future World Champion Gary Kasparov (#13), among others. Botvinnik’s middlegame play was particularly strong and his use of space advantages provides a great illustration for students of the game. In this series we will go in detail over some of his strategic victories where space advantage, and the fundamental and related concept of control of the center, is pivotal to winning the game.
Thursday, April 16
GM Leonid Kritz – Don’t Forget the Basics: Pawn Grabbing! | Opening, Tactics
This game absolutely does not belong into a GM tournament. Something must have happened to Firouzja that he forgot one of the basic principles of chess – don’t be greedy in the opening. After capturing the pawn on b2 Black got into serious trouble and was eventually destroyed quite rapidly. The moral of the story – king safety and development first, pawns afterwards.
Friday, April 17
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Offense Is The Best Defense | Strategy
In this lecture, I will show you one of my favorite examples of active defense. The game that I introduce was played back in 1989 between two young boys – Konstantin Sakaev and Vladimir Kramnik – both of whom became very strong grand masters a few years later. It’s true that everyone likes to attack, but how many of us like to defend? Who likes to oppose his opponent’s threats rather than bring his own pieces forward and increase the pressure on the enemy king? Not many of us, I guess. But what if we apply the popular expression: “Offense is the best defense” to a chess game? What if instead of retreating we will react creating own threats? It’s exactly what happened in the game: Kramnik sacrificed a piece in a hope to attack but eventually found himself in a role of defender because his opponent rejected to defend passively.