Monday, June 18
IM David Vigorito The King’s Indian Student, Part 2 | Opening, Tactics
I continue my examination of ‘must-know’ games in the King’s Indian. Gelfand-Kasparov features an amazing exchange sacrifice that was known theory after Kasparov unleashed it against Karpov. Nowadays it has closed the door on the line from White’s perspective, but it was really something to find the idea in the pre-computer days.
Tuesday, June 19
IM Bill Paschall Top Flight Fights – Russian Team Champs 2018, Part 2 | Opening, Middlegame
IM Paschall goes back to one of this favorite modern players in this instructive game from the Russian Team Championship 2018 in Sochi. Here we follow a classic Kamsky positional grind. Breaking through the Stonewall Dutch type of position is never an easy task, but after 25 moves here, GM Bocharov’s stonewall is nonexistent! You can never go wrong learning strategic chess from the likes of Kamsky.
Wednesday, June 20
FM Dennis Monokroussos Once Again, the d5 Square Kills the Najdorf | Strategy
One expects child prodigies to be tactical wizards, but in his game with experienced GM Geetha Gopal, the 12-year-old IM (and hot on the hunt for his GM title) Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu showed that his positional skills are very much up to par for the grandmaster level. P.R. met Gopal’s Najdorf with the unusual 6.a3, a move we looked at in our video on Carlsen-Wojtaszek, and when …e5 inevitably came the battle for the d5 square was on. We’ve seen examples of a dominant white knight on d5 dominating a lousy black bishop on e7, but Gopal demonstrated the effectiveness of a bishop on d5 as well. It might not have been such a big deal in a queenless ending, but with queens on Gopal was helpless. A very instructive game!
Thursday, June 21
GM Eugene Perelshteyn Play for Central Domination Against Ultra-Solid Grunfeld! | Strategy
How to beat a lower rated player? In this game GM Perelshteyn shows you his approach against 2300 FIDE rated player. Surprise him in the opening, win the battle for the center, then squeeze…squeeze…squeeze!
Friday, June 22
GM Bryan Smith Coffeehouse Chess, Part 11 | Strategy, Tactics
A fascinating battle of attack and defense played out in the seventh round of the Berlin candidates tournament between Aronian and Caruana. In this instance, it was the defense which emerged triumphant.