Monday, December 10 IM Bill Paschall – The Best of Bronstein, Part 2 | Opening, Strategy
David Bronstein was one of the greatest chess players in history. Not only by drawing a World Championship match with Botvinnik, but through a long and illustrious career he proved himself creatively one of the most amazing players who ever lived.
In this game we see a positional demonstration of piece coordination. Bronstein uses his space advantage to tie up the opponent’s pieces before moving in for the kill against the enemy king.
Tuesday, December 11 FM Dennis Monokroussos – Winning on Demand in the Women’s World Championship | Strategy, Tactics
Ju Wenjun was on the verge of losing her women’s world championship title, trailing Kateryna Lagno 2-1 going into the last game of the match. Worse still, she had the black pieces. A very difficult situation, but she handled it almost perfectly, creating a “slow burn” position where she could play aggressively. It worked, and while there were a couple of stumbles near the end, she kept the pressure on Lagno, who eventually collapsed. Overall an impressive game, made all the more impressive by the circumstances.
Wednesday, December 12 GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Winning with Grand Prix Attack – Massacre on the Dark Squares | Opening, Tactics, Strategy
Do you want to learn the Grand Prix Attack? Then watch this video and learn how Black allowed every single idea to be executed by the White player: doubled pawns, free dark squares and the deadly attack. The game is lost tactically but Black can already resign with a terrible position.
Thursday, December 13 GM Nadya Kosintseva – Systems for White in the Spanish Game: Part 7 – Facing the Open Variation | Strategy
In this lecture we will see what happens if Black takes the central e4-pawn right after White castles on the 5th move. It’s the so called Open Variation, which implies more concrete play in the center of the board compared to the classical systems. The main question that arises here is whether White can get rid of the black’s e4-knight or not. If he does, he should be better, bringing the light-squared bishop to the b1-h7 diagonal and targeting the h7-point. Another important thing to watch out for is a pawn break by means of black’s d5-d4, which can lead to mass simplifications and exchanges
Friday, December 14 GM Leonid Kritz – Carlsen – Caruana World Championsip, 2018, Game 1: Carlsen’s Great Opening Idea | Opening, Tactics
This is the first game of the world championship match, and a very important one – but not primarily for Carlsen’s failure to “win a won position.” From the very start of the match, Carlsen negated Caruana’s perceived advantage in openings preparation and basically took away Fabiano’s chances for advantage with the white pieces. Of course, Magnus should have gone on to win this game – after his brilliant idea in the opening his position was much better, and the match would have been very different if he had not failed to convert. Instead, a very evenly matched struggle followed.