Monday, February 18
IM Bill Paschall – Crushing the Caro-Kann, Part 2 | Opening, Strategy
The Advance Variation offers White some lasting advantage against the Caro-Kann Defense. In this game we see the World Champion display the value of White’s spacial advantage for attacking purposes. Perhaps this system appeals to many players as there are several systems to choose from of varying aggressiveness. Magnus chooses a careful setup, but the closed nature of the position allows him to avoid exchanges and gain dangerous attacking chances.
Tuesday, February 19
FM Dennis Monokroussos – The Precarious Dutch Defense | Strategy
Austrian GM Stefan Kindermann is and has long been a huge fan of the Dutch Defense. Perhaps some players will know more about the Dutch than he does, but few if any will have the combination of specific knowledge and felt experience when it comes to handling that opening. And yet even he went awry most speedily in his game with Anton Korobov from the current season of the Bundesliga. Kindermann went for a strategically dubious plan whose benefit was the elimination of White’s ability to castle. A battle of imbalances: a reduced influence in the center for Black, awkward development for White. Who benefited the most? In this case, very clearly, White, and Korobov won a strategic masterpiece. Dutch Stonewallers, beware!
Wednesday, February 20
GM Eugene Perelshtey – A Brilliancy With a Major Flaw! | Tactics
How often do you find yourself rejecting your opponent’s sacrifice with a thought “yes, he must have calculated it all out.” Well, this is actually a common mistake a Grandmaster can make as well! What looks like a winning sacrifice for White, turns out to have a major flaw. Can you find out why? Hint: It’s not easy and it involves an intermezzo!
Thursday, February 21
GM Robert Hungaski – A Strategic Repertoire Against the Sicilian: Sidelines Against 2…Nc6 | Strategy
As we come to the end of our journey, we wrap up our discussion with some minor alternatives black has after the move 2…Nc6. Arguably, this is the most challenging move-order for our system since black has three distinct options that will prevent our desired pawn structure altogether (Four Knights, Sveshnikov and Classical – Moreover, black can also play the Scheveningen through the 2…e6 move-order).
Our goal will be to tackle the Lowenthal, Kalashnikov and Accelerated Dragon (lines which are not possible through the 2…d6 & 5…g6 move-order discussed in part 1). Although the Lowenthal is the only one of these three that does not allow us to place a pawn on c4, we will see that white does not have too much trouble achieving the easier position. In the latter two cases, we will encounter familiar structures and thematic play.
I hope you have enjoyed this series and I welcome your comments and suggestions!
Friday, February 22
GM Leonid Kritz – Fight the Dragon ‘Old Style’ | Tactics
An interesting game by Smirin in which he shows some “new old” ideas on how to play against the Sicilian Dragon. Black obviously allowed white too much, and got in trouble. He probably had to try to stop white’s attack by playing h5 himself, and not allowing white to play h5. However, as it is typical for contemporary Dragons, the game ended in a bad endgame for black, and not with a check mating attack.