Monday, June 17
IM Bill Paschall – Great Matchups: Smyslov vs Botvinnik, Part 5 | Opening, Strategy
Early in their careers, Botvinnik seemed to dominate the personal matchup with Smyslov. It wasn’t until the 50’s that Smyslov became a very serious threat to Botvinnik. In this game from 1944, Botvinnik successfully used his beloved Winawer French to defeat the future World Champion. Black’s grab of the a4 pawn looks risky, as does castling kingside at move twenty ! However, the entire plan hinges on the critical break 21…f6 which enables Botvinnik to mobilize all of his forces and trap the enemy queen in his spider web!
Tuesday, June 18
FM Dennis Monokroussos – A Positional Crush by the Underdog | Tactics
Anton Korobov is a great player, but because he’s “only” 2700 or so (the chess version of “First World Problems”) he is relatively unknown to most club players. But in this game we get a taste of what he can do, as he exploits a single positional error by one of the all-time greats, Viswanathan Anand, to win with startling rapidity. One of Black’s standard ideas in many Queen’s Gambit Declineds is to achieve …c5 at the first convenient moment, going for central counterplay and fighting for space. Anand had the chance to play …c5 but delayed it, thinking that a single preparatory move would enhance its strength. Thanks to a little tactic Anand was unable to play it, but even that wouldn’t have seemed to be fatal, just an inconvenience. Korobov played very well, however, and showed that his opponent’s task was unexpectedly difficult. Even as great a defender as Anand was unable to put up much resistance, and Korobov won a speedy game of theoretical significance. Those who play either side of the QGD with Bf4 will want to study this game carefully!
Wednesday, June 19
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – A New Plan for Black in the Bogo Indian 4.Nbd2 Variation | Opening, Strategy
It’s not often that you develop a bishop just to retreat it back. Yet, this is exactly what Black does in this new idea in the Bogo-Indian Defense. Why would you do this? Watch as GM Perelshteyn explains the similarities between Bogo and King’s Indian Defenses; the bishop on e7 is not much worse than on g7 however, but White’s knight on d2 is totally misplaced. A strong GM of Gareev’s caliber wasn’t able to create a single problem for Black. Learn the cool plan of transferring the knight to d7-e5-c6!
Thursday, June 20
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Complete Hypermodern Repertoire for White: Play the Reti System – Part 2 | Strategy
In this lecture we will start learning the systems when black moves the light-squared bishop to f5. First, we will go over the lines that arise after 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Bf5 3.Bg2 e6. In this case white plays an earlier 4.c4 to challenge the d5 pawn and open up the diagonal for the queen that is going to b3, pressing on the black’s queen side. Next, we will consider the move order with 2..Nf6 3.Bg2 c6 that makes white’s c4 not so efficient. Instead white castles and plays d3 waiting for black’s e6 to target the light squared bishop by means of Nh4 move.
Friday, June 21
GM Leonid Kritz – This is the end… | Tactics
When players like Anand start playing 6.Bd3 this can be safely called the end of classical chess. The reason for this move is obvious – the desire to avoid theory, which means Anand does not see how to escape myriads of variations that lead to a draw and seeks side roads.
In this particular game, Navara does not react in the best way and actually gets outplayed. However, the last move of this game should enter the collection of chess jewels….