All Things Chess

Monday, October 26
IM Bill Paschall
Capablanca-Lasker: 1921 World Championship Match Highlights – Part 5 | Opening, Strategy
Lasker, already trailing by three games, attempts to try one last time to win with White using 1. e4 and gains a slight advantage. Capablanca defends well, exchanging his worst piece and setting up a passive but defensible position. Perhaps tired , or just lacking confidence, Lasker finally blunders after a period of shuffling pieces and concedes the match. The losing Lasker saw no way forward with no victories in fourteen games, and Capablanca already halfway to the required eight wins. With this victory Capablanca retains the title he had already won by default and remains the richly deserved World Champion.

Tuesday, October 27
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – New American GM-Elect Hans Niemann crushes the Pirc! | Opening, Strategy, Endgame
In this game newly minted GM-elect Hans Niemann shows us his mastery of positional skills. He gets a comfortable edge in the Queen’s Indian and methodically weakens Black’s pawns. Notice how he quickly orients himself and changes plans based on the changing pawn structure. Black is fighting back with a timely pawn sac. But Niemann’s feel for initiative prevails when he realized he can give back the pawn with dividends: an unstoppable attack. Black panics, gives up his 2nd pawn and goes down into lost endgame. Impressive play by the youngster!

Wednesday, October 28
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Castling Into It | Openings
In many engine (computer chess) tournaments, the organizers force the programs to play certain opening variations. Sometimes those lines are in the mainstream, and sometimes they’re a little off the beaten track. The latter, understandably, tends to result in a higher percentage of decisive games. The game we’re about to look at features one of those deviations. It only comes on move 8, where Black rushes to castle kingside into what could turn out to be a serious attack. Thanks to Komodo’s brilliant play, it is all that and more! Black’s poor king is chased all the way to a8, and doesn’t find refuge there either, eventually dying near his birthplace, on d8. Enjoy a magnificent attacking masterpiece that anyone from Anderssen in the 19th century to Kasparov or anyone else today would have been proud to achieve.

Thursday, October 29
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Saving a Lost Game with Tactics! | Tactics, Strategy
In this lecture, I am going to show you my own game played back in 2004 in the Russian boys championship under 20. At that moment, I already stopped participating in girls tournaments and decided to test myself competing with boys of my age and older. The tournaments were very tough as every round I had to play against a male master or grandmaster. I was beaten much more often than in girls tournaments but these competitions helped me to grow up as a chess player and improved my chess skills significantly. The game that I analyze for you did not go well in the beginning and I could have lost in 20 moves. However, I was able to find a way to force my opponent into tactical complications and used my chance to make up for the strategic drawbacks of my position.

Friday, October 30
GM Robert Hungaski – Exploring Nimzo-Indian Doubled c-Pawn Structures, Part 2: The Leningrad Variation | Openings, Strategy, Middlegame
In this video I will be discussing the Leningrad Variation. This line was popularized by a group of players from the Russian city, particularly Spassky and his trainer, Vladimir Zak. This line will be one of the first attempts we will analyze in which White attempts to solve some of the problems that we encountered in the Saemisch Variation. In this line White is counting on the fact that it will be much harder for Black to put pressure on c4 since the black knight has been deprived of its natural c6-square (from where it usually heads to a5).

Monday, September 28
IM Bill Paschall – Capablanca-Lasker: 1921 World Championship Match Highlights – Part 1 | Openings
Capablanca finally gets a match with Lasker, something which happens ironically only after Lasker relinquishes the title. Lasker, therefore, playing as a challenger, begins the match soldily, but after four uneventful draws, blood is finally drawn in game five. Lasker plays actively and sacrifices an exchange, maintaining the balance as Black with the initiative. Unfortunately, Black has only enough compensation to draw, but he in fact blunders in time pressure with the first decisive game going to Capablanca.

Tuesday, September 29
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Another Battle of World Champions: Smyslov-Tal, 1959 | Openings, Strategy, Endgame
How do the titans of chess withstand the test of time? GM Perelshteyn shows you an amazing positional masterpiece from the 1959 Candidates Tournament, Smyslov vs Tal. All of White’s moves are approved by today’s modern Neural Network Engines, Stockfish and Leela. This once again shows us how important it is to study the classics. The ideas from this game can still be applied today!

Wednesday, September 30
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Against Tal, There’s Only Safety in Good Moves | Tactics
When playing a tactical genius like Mikhail Tal, it’s natural to aim for safe positions, if possible. (Someone should have told me that when I played him in a simul years ago!) GM Vladimirov seemed to have this in mind when he went for a symmetrical Benoni with 10.exd5 instead of a favorable Modern Benoni with 10.cxd5. Perhaps he was similarly motivated when he played 15.Bh6, but whether he played this out of a concern for safety (exchange off the opponent’s good pieces) or with attacking ambitions, it was a mistake. In what looks like a quiet position, Tal found a proverbial bolt from the blue, and White was almost immediately lost. Tal finished in style, demonstrating that tactics are everywhere in chess, and a player’s only safety is in good moves.

Thursday, October 1
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Two Queen Sacrifices in the Opening | Tactics
Many of us, who have studied classic games of the former world chess champions and other top players of the past and the present, are amazed by famous queen sacrifices from their games. Many of us have dreamed of playing an immortal queen sacrifice at least once in a lifetime but rarely have a chance to make this dream come true. In this lecture I will introduce to you two games in which White sacrificed the queen almost at the start of battle in theoretically known positions to make outcome less predictable. So, if you are looking for a chance to sacrifice your queen, you might think about including the same variations in your repertoire.

Friday, October 2
GM Robert Hungaski – Good Things About the Bad Bishops | Strategy
We all know to avoid bad bishops. But even bad bishops can have their redeeming qualities. Let’s take a look.

Monday, September 21
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match – Part 5 | Openings, Tactics
Though popular debate has always raged, it appears the match could be won by a margin of a single victory, not a margin of two victories as Lasker would have asked in the case of a longer thirty game match. With the match in his grasp by holding a draw as Black it seems Schlechter perhaps succumbed to the immense psychological pressure. It is true that playing Black with draw odds is not an easy task as many modern tournaments have proven. Both players have been accused of playing recklessly, but it seems Schlechter mishandled the opening first and foremost. White played aggressively and Black – despite his chances – failed to grasp a draw. Lasker was the match victor finally by virtue of tying the match. The final score five games to five. A respectable but disappointing result for Karl Sclhechter, but he did not prove to be superior to Lasker overall in this short fighting match.

Tuesday, September 22
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – White Sets a Deadly Trap in the Scandinavian Qa5 | Opening, Endgame
GM Perelshteyn digs out an old game from World Junior Championship of 1995 and discovers a hidden trap in the Scandinavian Qa5. Can you guess White’s winning percentage in this line? It’s an unbelievable statistic: a 100% win rate for White. Even SuperGM Rapport fell for this trap vs Grischuk, who actually messed up and didn’t execute the right idea. Once you learn the g4, h4, Nf4 setup, Black is pretty much busted!

Wednesday, September 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos – One Good Piece Doesn’t Guarantee a Good Position | Tactics
1.b3 has been fairly popular the past few years, especially in blitz, but some players don’t like facing 1…e5. For those players, 1.Nf3 and then 2.b3 fits the bill, semi-guaranteeing that their bishops will have a splendid diagonal on b2. That’s how Taimanov handled things, and because he avoided a subsequent d2-d4 (which would have transposed the game into a Tarrasch) his bishop retained its beautiful, unobstructed diagonal almost throughout the game. And it was a disaster! White’s bishop was wonderful, but too many of the other 56 squares came under Black’s control. Kaidanov’s energetic play led to a spectacular and successful attack that was a model for his Tarrasch-style approach. Taimanov was a two-time Candidate and a very experienced GM, but even he (badly) underestimated the power of Black’s approach.

Thursday, September 24
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Battle of World Champions: Smyslov-Tal, 1964 | Strategy, Endgame
In this lecture I will analyze for you one of my favorite games between two former world chess champions. Mikhail Tal, playing black, took the initiative from the beginning of the game and consistently, step by step started increasing the pressure on the army of Vasily Smyslov. However, White’s position remained solid for a while and it was not obvious how to break through in a closed pawn structure. But if Tal had at least a small chance to attack the enemy king he never missed it. If this attack required a queen sacrifice – no problem for him either. Another reason why I recommend studying this game is Tal’s excellent endgame technique.

Friday, September 25
GM Robert Hungaski -Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 5 | Openings
We conclude our series with two more very interesting ideas which are not very popular, 7.Qa3 and 7.Qd2, but which present challenges which you’ll want to be prepared for. And now, you should be ready to face anyone with this nearly forgotten but incredibly practical choice – the Lowenthal Sicilian.

Monday, September 7
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match – Part 3 | Openings, Endgame
Karl Schlechter’s reputation as a draw master and great defender was greatly enhanced by this match with Lasker. In the fifth game, with the match tied after four consecutive draws, Lasker emerges into the endgame with an extra pawn, but a slightly exposed king makes the conversion difficult. Lasker finally overreaches and blunders instead of accepting a likely draw, leaving his chances of winning the short match in a in a perilous situation.

Tuesday, September 8
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – A Fresh Idea in the Scandinavian Qa5 for Black! | Openings, Tactics
Some openings are bad and some are forgotten. However, GM Eugene Perelshteyn brings main line Scandi Qa5 into the limelight with a fresh idea. Black avoids the doubled f-pawn with a rare move and a new plan. Top engines likes Leela like it, and so does a young Russian superstar, GM Esipenko! Eugene’s student plays this idea immediately gets a winning position in chess.com’s weekly Titled Tuesday blitz event, as he explains in this video. Don’t miss this surprise weapon!

Wednesday, September 9
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Legends of Chess 2020: Magnus Dings Liren with a Move Order Trick | Openings, Tactics
One of the fundamentals when it comes to learning one’s openings is to master many of the move order finesses available to both sides. One reason to do it is that a player might want to avoid a certain line, and knows how to do it through move order #1, but if the opponent switches to move order #2 it’s possible that one might get tricked into it all the same. Here’s a simple example: suppose you play the Berlin, but you know that your next opponent likes to meet it with 4.Nc3. For whatever reason you dislike this, and against 4.Nc3 anti-Berliners have a habit of switching to 3…a6 against the Ruy. If that opponent knows that you meet 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 with 3…Nf6, however, you can be tricked: he’ll play that variation and then go 4.Bb5. Oops. Ding Liren, #3 in the world, essentially fell victim to a subtler version of the same trick, and it didn’t go well for him. Sure, he was playing Magnus Carlsen, but as we’ll see the main problem was the mess he got himself into. Have a look!

Thursday, September 10
GM Leonid Kritz – Weak Center or Strong Center? | Strategy
The pawn structure in this game is very important because it can occur from different openings for both white and black and the main question is always the same – can the side who has the center keep it safe? In this game White produced a good example of how to play against such a center and forced Black to weaken the center by playing 13…d4. Black should have played much more carefully in the opening to be able to maintain the center and thus, equal chances.

Friday, September 11
GM Robert Hungaski – Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 3 | Strategy
We will now proceed to examine the move that has made me believe that the Lowenthal is playable again. After 15…Nf6! Black’s play continues down its thematic path, while White must make more and more “computer” moves. Again, White walks a very tight rope, but as I illustrated in the previous video, his efforts will be rewarded in the case of 15…Bh3 or 15…Rb8, where I believe Black’s position to be practically lost. I believe that with best play, White will achieve a better position where he will be up an exchange but I will argue that Black can reach a fortress position. This is the true test of the variation.

Monday, August 31
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match
– Part 2 | Opening, Endgame
Lasker came very close to winning this fourth game, but it is debatable whether he actually achieved a winning position. Schlechter shows great skill in defense. The game is also notable for Lasker’s use of the early 8.a4, an almost forgotten line , against the Open Spanish. Certainly a fighting draw by both sides in this contest.

Tuesday, September 1
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Chucky Demonstrates The Power of The Half-Open File! | Opening, Strategy, Endgame
It’s not often that you see a top GM completely outplayed positionally. Yet, this is exactly what Vasily Ivanchuk does to a very strong Romanian GM. Black played a solid opening, traded into a seemingly equal endgame – however, he gave White a half-open file and in the hands of the Ukrainian genius, this is more than enough! Chucky gives a masterclass of endgame technique akin to the best games of Rubinstein and Ulf Andersson.

Wednesday, September 2
FM Dennis Monokroussos – A Drop of Poison in the 4.Bd2 Nimzo-Indian | Tactics
For a very long time 4.Bd2 was considered a harmless way of facing the Nimzo-Indian – if it was considered at all. Recently, however, this move has caught the attention of even elite players, and it turns out that Black cannot just “do anything” and equalize. This game is an excellent illustration. Abrahamyan makes all sensible-looking moves against Artemiev, and yet she found herself clearly worse after her 11th move and was lost by move 16. There are some important lessons for us, regardless of which side of this sort of position we’re likely to play – have a look.

Thursday, September 3
GM Leonid Kritz – Strategic Brilliance Ends with Tactical Disaster | Strategy, Tactics
In this game Black demonstrated a very solid strategic understanding and completely outplayed her opponent. A series of smart decisions led to a position that was clearly better after 21…f5. Unfortunately, Black then made a typical mistake – she decided to force the game instead of continuing to play slowly, and so after 22…f4 everything turned upside-down and eventually White took over the initiative and won.

Friday, September 4
GM Robert Hungaski – Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 2 | Openings, Strategy
In the second installment of the series we will be moving on to what I consider, theoretically speaking, the critical test. I am referring to 7.Qd1. I always like to make the distinction between an opening’s theoretical and practical value. I believe this is the most challenging theoretical line, but not the most practical one. In all the blitz games I’ve played, I’ve found that it’s very easy for White to lose his way since a lot of counter-intuitive computer moves need to be made for White to achieve an advantage. In this video I will introduce you the basic ideas at play after 7.Qd1, White’s sidelines within it and all of Black’s historical attempts at achieving equality that have proven insufficient thus far.

Monday, August 24
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match – Part 1 | Openings, Endgame
Lasker accepted Schlechter’s challenge to a match but after initial negotiations for a thirty game match, it was announced that a shorter match of ten games would be played. Lasker and his opponent played hard fought games through the event, but the short nature of the match meant that every game counted immensely. In game one Lasker seems to equalize comfortably, but becomes overly ambitious and very nearly loses to start the match!

Tuesday, August 25
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Winning with the Scandinavian: When Two Knights are Better than Two Bishops | Openings, Strategy
Are you tired of learning long theoretical lines? Do you want a simple opening to get a solid game? Wait no more as GM Perelshteyn shows you a simple plan in the Scandinavian Defense with Qa5. Black simply gets a Caro-Kann structure with easy play. White often obtains a bishop pair, but as you will see they are inferior to the knights! It’s instructive how Black undermines White’s pawn center and gets himself a nice outpost for the knight. Seeing that his position is deteriorating, White embarks on an unsound piece sac and gets promptly punished!

Wednesday, August 26
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Legends of Chess 2020: A Battle That Lives Up to the Hype | Strategy, Tactics
When world champions face off, we as spectators hope for something special. It doesn’t always happen, but this time it did. There were mistakes, as one would expect in a game as complicated as this one, played at a very short time control, but there were brilliant ideas as well. Both Anand and Kramnik showed great ingenuity, resilience, and imagination, even as the advantage swung back and forth throughout this titanic struggle. I’m not sure how instructive this game was, but it was so rich and entertaining that it doesn’t matter. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 27
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Play the Caro-Kann Defense – Part 8: Classical Main Lines for Black, Part 2 | Strategy
In our final pair of Caro-Kann lectures we will go over the classical system, when White moves the queenside knight out on the third move to protect the center. It allows him to maintain the tension in the middle of the board and at the same time keep the position open. After 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 White usually retreats the knight with a tempo with 5.Ng3 and after 5…Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 Black has to decide in what direction he is willing to castle. In these lectures, I will offer a plan with a castling queen side that leads to a solid but slightly passive position. To get room for the pieces Black will either prepare and play c5 or occasionally e5. At the same time, since the Black king can be open he needs to be accurate and prepare the pawn advance carefully. As another idea, Black may want to trade some minor pieces to get more space for the big army (queen and rooks). In general, you cannot expect a lot of counterplay playing the Caro-Kann for Black – at least in the beginning of the game – but if you like solid set-ups and are ready to wait it can be a good fit for you. Remember, White cannot break-through quickly and so can be provoked on active play that in fact just weakens his position and gives Black a chance to find his counterattacks. In the first lecture, we consider White’s plan of Qe2 and Ne5, and in the second, White’s plan of exchanging the g3 knight with Ne4.

Friday, August 28
GM Robert Hungaski – – Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 1 | Openings
Welcome to my series on the Lowenthal Sicilian. I first began looking into this unusual variation when it became clear that due to the COVID-19 epidemic we would have to be playing many more online, and especially blitz, tournaments. I believe this to be an incredibly practical choice. Moreover, my analysis has shown that it is not nearly as bad as its reputation. In this video we will begin by discussing one of the main lines, which I have come to see as completely harmless for Black. That is, 7.Qxf6. Believe it or not, the whole point of the Lowenthal is to play a typical “Sicilian Endgame.” One where White gets the bishop pair and Black gets better control over the center thanks to his e5-pawn.

Monday, August 10
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1894: Lasker Takes the Crown – Part 5 | Strategy, Endgame
Seriously trailing in the match as it moved to Montreal, Steinitz strikes back by winning games thirteen and fourteen. Lasker shows vulverability as Steinitz switches to a queen pawn opening with White. In this encounter, Lasker is worse after weakening his position with f5 in the opening and Steinitz shows great positional understanding as well as tactical finesse with the combination and subsequent exchange sacrifice started by 20.Nxc6. An all around great game by Steinitz which illustrates the power of connected pawns in the endgame.

Tuesday, August 11
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Morozevich on the War Path: Sac’ing Pawns and Playing for Mate! | Opening
In this game, GM Perelshteyn revisits one of the brightest modern attacking players, Russian GM Alexander Morozevich. In a lesser-known game, the Russian tactician plays a quiet opening against positionally gifted Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian. At first it looks like White is slowing getting outplayed, as Black opens the h-file and gets the dark squares. However, out of nowhere, Moro unleashes his pawns, first on the Q-side, then in the center, and finally on the K-side. In just a few moves, Black’s king finds himself totally defenseless against White’s attack. Where did Black go wrong?

Wednesday, August 12
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Legends of Chess 2020: A New Anti-Ragozin Idea | Opening
Due to the coronavirus the chess world has moved online and is almost exclusively playing games with a shorter time control, and that has given the players more freedom to experiment in the opening. This game is a perfect example: Magnus Carlsen comes up with a very interesting new idea against Anish Giri’s Ragozin, and while Giri probably would have been able to work everything out under a classical time control, that was simply not going to happen in this rapid event. Carlsen’s idea is interesting in any case, and one we might want to adopt the next time we face the Ragozin. It’s not bad, and he went on to win a very impressive game.

Thursday, August 13
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Play the Caro-Kann Defense – Part 6: Facing the Advance Variation, Part 2 | Strategy
In this video, I finish covering the closed system of the Caro-Kann Defense when White closes up the center on the third move, playing e5. We will cover less aggressive continuations when White just develops the king side pieces, castles and then starts playing with the pawns on the queen side. For Black, again, it can be very important to find counterplay – otherwise pieces can be very crowded. It is still popular to prepare and play c5 to challenge the center. However, I will introduce an alternative to it that implies an aggressive pawn advance on the king side specifically g5 followed by f6. Black can afford to start pushing the pawns before he castles since the position is closed and it’s nearly impossible for White to open it up quickly. In doing so, Black keeps in mind the possibility to castle in either direction and so can choose one depending on White’s actions.

Friday, August 14
GM Robert Hungaski – A French Winawer Sideline: 5.Bd2 – and Alekhine’s Gun | Strategy
In this video I take another look at the 3.Nc3 French. This time I examine 5.Bd2 – one of White’s most interesting sidelines. White’s idea is quite logical: to prevent Black from doubling the pawns on c3. Moreover, White can meet 5…cxd4 6.Nb5! when White is likely to achieve a nice clamp along the dark-squares (as in the Alekhine-Nimzowitsch game, which gave us an iconic moment in chess history, and the term Alekhine’s Gun”). However, I believe that with accurate play Black can create some serious problems for White. Enough that White will have to break away with his most logical move, since otherwise he will fall fatally behind with his development. I was able to win a couple of nice blitz games that illustrate this point (see pgn).

Monday, July 27
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1894: Lasker Takes the Crown – Part 3 | Middlegame
In this third part of the series, we take a look at the game that seems most pivotal in the match. Steinitz, playing Black, sticks with his solid but defensible variation against the Spanish. Lasker gains some advantage but is forced to sacrifice two pawns to continue his attack. While on his best day, perhaps Steinitz could and should have defended successfully, Black’s king cannot weather the storm. The loss seems to send Steinitz into a tailspin in the match, perhaps Steinitz losing faith in his own play.

Tuesday, July 28
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – How to Win an Equal Position in the Maroczy Bind Using Archy the A-pawn! | Endgame
In this typical Maroczy Bind endgame, White achieves his goal: two bishops and a nice bind. Yet, out of nowhere GM Malakhov uncorks incredible counterplay on the queen side. This is an instructive idea: put the black a-pawn on a3 and bishop on b2 and start playing against the c-pawn. All of a sudden, White finds himself on the defensive, and his position falls apart.

Wednesday, July 29
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Create a Hook; In Comes the Rook! | Openings
Danil Dubov is one of the most creative players in the chess world, to the extent that Magnus Carlsen often works with him for inspiration and opening ideas. In the Lindores Abbey tournament he uncorked one creative opening idea after another, and in this particular game against 2016 world championship runner-up, he succeeded magnificently. The opening started as a staid Queen’s Gambit Declined, but when Karjakin played the usual …h6, seen in (at least) tens of thousands of QGDs, Dubov replied with Bf4 (not Bh4) and then g2-g4, aiming to pry open lines for an attack against Black’s castled king with g4-g5. The plan was a success, and although Black is theoretically okay, proving it at the board is very difficult. If it proved too tough for the “Minister of Defense”, it’s unlikely that our opponents – or that we, if we’re playing Black in this variation – will succeed in solving the problems White is posing. So, if we play either side of the QGD, we will want to know about this line – come have a look.

Thursday, July 30
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Play the Caro-Kann Defense – Part 4: Facing Lines Without 2.d4 or 2.c4 | Strategy
In this lecture about the Caro-Kann defense we will consider lines when White does not push the d-pawn forward immediately but rather keeps it on the second rank or brings it to the third one.

In the case of 2.d3, I suggest to play first 2…e5 with the intention to bring the d-pawn forward later, for instance to meet White’s aggressive play with 3.f4. However, if White starts with 2.Nf3 black does not have good alternatives to 2…d5 and then after 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6, he does not even mind to take on doubled pawns since it leads to his faster development and still a very solid position that White cannot easily break through.

Friday, July 31
GM Robert Hungaski – Catch White Off Guard in the Advance French – Part 2 | Strategy
We continue our study of Black’s sideline 5…Nge7!? In the Advance French. Now we leave behind the old main line (6.Bd3) covered in the previous video and focus our attention on White’s most recent attempts at securing an advantage. In this video we will be focusing on 6.Be2 followed by 7.Na3!? In this field, the games of Sergei Movsesian stand out, as he is the main advocate for White’s position.

Monday, July 20
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1894: Lasker Takes the Crown – Part 2 | Middlegame
Emanuel Lasker became one of the most dominant World Champions and he did so by beating the great Wilhelm Steinitz. This series will examine the most interesting battles from the event in 1894. The match started with the opponents trading blows and this is Steinitz’s first victory from round two. White plays a creative and romantic style, not castling and sacrificing a piece for a strong attack. Strangely this is the only game of the match where Steinitz played the Ruy Lopez with White!

Tuesday, July 21
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Beating the Caro-Kann Endgame Style! | Opening, Endgame Strategy
It’s not often that you see White willingly trade queens, lose the right to castle, and play backwards moves to win! Yet, this is exactly what GM Anish Giri does in this game. Inspired by Leela chess, White takes the game into an endgame. At first it looks drawish, but then suddenly Black finds himself in a difficult position. Is this how modern chess should be played?

Wednesday, July 22
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Traps in the Isolated d-Pawn Middlegame | Tactics
Isolated d-pawns arise in a lot of different openings, so it’s important to know the tricks available to the attacking side – the side with the isolani. These are critical and easily missed – even world champions have missed them – and as these can arise in your own games, if you play either side of the Nimzo-Indian, the Semi-Tarrasch, or the Caro-Kann (for starters), it’s worth knowing them. I’ve included a fair number of critical tactics in this game, including two I’ve discovered, one of which may be brand new. Even if you don’t reach any of the positions in your own games, you’re likely to enjoy the video for the tactics – have a look!

Thursday, July 23
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Play the Caro-Kann Defense – Part 3: Facing the Unusual 3.f3 | Strategy

Friday, July 24
GM Robert Hungaski – A New Wrinkle in the Catalan Slav | Strategy
I recently came across a top-level game that reminded me of a game I played many years ago. It’s a sideline for Black in the Catalan Slav (although I usually arrive at it through the QGA move order) that when I played it I thought it to be the end of White’s aspirations for an advantage. However, despite my nice win on that occasion I made some further investigations and realized that with some minor improvements it was Black’s position that was in fact delicate and insufficient for equality. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this line resurface and revived thanks to Black’s powerful new interpretation of the middle game that begins on move 12.

Monday, July 17
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1894: Lasker Takes the Crown – Part 1 | Opening, Endgame
The reign of World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz comes to end with his match with the young Emanuel Lasker in 1894. The match was decisive, with Lasker being the first to win ten games.

In this series we will highlight the most interesting battles from the event. Although Steinitz battles well in the beginning and end of the match, he simply cannot recover from a decisive stretch where Lasker wins five games in a row against the aging World Champ.

Tuesday, July 17
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – How to Play Drawish Symmetrical Openings for a Win! | Opening, Strategy, Endgame
How is it possible to win totally drawish symmetrical positions? Well, in this game our Russian hero, Vadim Zvyaginsev, shows us the way. One of famous Coach Dvoretsky’s students, he uses all the tools he learned from the great coach: prophylactic thinking, creating weaknesses, and positional exchange sacrifices. White builds up a powerful endgame position and executes his ideas in spectacular fashion. It’s unclear where Black went wrong in this game!

Wednesday, July 17
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Smashing the Petroff | Opening
It’s (almost) always interesting when players who specialize in the same opening face off in that opening. That’s what happened in this battle of Petroff experts, and Caruana got off the first surprise with the very rare 12.Bf4. Wang Hao’s first reply was correct, but he went wrong just one move later, and again the move after that. Caruana didn’t take advantage of an immediate opportunity, but Black’s position remained difficult and the American went on to a crushing victory.

Thursday, July 17
GM Leonid Kritz – Brilliant Strategic Sacrifice | Strategy
From the beginning Black chose a strategy to simplify the game and got into a passive, but solid position. However, the strategy blew up when Goryachkina played d5 and then e5 in the next move, sacrificing the pawn for initiative. Later on, she played very strongly, avoiding the queen exchange, and eventually getting the full deserved point.

Friday, July 17
GM Robert Hungaski – A Fascinating Positional Exchange Sac in the Sveshnikov | Strategy
I will use this opportunity to bring up the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian. This opening has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity thanks to the efforts of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has been enjoying great success with it. This is perhaps the sharpest of all Sicilians, and the interplay of dynamic and strategic features makes it fertile ground for interesting discussions. In this video I will be focusing my attention on a sideline Black has been experimenting with, where there is a fascinating positional exchange sacrifice.