Chess Lectures

Monday, July 2
IM Bill Paschall Top Flight Fights – Russian Team Champs 2018, Part 4 | Opening, Middlegame
Young Russian talent GM Fedoseev takes a page out of Magnus Carlsen’s playbook. In this encounter with GM Najer; himself a tough customer , Fedoseev borrows a new idea based on an early queen capture with White on d4 in the Sicilian. The game is further evidence that against well prepared players it may be best to simply “take them out of book” . Fedoseev displays creative attacking and defensive skills in this thrilling back and forth slug fest.

Tuesday, July 3
IM David Vigorito Shankland’s Power Finish at the US Champ 2018, Part 2 | Opening, Middlegame
In the last round of the U.S. Championship, only a win would do, and Sam again rises to the occasion. Playing the aptly named Awonder Liang, Sam is (only slightly) taken aback by the Caro-Kann. Sam picks a solid line, which runs into a shocking move in the opening! I myself played the Caro Kann many times, but I had never seen this idea. It turns out that Sam did know the idea, and had a surprise of his own! So Black was the one who was caught, and he reached a dismal positional. Sam played quickly and confidently, and now rather famously, scored one of the biggest upsets in U.S. Championship history.

Wednesday, July 4
FM Dennis Monokroussos Buy that Newspaper! | Strategy
In what may have been one of the single most important chess games of the cold war era, and what probably was the most important game of Lev Polugaevsky’s notable chess life, the game, match, and probably a trip to the world chess championship was determined by one player (or someone on his team) buying a newspaper and the other player (or his team) not doing so. The full story is just a click away…

Thursday, July 5
GM Nadya Kosintseva Choosing to Double Your Pawns | Tactics
Many of you may have heard before that doubled pawns are not always bad pawns but during the games it might still be challenging to evaluate them correctly. What’s more, many of you may have a prejudice regarding doubled pawns and even if in theory you understand that sometimes these pawns can be beneficial compared to regular pawns, in practice you may instinctively neglect some interesting opportunities just because they are involve accepting doubled pawns. In this lecture, I will show you two interesting examples of non-obvious practical decisions when one side let another side to worsen his pawns as a way to fight for the initiative.

Friday, July 6
GM Bryan Smith Coffeehouse Chess, Part 12 | Strategy
In the latest installment of “Coffeehouse Chess”, Bryan Smith shows one of his own games – a wild and adventurous battle from the Karpos Open in Skopje, Macedonia.

Monday, June 25
IM Bill Paschall Top Flight Fights – Russian Team Champs 2018, Part 3 | Opening, Strategy
IM Paschall revists the White side of the Berlin Defense in this battle from the Russian team Championship 2018. The young GM Alekseenko continues to look very impressive , with a convincing victory. This game features play along the lines of the exchange Ruy Lopez. It’s simply a must see for anyone who wants to avoid the standard Berlin Defense endgame.

Tuesday, June 26
GM Eugene Perelshteyn Best Games from the US Champ 2018: Caruana Crushes the French! | Opening, Tactics
It’s not often you see a top 10 US Grandmaster destroyed in 23 moves…What went wrong for Lenderman in this game? Watch and try to understand how Caruana punishes Black for violating opening principles such as “Don’t bring your queen our early.”

Wednesday, June 27
FM Dennis Monokroussos A Trap in Triplicate | Opening Traps
In the recent Grand Chess Tour event in Leuven, Hikaru Nakamura got three opponents to fall for the exact same trap on the same day, and he won all three games. If you’re a fan of lines with an early b2-b3, or meet them with a King’s Indian setup, you’ll want to check this out for yourself!

Thursday, June 28
IM David Vigorito Shankland’s Power Finish at the US Champ 2018, Part 1 | Opening, Middlegame, Endgame
In this lecture we look at U.S. Champion Sam Shankland’s penultimate win against the veteran Alexander Onischuk. Sam had Black, but even with a half point lead over World Championship contender Fabiano Caruana, he felt he may have to win this game to stay ahead. It turned out that he was right about this, and he rose to the occasion. Playing a somewhat new opening (for him), Sam gets a solid but double-edged middlegame and slowly outplays his opponent, eventually reaching a textbook good knight vs. bad bishop endgame.

Friday, June 29
GM Leonid Kritz Theoretical Battle in a Quiet French | Tactics
This game was played in a very interesting line of the French Defense in which White sacrifices a pawn, but gets enough compensation for that. This whole variation is particularly important because it is to some degree forced, and if Black finds a way to equalize here then the whole French Defense may become playable again (which it is not right now, based on recent results). However, it seems like Black is
pretty far from finding an acceptable position in these lines – Nepo demonstrated a solid way of getting advantage and got the well-deserved point.

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.

Monday, June 11
IM Valeri Lilov The Method of Center | Strategy, Middlegame
The center is the most important area of the board in chess. Controlling it means to improve your piece effectiveness and speed up while attacking. Learn how to do so in IM Lilov’s instructive video!

Tuesday, June 12
IM Bill Paschall Top Flight Fights – Russian Team Champs 2018, Part 1 | Opening, Strategy
Former world top 10 Alexey Shirov finds himself the underdog against journeyman GM Evgeny Najer. Najer’s preparation is strong and his strategic play too much for Shirov to handle. White gains a space advantage and used a classic pawn break to dismantle Shirov’s position. This is just one of many great games in this series on the Russian Team Championship 2018.

Wednesday, June 13
FM Dennis Monokroussos Sometimes the Best Plan is the Second-Best Plan | Tactics
The standard recipe against Seirawan’s Caro-Kann with 4…Nf6 and 5…exf6 is to castle queenside, hoping to whip up a kingside attack. When Khalifman played the calm, unpretentious 9.0-0 it seemed that he was going for a more “normal” middlegame, but only a couple of moves later (provoked by Seirawan’s inaccuracies on moves 9 and 10) the bull went full snort. Khalifman showed that it was possible to go full steam ahead with a successful kingside attack, despite the relatively open center and without launching the pawns to break open lines. Back to the title: while the plan with 9.Qc2 might be the best plan, Black’s vigilance was so quickly dulled by 9.0-0 that the objectively second-best plan proved the best practical choice.

Thursday, June 14
GM Nadya Kosintseva Active King in the Endgame | Endgame
Usually, in the beginning of the game as well as in the middle game the king cannot do much and when we evaluate its positioning, we mainly want to be sure that the king is safe and cannot be attacked by enemy pieces. However, in the endgame the role of the king increases and often the difference in the positioning of the kings may decide the game. If your king is not active enough it can be hard to convert a material advantage, whereas an active king can help you to hold a worse position even if you a pawn or two pawns down. In this lecture, I will show you two instructive rook endgames that demonstrate the importance of active king in the endgame and reveal the hidden potential of this mysterious chess piece.

Friday, June 15
GM Eugene Perelshteyn A Fresh Idea in the Maroczy Bind for Black | Opening, Strategy
In this game GM Perelshteyn resurrects an old setup vs the Maroczy Bind. White wasn’t too impressed and decided to get 2 bishops at the cost of his pawn structure. Was this the smart decision? Watch and learn how Black stops White’s attack while executing the key strategic ideas in this opening.

Monday, June 4
IM Valeri Lilov Space Advantage in the Opening | Strategy, Opening
The most common advantage in chess is the space advantage. Often players get to an opening where they can seize space and control of many squares, but they don’t know how to do it. In this lecture, IM Valeri Lilov provides good direction on how to plan once we get that kind of advantage.

Tuesday, June 5
IM Bill Paschall Clash in the Caveman Variation of the Grunfeld | Opening, Tactics
It seems fitting that the wild and primitive idea 5.h4 should be named the Caveman variation against the Grunfeld. Top players are slowly running out of new ideas and such an aggressive line makes sense in the hands of a player like Mamedyarov. The variation in question leads to wild complications! Let’s see if we can make sense of the opening here and what went wrong for Navara in this game.

Wednesday, June 6
FM Dennis Monokroussos Too Tricky for Their Own Good | Tactics
By “their” in the title I meant it literally, as a plural. Both sides kept ratcheting up the complications, and neither player was ready to handle the mess he had created. Or at least not completely ready. Both sides made good moves and found some nice ideas, and they showed that the supposedly boring Petroff can create blazing complications right from the jump, even by move 10. In this thriller White found the more interesting ideas, but also made the biggest mistakes. White gets the moral victory, Black the victory in the tournament table, and we as chess fans get the biggest victory of all.

Thursday, June 7
IM David Vigorito The King’s Indian Student, Part 1 | Opening, Tactics
I begin a series of ‘must-know’ games in the King’s Indian. These are the games that I grew up on as a student in the King’s Indian, and they are the games that every aspiring King’s Indian player should know. Piket-Kasparov is a very famous game for the final move played, but the opening/early middle game is rich in ideas that make it ‘required reading’.

Friday, June 8
GM Bryan Smith Kramnik’s Whirlwind Attack | Strategy, Tactics
In the third round of the Candidates Tournament in Berlin, Vladimir Kramnik produced a sparkling attacking victory with the black pieces, initiated by a tiny rook move. Here we will examine this exciting game.

Monday, May 28
IM Valeri Lilov Opening Structure  | Openings
What makes an opening successful? This question has been asked by many chess players during the years. The truth is that there isn’t one absolute answer to it. Understanding the opening requires a solid knowledge of the essential principles behind a successful structure. Tune in for IM Lilov’s lecture to learn more!

Tuesday, May 29
IM Bill Paschall An Interesting Gambit in the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon | Opening, Strategy
The author of this video defends a key variation in the 2…g6 Hyperaccelerated Dragon against an experienced Grandmaster. IM Paschall plays what he believes to be Black’s best chance in this key line , a long term pawn sacrifice. GM Antal produces an interesting novelty. Paschall goes astray over the board, but in this video we will see what Black should have done to keep White from gaining an advantage.

Wednesday, May 30
FM Dennis Monokroussos Something New Against the Semi-Slav | Tactics
Alexey Shirov has been for 30 years one of the greatest experts on the Semi-Slav, especially from the black side, but in this 2018 game with Pavel Maletin he quickly came a-cropper against the trendy 5.g3. If this can happen to a top professional like Shirov – who is, remember, practically a lifelong specialist in this opening – it can happen to all of us, too. So if you play either side of the Semi-Slav, this is an important game to study. And if you have no interest in the Semi-Slav? Have a look anyway: it’s an attractive game, and it will remind you about why you’ve avoided it!

Thursday, May 31
GM Nadya Kosintseva Tricky Pawn Endgames | Endgame
In pawn endgames there is only one way to be successful – perfect calculation! There is no place for intuition or “general principles” because a pawn endgame is never better or worse – it is always either won, lost, or draw. This simple principle is well illustrated in the three examples of this video.

Friday, June 30
GM Eugene Perelshteyn Best Games from the US Champ 2018: Aggressive Stonewall Dutch by Akobian | Opening, Tactics
Material or Activity? This is the classic question in chess. Watch how top US players battle it out in the aggressive Stonewall Dutch. Akobian sacs the exchange for a pawn and piece activity but with accurate play Onischuk should hold the equilibrium. Yet, a unbelievable tactic decides the game! Can you find it?

Monday, May 21
IM Valeri Lilov King in the Center | Strategy
Many amateur or even club players know that leaving king in the center is punishable if the opponent plays correctly. How to arrange a successful attack if the opponent deviates from the main course of development is the key topic in this lecture. Don’t miss it!

Tuesday, May 22
IM Bill Paschall Adhiban Minatures from Sharjah | Strategy
The Masters tournament at Sharjah Chess Club in the UAE is an elite swiss played with a fast time control of 90 minutes for the game along with a 30 second increment. In this type of time limit, there is less time for grinding wins and good endgame technique. Perhaps the best plan is aggressive play early on with tactics and attack being emphasized. In the early stages, grandmaster Adhiban seems a clear favorite, racking up early miniatures for your viewing pleasure.

Wednesday, May 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos A Beautiful Human-like Attack by a Computer | Strategy, Tactics
Leaving aside questions about AlphaZero, Stockfish is clearly the strongest chess engine at the moment. It is dominating its main rival, Houdini, in the season 11 superfinal of the TCEC. Often when one engine defeats another, it is by accumulating a series of small advantages that are difficult for even strong humans to detect, but the game we’ll look at here is different. Stockfish blows Houdini away in a brilliant and very understandable game – though not one that’s necessarily easy to emulate.

Thursday, May 24
IM David Vigorito Calculation Cornucopia | tactics
In this lecture I do something unusual – I show a variety of fragments from my recent games where there are some unusual tactics. It is not just pattern recognition – you have to calculate! See how you do.

Friday, May 25
GM Bryan Smith Winning from an Innocuous Position | Strategy
Ivanchuk’s unusual strategical mastery is on display in this game, where he wins from an apparently unpromising position with seeming ease.

Monday, May 14
IM Valeri Lilov Patience and Stability | Strategy, Middlegame
One of the greatest secrets of the positional masters is their brilliant ability to stay patient, while they keep adding valuable improvements towards their position. It is important that we do both as a part of the overall, prophylactic plan that can hold up our position and let us fight for advantage.

Tuesday, May 15
IM Bill Paschall Interesting Struggles from Aeroflot 2018, Part 4 | Opening, Strategy
Formerly in the top ten, Gata Kamsky remains a dangerous adversary. Although not an expert in Opening Theory, one has to be very careful in dealing with Kamsky’s strong positional play and great endgame technique. Kamsky has a strong sense for strategy and the initiative as well. In this game, a wily and dangerous young GM is derailed when he underestimates the dangers posed by the position, perhaps losing touch with general principles.

Wednesday, May 16
FM Dennis Monokroussos King Safety is for Grownups, Too | Tactics
In round 1 of the 2018 Grenke Chess Classic, Nikita Vitiugov got off to a good start by defeating Matthias Bluebaum with the black pieces. Bluebaum went for queenside play early on, and was fortunate to come out of the opening with equality, as Vitiugov found a nice shot that almost got White in trouble thanks to his uncastled king. (A similar tactic earlier would have given him the advantage.) But this time around Bluebaum didn’t learn his lesson. Having narrowly escaped serious trouble, he greedily grabbed a pawn, only to discover that his king’s troubles weren’t at an end – though his king’s life soon would be.

Thursday, May 17
GM Nadya Kosintseva Bobby Fisher’s Famous Bishops | Strategy
In this video we will see two examples of how Bobby Fischer used the strength of the bishop to outplay his opponents step by step in a beautiful positional manner. We can learn important insights into situations when bishop dominates knight even in spite of some material disadvantage and what appears to be, at first glance, a peaceful situation on the board.

Friday, May 18
GM Eugene Perelshteyn Attack Like Fischer: Typical Sicilian Piece Sac for Longterm Gain | Openings
This miniature is a must for all the Sicilian players! If you love to attack and want to add a new weapon to your repertoire, then this rare Sozin line is for you. Watch and learn how Fischer saced the bishop on d5. This is similar to the classical Nd5 sac. White obtains longterm compensation and draws the Black king out. The rest is pure magic as Bobby’s attack quickly finds the target!

Monday, May 7
IM Bill Paschall Bombastic Battles in Batumi, Part 3 | Strategy, Opening
This final installment of the series on the European Individual Championship features a matchup of two stars. McShane won 7 games in this event, but had to face a tough customer in this 9th round encounter. The a6 Slav is a confusing and difficult opening , but Korobov handles it here as White in very solid fashion. McShane slowly drifts into a passive position with less space and Korobov finds an impressive tactical sequence to convert his positional edge.

Tuesday, May 8
IM David Vigorito Double Exchange Sacrifice in the Boring Catalan | Opening, Tactics
I take a deeper look at an obscure but important game in a topical Catalan line. After the well-known game So-Nakamura, this unusual line became popular. Here Jakovenko comes up with a clever way of giving up two exchanges, essentially at once! Wojtaszek is taken a back and it looks like he will struggle to hold when he finds an amazing idea to force a draw.

Wednesday, May 9
FM Dennis Monokroussos Caruana Wins Another Tournament with the Petroff | Opening
The Petroff was instrumental in Fabiano Caruana’s victory in the Berlin Candidates, and now he has won a second straight tournament with a last-round victory as Black in a Petroff. Caruana entered the last round half a point ahead of his opponent, Nikita Vitiugov, which made the Petroff an especially reasonable choice. But there was nothing dull or drawish about the game, which saw Caruana achieve a position with lots of play, and he convincingly defeated his previously unbeaten opponent. It wasn’t because Vitiugov did anything crazy, either. It’s simply a good opening that can be played for a win, not just in hopes of a draw.

Thursday, May 10
GM Eugene Perelshteyn A Big Grunfeld fight against 2600+ GM! | Opening
GM Perelshteyn is fresh off his 4th place finish at the prestigious Reykjavik Open 2018. In this game he shows a real GM vs GM battle where good chess, a will to fight, and nice tactics play a major role. Sit back and be entertained by some amazing chess!

Friday, May 11
GM Bryan Smith A See-Saw Battle in Berlin | 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.

Monday, April 30
IM Valeri Lilov The Different Values | Middlegame
The importance of evaluating pieces is often misunderstood by the beginner and intermediate chess player. It is quite clear that no two pieces are equal, but in what way? How could a good piece affect our plan and is there a way to evaluate them from the very start? In this video, IM Lilov tries to give good answers to these and other questions regarding the different values of each piece.

Tuesday, May 1
IM Bill Paschall Bombastic Battles in Batumi, Part 2 | Opening, Tactics
The rising Russian star Maxim Matlakov continues to impress in the recent European Championship , finishing tied for second place. In the following battle Matlakov faces an unorthodox version of the Queen’s Gambit with 4..a6 which has been used on numerous occasions by World Champion Magnus Carlen. The opponent in this game varies from the main continuation and Matlakov is able to create strong attacking chances on the King side. The final attack is worthy of a diagram.

Wednesday, May 2
FM Dennis Monokroussos A Star is Born? | Tactics
The Grenke Chess Open included around 50 GMs, four rated over 2700, but the winner was Vincent Keymer, a 13-year-old IM with a 2403 rating. He scored an enormous 8/9, including an undefeated 4/5 against grandmasters, and won the event by half a point ahead of Korobov, Gordievsky, and Shirov. In the last round he was facing the tournament’s second-seed, Richard Rapport, with Black, and won after an incredible slugfest. Rapport’s attack looked terrifying, but the youngster was up to the job, first holding on and then turning the tables, winning with an attack of his own. It’s probably not the last time we’re going to see Keymer in action – but it will be hard for him to repeat a result like this, even once he becomes a mature grandmaster.

Thursday, May 3
GM Nadya Kosintseva Not All Rook Endgames are Drawn! | Endgame
There is a common misconception that most endgames are boring, and that most rook endgames are drawn. This example shows that in reality rook endgames can be much deeper and way more complicated than it looks on the first sight. It almost looks like Black managed to build a fortress, but White finds a multi-stage plan that leads to a clean win.

Friday, May 4
GM Eugene Perelshteyn Carlsen Completely Underestimates Counterplay and Loses! | Opening, Tactics
Well, World Champions are human after all! In this Pro Chess League game Magnus gets a nice advantage but completely underestimates his opponent’s counterplay. Watch and learn how Black builds up his attack using the long diagonal. Magnus misses a few opportunities to shut off White’s attack and gets duly punished. Don’t miss the mate at the end!