Chess Lectures

Our free video of the week (actually, we’re keeping this posted for two weeks) “Awesome State Champions: The Classic Pawn Storm” by LM Dana Mackenzie, honors FIDE Master Curt Brasket, one of the greats in Minnesota chess, who passed away late last month.  He won the US Junior Chess Championship in 1952, and went on to win the Minnesota state championship a record 16 times, and in 2013, Curt received the U.S. Chess Federation’s Outstanding Career Achievement Award.  Despite having Parkinson’s disease, he remained active in Minnesota chess tournaments for many years (583 tournaments from 1991 to 2011) and was an inspiration to many. More details about Curt, his life and contributions to chess in Minnesota (and beyond) from the Minnesota StarTribune here.   You can watch Dana’s lecture on Curt on our home page or click here.

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Monday, February 18 IM Valeri Lilov Punish Your Opponent in the Opening (Intermediate, Strategy, Openings)
Have you ever been in a position where you know that your opponent is breaking the principles of development, but you aren’t certain on how to continue and punish him for his mistakes? That situation arises quite often in the games of players from any level. The correct approach in these positions mainly depends on a few concepts and proper steps you need to follow.

Tuesday, February 18 IM Bill Paschall The Key Square in the Sicilian (Intermediate, Opening, Middlegame)

Wednesday February 18 FM Dennis Monokroussos Remembering Vugar Gashimov (Intermediate, Middlegame, Strategy, Tactics)
Vugar Gashimov died earlier this month (January 2014) from a brain tumor at the early age of 27.. He had suffered from related health problems for almost a decade and a half, but despite this and the interruptions and challenges it presented he still became one of the world’s very best players when he was healthy, reaching a peak rating of 2761 shortly before his forced retirement in early 2012. He had a very lively and dynamic style and was capable of beating anyone and everyone, and he did. Here’s a sample win, a miniature, against the very strong, experienced and solid Boris Gelfand.

Thursday, February 20 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Instructive Positional Squeeze in the Scandinavian (Intermediate, Strategy, Endgame)
You won’t see any fireworks in this game. Black uses the better pawn structure in a closed position to outplay White. Inch by inch, square by square, Black squeezes White to passivity and with a timely pawn push wins material.

Friday, February 21 GM Leonid Kritz New Direction in French Defense (Intermediate, Openings, Tactics)
This is an interesting game that demonstrates a relatively new way of playing against French Defense 3.Nc3 Nf6. White chose a rare line, and black decided to counter it right away with a piece sacrifice. The game developed very dynamically thereafter and both sides had their chances.

a6/b5 Against the French Steinitz by GM Jesse Kraai

Content: 54 minutes of instruction and analysis in a series of 3 lectures.

The Steinitz is a variation for white against the French Defense . The Steinitz is an attacking scheme in particular against the Classical Variation of the French Defense. Here GM Jesse Kraai gives a clear explanation of the plans for black and the pitfalls to avoid Recommended for Intermediate Players

Members of ChessLecture.com rated this series a 4.3 out of 5

ECO C11

Fans on Chesslecture.com said: I’ve been looking forward to the continuation of this series and was not disappointed! Great stuff, Jesse. .

GM Jesse Kraai resides in Berkeley, California. His most notable chess achievements are winning the Denker Tournament of High School Champions in 1989 and 1990, and competing in the US Championship from 2002-2006. Jesse received his final GM norm at the Foxwoods Open 2007 and has a Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg. Jesse recently released his first book “Lisa, a chess novel”. Jesse is an active chess coach.

Monday, February 10  IM Valeri Lilov When to Calculate and When Not   (Intermediate, Middlegame, Tactics)
How do we know when we should calculate or not? Many chess players ask that same question in many different games, sometimes unsuccessfully. The key to knowing when to calculate or not, as well as how long to calculate lies in our ability to sense the position and follow the right methodology. This lecture presents an interesting example in an attempt to answer this question and provides good advice on how we can choose whether to calculate or not.

Tuesday, February 11 IM Bill Paschall A Classic Michael Adams Grind   (Intermediate, Middlegame, Strategy)
Adams avoids Sicilian theory in a relatively rare sideline of the King’s Indian Attack. After an interesting and imbalanced opening, white trades queens but , in exchange, gains a huge positional advantage and forces Svidler to cough up a pawn. The Endgame is a classic Adams masterpiece of perfect technique!

Wednesday, February 12  FM Dennis Monokroussos  The Real Sacrifice In Action   (Intermediate, Middlegame, Tactics)
A long time ago Rudolf Spielmann made a distinction between sham sacrifices and real ones. A sham sac is one whose payoff is immediate and obvious, like a forced mate. A real sacrifice is one where the compensation may be genuine, but it isn’t tangible and the payoff cannot be foreseen. The late great Ukranian grandmaster Leonid Stein was among other things highly adept at such sacrifices, and in this game against (then-future) grandmaster Nikolai Krogius he sacrifices first a pawn and then a knight (a full knight in total!) for long-term attacking prospects. While the engine has found extremely subtle improvements for both sides, the game is still a remarkable achievement and a great illustration of the power of an enduring initiative.

Thursday, February 13  GM Eugene Perelshteyn Spectacular Fight to the Death with Sacrifices Left and Right!   (Intermediate, Middlegame, Tactics)
In this exciting fight Black sacrifices an exchange to get a strong attack on the h8-a1 diagonal.  He follows it up with a pawn sacrifice and then a rook sacrifice! However, White is up to the challenge with his own counter-sacrifice to stop mate! The fireworks don’t stop there and both sides play the only moves to stay in the game. Enjoy!

Friday, February 14  IM David Vigorito Full Board War!   (Intermediate, Middlegame, Strategy)
Nakamura shows his tremendous creativity and calculating powers in an offbeat King’s Indian. White grabs space all over the board, hoping to suffocate Black, but trying to control everything is more responsibility than Svidler’s position can handle.