Monday, June 3
IM Bill Paschall – Great Matchups: Smyslov vs Botvinnik, Part 3 | Middlegame, Strategy
The 1958 rematch begins with a surprise! Botvinnik plays the Caro-Kann, not such a difficult opening for a French Defense player to adopt. The game has similarities with future Fischer vs Keres battles, where the veteran Keres frustrated Bobby with the Caro-Kann. Just as in this case as with Keres, Botvinnik uses the element of surprise. The same basic positional concept permeates both matchups. White’s light squared bishop is catastrophically bad. Botvinnik has no bad pieces seizes on the dark squares and slowly by the simplified late middlegame is strategically winning. Mikhail wraps up with flawless technique.
Tuesday, June 4
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Tal’s Training Games, Part 1: A Crazy Najdorf | Tactics
Mikhail Tal was a great improvisor at the board, but that doesn’t mean that there he didn’t prepare his improvisations! He and his brilliant trainer and close friend, Alexander Koblencs, played many training games, and they allowed Tal to test his opening ideas, get in some practice, and to give full reign to his flights of fancy. This game is a marvelous example, with Tal sacrificing material all over the place to create the sort of chaos where he could thrive (and where his opponents would generally drown). Have a look: everything about this game is crazy and fun, and it can be instructive, too, if you turn it into an exercise. That’s the best way to inject a bit of Tal’s spirit into your own chess.
Wednesday, June 5
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Why Squares Are More Important Than Pawns! | Opening, Strategy
We are all taught the value of material in chess. But what about the value of squares and outposts? Watch this video as GM Eugene Perelshteyn explains how giving up a pawn for an important square is a no-brainer for a GM. Black obtains powerful central control and has an easy one-sided game. White tries to defend but falls apart due to a cute tactic. Yet, he resigned prematurely, can you figure out why?
Thursday, June 6
GM Leonid Kritz – How to Win Out of Nowhere | Endgame, Tactics
This is one of these games from Magnus Carlsen where you wonder “how does he do it?” Out of a very equal position, he outplays Grischuk easily. The most interesting idea of this game is the early transition
into endgame and a demonstration of how to use space advantage on the queenside in this type of pawn structure.
Friday, June 7
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Facing the Italian Game, Part 2 | Strategy
We will begin our discussion of the Italian opening with one of the most hotly debated positions in current opening theory. I stress the word position, and not variation, since there are many move-orders by which we can arrive at our main ‘tabiya’.
Nevertheless, the preferred move-order at the moment seems to be 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 .d3 0-0 6.h3 d6 7.Re1 h6 8.c3 a5!? This will be the starting point of this video and the next one, too. Black’s idea is to expand on the queenside and create counter play on that side of the board. And as we’ll see, we might even be able to hinder white’s d3-d4 advance.