Monday, April 24 IM Valeri Lilov Piece Potential and Attacks (middlegame, strategy)
The most important characteristic of a strong attack is the good piece coordination. Essentially, it is the pieces that can pose problems to our opponent and make attacking in the long run possible. How do Grandmasters approach it? Check IM Lilov’s lecture to learn more!
Tuesday, April 25 IM Bill Paschall Essential Strategic Concepts, Part 5 – The Power of Blockade (strategy, openings)
The concept of blockade is not limited to defense. In the following masterpiece, Nimzovich illustrates the latent attacking possibilities linked to this strategic concept. The immobilization of black’s central pawns sets up a decisive and explosive undermining of his position.
Wednesday, April 26 FM Dennis Monokroussos Shirov Sets Smyslov’s Anti-Grünfeld System Ablaze (openings, strategy)
For those who like a big pawn center against the Grünfeld but hate all the theory of the main lines, Smyslov’s system with 5.Bd2 may be the way to go. It’s a little more solid than the main lines with 5.e4, but there’s still plenty of life to it, and the theoretical burden is far more manageable. Best of all, if Black doesn’t play sufficiently purposeful chess in reply he can get mauled by straightforward attacking play, as Shirov demonstrated. A moment of Shirov’s tactical brilliance was needed to finish the job, but even so it’s a system we can all use and which places a heavier burden on Black than on White.
Thursday, April 27 IM David Vigorito The Dzindzi Indian Repertoire IV (openings, strategy)
A modern example of the Dzindzi Indian from my practice. Black’s play is definitely risky, but when you want to win with Black sometimes you have to take chances. We also see how a Karpov game in the Nimzo-Indian influenced my play.
Friday, April 28 GM Nadya Kosintseva Non-Standard Exchanges in Chess (middlegame, strategy)
In a game between two world champions, Bobby Fischer trades a beautifully outposted knight for Tigran Petrosian’s slightly bad bishop – not an obvious choice, but in fact, he has traded one kind of advantage for another, opening a path to victory against an otherwise defensible position. In a super-GM battle, Mickey Adams surprisingly gives up his powerful fianchettoed bishop to impose a structural weakness in Veselin Topalov’s position. And in our third example, Topalov plays the weird-looking move … Ng4 – but he is about to demonstrate the lesson he learned in the loss to Adams from the previous example! Based on these examples, my advice to you is: Please be critical when you play the game, don’t take anything for granted, and just keep in mind that to every rule in chess there is an exception, and sometimes this exception can just make new rules.