Monday, December 25 IM Valeri Lilov Premature Attacks (strategy, middlegame)
A common mistake made by beginners is to attack too early. The premature attack often leads to disaster because it can show weaknesses for the opponent to counterattack as a result. Any good preparation must take into account all of the attacker’s weaknesses and make sure they are covered before the attack even begins! Check out IM Lilov’s lecture to learn more!
Tuesday, December 26 IM Bill Paschall Euro Team Gems 2017, Part 4 opening, tactics)
The French Defense is a very difficult opening for white to crack. GM Ruslan Ponomariov faces a rare move order on the white side of the Classical variation and comes up with an original idea of his own. White sacrifices a pawn for long term positional compensation and time. In the game Ponomariov takes control of the initiative, but in the ensuing complications both sides maker errors in this exciting back and forth encounter.
Wednesday, December 27 FM Dennis Monokroussos How to Beat Petrosian, Petrosian-Style strategy, tactics
Tigran Petrosian was a very hard player to defeat, capable of going through multiple elite tournaments without losing a game. In the Maroczy Memorial in 1952, however, he played rather risky chess, and in this game he was punished severely by the underappreciated Swedish legend Gideon Stahlberg, a very strong GM who once qualified for the Candidates. Stahlberg comprehensively outplays Petrosian in this game from start to finish, seizing the advantage on the queenside, then on the kingside, and with a mating attack about to conclude the game in the center of the board Petrosian called it a day.
Thursday, December 28 GM Nadya Kosintseva Zugzwang in the Middle Game
In this lecture I am going to talk about middlegame Zugzwang. The term Zugzwang refers to a situation where one of the players has to move whereas he would prefer to yield the right to move to his opponent. Every move he makes worsens his positions or leads to immediate loss. You see it mainly in the endgame, but it can also occur in the middle game with plenty of pieces on the board and many continuations at the player’s disposal. I will provide two examples of this rare form of Zugzwang. The first one is one of the craziest studies I have ever seen on the Zugzwang theme. Non-obvious decisions for both sides, a lot of tactics and traps that are easy to fall into. The second example is about a strategic Zugzwang where every move leads to a positional disaster for the defender in spite of the fact that he has no visible weaknesses.
Friday, December 29 GM Bryan Smith Carlsen in the Open, Part 2 (tactics)
In part two of his series on Magnus Carlsen’s participation in the Isle of Man Open, we look at the World Champion’s attacking victory over young grandmaster Jeffrey Xiong.