Monday, April 22
IM Bill Paschall – Best Games from the 2019 Euro Championship, Part 1 | Opening, Tactics
An apparently normal opening leads to Black’s advantage as White decides to manually castle with 15.Nf1 and 16.Kg2. Although Black has no obvious breakthrough in this solid, symmetrical position, Cheparinov instructively sacrifices a piece long term to open the White king. An incredibly effective attack follows with decisive results. Cheparinov should be one of the favorites in a strong field, as always.
Tuesday, April 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Winning with the Bayonet…on the Kingside! | Strategy
Garry Kasparov was probably the greatest exponent of the King’s Indian Defense in the history of chess, but Vladimir Kramnik often gave him fits in that opening. In this game we see Kramnik making good use of the Bayonet Attack (9.b4), a line he helped put on the map in the 1990s. What is especially remarkable about this game is the way he turns Kasparov’s attempts to create a kingside attack against him; in the end it is Kramnik who wins the game in crushing style with some beautiful attacking play of his own. It is stunning to see how Kramnik just manhandled Kasparov, who had been the world champion for a dozen years at that point.
Wednesday, April 24
GM Leonid Kritz – A Dangerous Caro-Kann | Strategy
A very interesting game from a strategic point of view. It looked like White was doing everything right, but then somehow Black managed to solve all of his problems and eventually got a better position. From a practical standpoint, once White overlooked 21…Na2, he had to equalize immediately by taking Nxg6. However, he played for the win, overstretched his position, and got destroyed. An excellent example how dangerous Caro-Kann can be.
Thursday, April 25
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Nimzo-Indian Repertoire for Black, Part 7 – Meeting Minor Alternatives | Strategy, Tactics
In this lecture, we will finish the Nimzo-Indian and focus on the lines that White can use on the 4th move to surprise Black and/or to avoid a theoretical discussion. Theses lines are less popular compared to what we learned in the previous parts, but still can be instructive and help better understand Black’s options in the opening. As usual, Black tries to target the center by pushing his pawns there. c5, d5. If White does not play a3 for a while, the black f6-knight can jump to e4 and create more pressure before White castles. The positions are solid but at the same time interesting in their strategic and tactical variety.
Friday, April 26
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – How to Attack White in the Sicilian with the King in the Center! | Openings
It’s not often that you play chess with delayed castling, much less with no castling at all! Yet, in the Rauzer variation, this is exactly what Black should do! Watch and learn how Black leaves his king in the center and starts his counterplay on the queenside. The rest is very instructive dark square strategy attack! Can you solve some beautiful tactics at the end?