Monday, November 16
IM Bill Paschall – Nakamura’s Modern Take on Larsen | Opening, Strategy
The greatest modern exponent of Nimzovich is considered by many chess scholars to be the late Danish super-GM Bent Larsen. The theory in the opening of this game is already fairly well established, but Hikaru adds a new Larsenian dimension with the hyper-aggressive g5 idea for Black. Black’s hippopotamus-like bishops and King’s Indian style pawn storm potential made this the perfect attacking scenario for Nakamura. Black uses every tactical and positional idea in his arsenal and never allows White to even complete his development!
Tuesday, November 17
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Tricky Aronian Catches Karjakin | Strategy, Tactics
If you’re following top-level chess, you can’t have missed the ubiquity of the Giuoco Piano the past few years. Most of the attention has gone to lines without a quick d4, but there is one exception. The line starting 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 d5 7.Bb5 Ne4 8.cxd4 Bb6 is a big deal these days, and Levon Aronian has been leading the charge. In today’s game, a win of his over 1…e5 stalwart Sergey Karjakin, we take the opportunity to catch up on the theory while also enjoying a nice little tactical battle between the two super-GMs. Aronian is a tricky player, and on this occasion he outfoxed his opponent and won a cute battle. Come for the game, stay for the theory (or vice-versa)!
Wednesday, November 18
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Fresh Idea from Nepo in the Dragon! | Opening
The Dragon slayer is back, Russian super-GM Ian Nepomniachtchi – aka Nepo – shows off a fresh idea and delivers mate to a top Azeri blitz specialist, Rauf Mamedov. How did he do it? Well, with a novel approach that looks too good to be true. Trade dark square bishops, open the h-file and checkmate Black. Yet, GM Perelshteyn finds a spectacular defensive idea for Black to trap White’s queen. Can you find it? Mamedov missed it and ended up on the losing end of White’s flashy attack!
Thursday, November 19
GM Leonid Kritz – A Stubborn Defense, on the Verge of Success, Suffers a Surprising Calamity! | Strategy
Although it looked like White was exercising pressure all the time, Black managed to solve most of his problems and was very close to full equalization. However, a nice trick at the very end destroyed all his efforts. Overall an interesting strategic game and a good example on how to defend slightly worse positions.
Friday, November 20
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Play the Paulsen Sicilian as White, Part 2 | Strategy
We continue learning the Paulsen Sicilian with Black’s e6-a6 when White brings his light-squared bishop to d3. In this second part we will go over the lines with 5…Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7. It’s not typical for the Sicilian Defense to have the bishop on the g1-a7 diagonal; however it can give Black some attacking resources against the f2-pawn. The main strategic idea for White is to trade the dark-squared bishops in order to stress the weakening of the dark-squares. What’s also important, White can castle both sides and chose to play mainly either in the center or against the enemy king.