Monday, December 23
IM Bill Paschall – Realizing Latent Potential | Opening, Strategy
In every opening stage of each game there are trade offs of various advantages and strategic concepts. In this game, a Closed English – essentially a Reversed Rossolimo Sicilian – Black gives up his bishop for a knight and allows White to bring a pawn closer to the center for the sake of quick development. In many cases, the opponent cannot realize these latent or long term “advantages.” In this game from the 2019 Grand Prix, however, White was able to ideally use his bishop pair and realize the power if the central pawn preponderance.
Tuesday, December 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Spiderman vs. the Sicilian | Strategy
Mickey Adams (sometimes nicknamed “Spiderman”, in honor of his style of catching players in a slow-developing web) often plays secondary lines against the Sicilian, and has done so with great success throughout his illustrious career. It worked once again in today’s game, which (as of August 2019) made him the British Chess Champion for the 7th time. After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7, the usual line for White is 4.d4 cxd4 5.Qxd4 a6 6.Bxd7+, but Adams played the odd-looking 4.Ba4. It has its logic, and has been played by other stars like MVL and Nakamura. We’ll have a look at some of the options for Black, and then enjoy how logically and powerfully Adams handled the position with a closed center – a kind of structure most amateurs have a difficult time navigating.
Wednesday, December 23
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Destroy the Solid Hedgedog with this London Attack Miniature! | Opening
It’s not often that you see a top 10 player lose in under 25 moves – the definition of a “miniature” in chess. Yet, this is exactly what happened to Giri in this game vs. Aronian. Giri used a solid Hedgehog structure vs. the London System and had a safe king … or so he thought! Aronian’s idea of provoking h6 with Ng5! is simply remarkable and can be used almost in any opening with the same setup. What follows is a swift attack with sacrifices! Can you find the killer blow?
Thursday, December 23
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Facing the Paulsen Sicilian as White, Part 3 | Strategy
In this third and final part, we will consider the variations that arise after 5…Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7. Black moved the bishop twice but at the same time it forced White’s d4-knight to leave the center and go toward the corner b3-sqaure. The key idea to remember for White is 7.Qg4 targeting the g7 point. It allows him either to provoke a weakening in front of the black king if he pushes the pawn or force the dark-squared bishop to f6 and so weaken the d6-point. In both cases White can get tactical and strategic benefits targeting the right squares.
Friday, December 23
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Facing the Italian Game, Update #1 | Strategy
In this update I will discuss the Na3-c2 maneuver in the Italian. The point is to trade off the dark-squared bishops and place the knight on the strong e3-square. Moreover, there is an underlying theme that is paramount to the understanding of the Italian structures in general. Following the doubling of Black’s pawns on e6, is this change in the structure good for White or Black? Will Black’s kingside initiative outweigh White’s better structure? Hopefully after viewing this video you will get a little bit closer to answering this question.