Monday, December 3
IM Bill Paschall – The Best of Bronstein, Part 1 | Opening,Endgame
In this series we will take a look at some of the author’s favorite efforts by the legendary David Bronstein. Bronstein was a brilliant artist and personality who of course was most famous for drawing a match for the World Championship 12-12 against Mikhail Botvinnik. Bronstein was a creative player who was willing to take risks in the opening! One of his favorite’s, like Spassky, was the King’s Gambit. Instead of a sharp, wild attacking game, this battle turns quickly to a pleasant endgame where Bronstein shows his technique against world class opposition. This game shows a very high level or accuracy by Bronstein even by modern standards.
Tuesday, December 4
FM Dennis Monokroussos – A Thrilling (But Not Quite Perfect) Draw | Opening, Tactics
If you’ve had it up to here with draws in top level chess, I hear you! But it’s worth remembering that some great games have been draws, and this is one of them. This battle between then-world champion Mikhail Tal and future champion Bobby Fischer starts with a crazy opening and then proceeds from one sharp tactical strike to another. It’s hard to tell who’s better from one move to another, and there was even a brief period in the game where first one side and then the other really was better! Finally, it ends in a beautiful draw. Only 21 moves, but there is enough excitement and beauty packed into this one brief game to outweigh a long series of ordinary victories.
Wednesday, December 5
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Lessons from Online Blitz: Trust in Your Intuition and Sacrifice! | Opening, Tactics
How do you punish a dubious 1…c5 and 2…f5 opening? Simple! Develop quickly, sacrifice a pawn for initiative and start a deadly attack. Every move is played by intuition and no calculation is required. Can you spot the mating net to finish off the game?
Thursday, December 6 Nadya Kosintseva – Systems for White in the Spanish Game: Part 6 – Facing the Berlin | Opening
In this lecture I will introduce to you a way to play against the Berlin system without transposing into the famous endgame. Indeed the Berlin endgame is well known for its solidness and many strong white players deviate from 1.e4 partially because of this line of the Spanish game. As you may know, the popularity of this system for black increased when Garry Kasparov lost a World Championship Match against Vladimir Kramnik due to his failure to break the so-called “Berlin Wall”. Since that time, experts keep looking for different ways to deal with the Berlin system. To avoid a long theoretical discussion, I will show you a pretty tricky set-up that allows white to keep the queens on the board and requires precise reactions from black. From a practical point of view, it can be a good alternative to the well known Berlin endgame especially if you want to surprise your opponent.
Friday, December 7
GM Leonid Kritz – Strategic Meanderings and an Unexpected Outcome | Strategy, Tactics
A game rich in strategic aspects. After the opening, Black’s position looked very solid. However, by playing e4 and later putting the bishop on b7, Potkin did everything to allow White to get some small advantage. White did not play active enough, though, lost much time, and eventually did not get anything material out of it. Both players played as if they were afraid of doing even one active move, but once white did play c5, Black collapsed due to a tactical trick. A very instructive game to discuss, but also a good example of how not to play chess in general!