Monday, December 9
IM Bill Paschall – Highlights from the 2019 European Team Championship, Part 3 | Middlegame
White faces a difficult task to gain an advantage with the Spanish Opening in many critical lines. Nisipeanu, being something of a specialist in side variations, chooses the relatively “harmless” Bogolubov system with 9.d4 instead of the main line. What follows is anything but harmless as “Nisi” first sacrifices a pawn with the wonderful strategic long term idea of a4 without recapturing. He follows up his initial pawn sac with a continued series of pawn sacrifices and eventually a piece sacrifice in a position where his opponent is restricted, basically playing on two ranks. The entire conception shows us a player with a very deep understanding of the game. Vitiugov is reduced to complete passivity and White’s coordinated attack on the Black king is irresistible.
Tuesday, December 10
FM Dennis Monokroussos – A Bad New Idea in the Catalan | Tactics
Israeli Tamir Nabaty is a very strong GM (2658 as of the game we’re reviewing here), and one expects strong play and great preparation from a player of this caliber. It didn’t happen this time, but his opponent, Greek GM Stelios Halkias deserves at least equal credit for the massacre. Nabaty uncorked a very risky idea against the Catalan, creating weaknesses and offering a pawn for play. Perhaps he would have found what he was looking for had Halkias accepted the offer, but he didn’t, and soon offered an even better sacrifice of his own. It could hardly have gone any better for Halkias if it had been his own novelty rather than Nabaty’s! It’s a very impressive game by Halkias, and I suppose it’s a theoretically significant game as well, though more as an instance of what not to do against the Catalan.
Wednesday, December 11
GM Leonid Kritz – More on How to Win Out of Nowhere | Tactics
On first sight the position after the opening was supposed to be boring, and indeed it would be if Black’s understanding of what to do would not be significantly better. Using small strategic nuances and slightly better calculation, Grischuk wins this game in a very simple way, although it was difficult to predict.
Thursday, December 12
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Facing the Paulsen Sicilian as White, Part 1 | Strategy
In this series of three lectures I will present how to play against the Paulsen Variation of the Sicilian Defense, which starts with the following moves: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6. In choosing this move order, Black avoids Bb5-Sicilians and also does not allow White to bring his knight to b5 followed by Nd6, as can happen in some systems. For White, I recommend to keep the queen side knight on b1 for a while and consider 5.Bd3-line instead. In doing so, White blocks the d-file but potentially can get more power for his light-squared bishop in the case he can push the e4 pawn forward. In the first part, we will consider 5…Nc6, 5…d5 and 5…Nf6 followed by 6.0-0 e5 variations to demonstrate tactical opportunities for White.
Friday, December 13
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Steinitz Defense vs the Ruy Lopez, Update #1 | Strategy
As the year is winding down, I take a step back to look at the games I have played throughout the year to see if any interesting patterns jump out at me. One that caught my eye was my increasing reliance oo the Steinitz Variation against the Ruy Lopez. The reason for this is that the move 3.Bb5 has taken a serious hit in favor of the Scotch and Italian. White has been developing some sharp and practical new ideas in these openings, which have eclipsed the Spanish’s slow-burn approach.
Since I spend most of my time scratching my head trying to figure out what to do against these two lines, I find that doing the maintenance on the Ruy Lopez mainlines would be a misuse of my time. Instead, being able to throw White off balance as quickly as possible (move 3!) and with such a reliable line, has made it too good to pass up. As Abe Turner said about Salo Flohr (his favorite player), the Steinitz remains “simple,safe and sound.”