Monday, February 19
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Attacking the Q-Side Castled King in the Jobava Attack | Opening
It is not often that you get to attack the opponent’s king when both sides castle queenside. Yet, in this game GM Perelshteyn finds a creative way to start the attack. The key elements are: half-open c-file and the b8-h2 diagonal for the bishop. However, things are not that simple and White needs to calculate an interesting sacrifice on every move! Can you find the main ideas? Can you finish off Black with the beautiful combination?
Tuesday, February 19
IM Bill Paschall – The Genius of Leonid Stein, Part 1 | Middlegame, Tactics
Grandmaster Leonid Stein was one of the strongest players of his generation. He was brilliant in attack, and had a flair for spectacular and overwhelming play. His career was cut short due to illness, and he joins Pillsbury, Charousek,and Schlechter as a potential World Championship contender who left the chess world far too soon. Who knows what he might have been capable of had he lived on. Because of his relatively short career, he is less well known than the other top players of his era. In this series we will see some of his most brilliant games.
Wednesday, February 19
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Puncturing the Pirc | Tactics
Chinese super-GM Wei Yi tends to play very aggressively with White, and this rapid game with Tigran Petrosian is no exception. He went for the Austrian Attack with an early e5 against the Pirc, a line that used to be considered harmless against a well-prepared opponent. No longer! Black has a critical decision to make on move 8(!), and while Petrosian’s choice is the second most popular move in the position and has been played more than 160 times, it doesn’t look like a move that will stand the test of time. The young Chinese player was soon winning, and although he got a little careless in prosecuting his attack at the end, Petrosian missed his chance and was quickly mated. An exciting and interesting game, and a theoretically important one as well.
Thursday, February 20
GM Leonid Kritz – A Magnus Masterclass: Playing the Spanish as Black – As Taught to a 16-Year-Old GM | Strategy
Young Alireza Firouzja, playing with white, started the game rather slowly – 4.d3 shows that he wanted to avoid theoretical complications – but eventually opened up his position and was outplayed by the master of the strategic game. Carlsen combined active play on the queen side with timely activation of his only passive piece – the darksquared bishop – and with perfect timing, he knew when to open up the position to create most trouble for his opponent. Overall another great example of strategic play by the world champion.
Friday, February 21 | Strategy
GM Robert Hungaski – Blunting the Catalan Bishop, Part 3 | Strategy
In this video I will talk about what has become far and wide the main line against the Catalan. That is 4…Bb4+. The point of this move is to lure the white bishop to d2 and then retreat our bishop back to e7. Thus, we will arrive at a typical “Closed Catalan” type of position, where White will not have the harmonious development with Nbd2 and Bb2. Moreover, I will explore a very particular way of playing this variation, championed by Polish GM and Anand’s second, Gregorz Gajewski.