Monday, February 2 IM Valeri Lilov Transforming the Advantage (strategy, middlegame)
Learning how to transform an advantage isn’t easy because it takes precision and time to find the right time for a breakthrough against your opponent. In this video, you will learn some of the key steps to help you maintain your advantage while you keep improving at the same time!
Tuesday, February 3 IM Bill Paschall My Best Hits, Part 2 (opening, middlegame)
Grandmaster Blatny plays one of his offbeat openings, but Paschall is well prepared. Black used the setup with 1..,d5 and 2…Bg4 which the author recommends elsewhere in his videos on the site. This particular line can be used against many systems such as 1.b3 , 1.b4, and 1.Nf3. 2. g3 . For the particular variation in question, the Bird-Larsen, Paschall has prepped the super-aggressive 5…e5 counter in the center. The game is like a good version of Staunton Gambit against the Dutch, with colors reversed. White makes too many pawn moves in the opening and black gains a huge initiative and even material. Ultimately, even the uber-resourceful Blatny could not hang on !
Wednesday, February 4 FM Dennis Monokroussos Don’t Give Yourself a Bad Bishop (tactics)
Most of us know a bad bishop when we see one; the trick is to avoid getting the bad bishop in the first place. Sometimes we can’t help it, due to our opponent’s superior skill, but you’d think we wouldn’t do it to ourselves, right? Here’s a game where an IM tries to engineer what he thinks will be a favorable exchange of one minor piece, only to discover that his opponent will swap off two sets of minor pieces and alter the pawn structure in such a way that our protagonist suddenly finds himself with a bad bishop and a nearly lost position. Have a look, and beware!
Thursday, February 5 GM Leonid Kritz Playing the Dutch Stonewall for a Win, Part 2
Again, I am defending the view that Stonewall is a playable opening, this time against a stronger opponent. The g3 line is amongst the most popular lines today. However, I believe that the bishop on g2 is as bad as the bishop on b7, and I don’t think that white can seriosly hope for an advantage here. As the time got sparse both playersv started making mistakes,and the game turned wild. My opponent played very creatively and indeed created some unpleasant threats agains black king. However, at the very end there was a nice tactical trick that he overlooked and that allowed me to get a full point.
Friday, February 6 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Solitaire Chess: Test Your Skills in a Complex KID Structure (opening, tactics)