Monday, January 13
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Masterful Endgame Technique from Rubinstein to Induce Weaknesses! | Endgame, Strategy
Take a step back into 1912 and follow the Polish genius, the great Akiba Rubinstein. While he never became the World Champ, his games and results impress us to this day! The endgame play he demonstrates is simply superb, and all modern engines agree with his unusual bishop move. The rest is just a masterpiece of inducing weaknesses, taking over space advantage, maximizing each piece to the fullest. He makes it look easy!
Tuesday, January 13
IM Bill Paschall – Paul Keres Hidden Gems, Part 1 | Middlegame
Part one is a lesser known game in the first round of the Olympiad pitting Keres against a strong master. Paul plays according to Petrosian’s system and also follows a previous game he had with the Yugoslav Grandmaster Matanovic. By modern standards, this is not a perfect game, but a good illustration of the danger of facing Keres. His style mixes positional play with incredible tactical vision. In the opening he was equally capable of Queen’s pawn or King’s pawn games but typically focused on an attack against the enemy king. In this battle, he capitalizes on a sacrifice to strip the opponent’s king of defense.
Wednesday, January 13
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Persistent Prophylaxis | Tactics
In the Saemisch Nimzo-Indian, one of White’s main plans is to achieve the e4 advance, and to then use the extra space in the center to drum up a kingside attack. In this classic game from the famous Moscow 1935 tournament, Andor Lilienthal tried and tried and tried to set up the e3-e4 pawn break, and Viacheslav Ragozin just as doggedly denied him that break. While White had an advantage anyway, he was unable to cope with his inability to achieve that break, and when Ragozin put a stop to it once and for all with a practical exchange sac (and then a second exchange sac to boot), Lilienthal was gradually outwitted in the ensuing complications. An imperfect game, but an instructive, titanic struggle.
Thursday, January 13
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Meet the English with 1…e5 – Part 1 | Strategy
In the course of the two lectures we will consider a pretty popular variation of the English system that arises after 1.c4 e5. Choosing this move order White, on one hand, avoids some classical variations that Black could play in the case of 1.d4 but, on the other hand, allows Black to take the center sooner. We will consider two different set-ups: one when White brings his light-squared bishop to the long diagonal playing g3 and another one when White keeps his bishop on the f1-a6 diagonal playing e3. Depending on White’s development, Black picks his plan: he either pushes one more pawn to the middle, playing d5 (which is typical for g3-Bg2 lines), or instead postpones pawn play and first brings his dark-squared bishop to b4 to attack White’s c3-knight. In many cases the positions that arise in this variation resemble the Sicilian pawn structures where White plays as though Black and vice versa. The game can be pretty dynamic compared to the closed positions with 1.d4 but not so concrete as we can see in the 1.e4 openings. As for me, 1.c4 e5 is the best move order from Black’s point of view to allow him to fight for the initiative from the beginning of the game.
Friday, January 13
GM Robert Hungaski – Playing the Exchange Caro-Kann, Part 2 | Strategy
In this video we will move on to what has become far and wide the modern main line. Black has begun to play 5…Qc7 almost exclusively. With this move, Black prevents our bishop from being developed to f4 and also prepares the exchange for light-squared bishops by means of …g7-g6 followed by …Bf5.
White has been having a hard time cracking Black’s idea, but in this game I will show you a novel approach that America’s newest star, Jeffery Xiong, played against me last year.