Monday, July 1
IM Bill Paschall – Great Matchups: Korchnoi – Spassky Candidates Final 1977-78, Part 2 | Openings, Endgame
Spassky relies on the solid Queen’s Gambit Tartakover variation against Korchnoi’s favorite English opening move order. Korchnoi plays an amazingly accurate game, which is basically flawless. White doesn’t really gain an advantage in the opening but he plays the middlegame and endgame with energy. Spassky overextends with 25…d4, a very tempting move, after which the game is close to impossible to hold. At this early point in this pivotal Candidates Final, Korchnoi was completely shutting Spassky down. The winner will go on to face Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship in 1978.
Tuesday, July 2
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Crush the Benoni Like Ivanchuk! | Opening, Tactics, Strategy
It is always entertaining to observe the creativity of a genius! Ivanchuk doesn’t disappoint and plays a brilliancy vs one of the top Indian GMs, Addhiban. Chucky as we lovingly call him, first introduces a new idea in the Benoni structure with b4!? but then follows it up with a spectacular idea on the kingside. Can you find it? WIth this win, 50 year old Ivanchuk wins Capablanca memorial for the 8th time! What an achievement!!!
Wednesday, July 3
GM Nadya Kosintseva A Complete Hypermodern Repertoire for White: Play the Reti System – Part 4 | Strategy
In this lecture we start learning Black’s schemes of development with an early Bg4. Specifically, this part 4 covers the lines that arise after the following move order: 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Bg4. In doing so, Black – similarly to the Bf5-lines – weakens the b7 point, which can be emphasized by White’s typical 4.c4 with the intention to bring the queen to b3. However, compared to the Bf5-variations White does not limit himself to moving the queen to b3: in some variations it can be beneficial for White to bring the queen to a4 with a check instead. Also, White pretty often includes Ne5 move in his plan to bother the Black’s light-squared bishop. In this way, the game can develop dynamically rather than positionally.
Thursday, July 4
Dennis Monokroussos – A Blistering Attack Upends the World’s Second-Hottest Player | Tactics
At least at this point in 2019, there may not be a hotter player in chess than Vladislav Artemiev, with the one very important exception of Magnus Carlsen. He has gained a lot of rating points, approached the world’s top 10, and was on a long undefeated streak. Until this game, against elite Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran. Artemiev played the Najdorf, Scheveningen-style, and dared Sasikiran to attack. He did, and how! It was a beautiful massacre, reminding us why “Sasi” has been rated over 2700. He may be overshadowed by Anand and Harikrishna among the established players, and some of the up-and-coming prodigies, but he’s a fantastic player as well.
Friday, July 5
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Facing the Vienna and King’s Gambit | Strategy
Now we turn our attention to some of white’s most romantic options against 1.e4 e5. These are the systems that involve a quick f2-f4 pawn advance, mainly The King’s Gambit and the Vienna variations.
Although the popularity of these systems have dwindled over time, they should not be underestimated. In fact, black needs to challenge these setups as soon as possible, as otherwise white will enjoy a comfortable space advantage and good attacking prospects on the Kingside.
The setup that I will be proposing does not set out to “refute” white’s opening, but rather to draw a line in the sand from where white’s initiative should be contained. The setup also has the added benefit with either move order (Vienna or King’s Gambit) will lead to the same position by transposition of moves. Therefore, black’s setup is not only sound, but incredibly practical as well!