Monday, July 15
IM Bill Paschall – Great Matchups: Korchnoi – Spassky Candidates Final 1977-78, Part 4 | Opening, Middlegame
The round 12 battle is one of the most interesting Winawer French games between these two titans. Wonderfully sharp play develops as Spassky leaves his king in the center with 9.Kd1!? The match is suddenly not so one-sided as Spassky narrows the gap with the second win in a series of four games in a row! Unfortunately, Spassky misses a brilliant win and only finally secures the point due to Kortchnoi overstepping the time limit.
Tuesday, July 16
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Learning From the Oldies, Part 1 | Tactics
Test your own attacking instincts throughout this video, as first Emanuel Lasker and then John Nunn hunt the enemy king in classic Sicilian settings! Lasker-Pirc from Moscow 1935 was a very impressive win by the former world champion, not least because he was 67 years old and demonstrating ideas that were ahead of their time. Proof of that came 51 years later, when Nunn poleaxed one of the world’s strongest and hottest players when both more or less followed the earlier game. Both wins were very impressive, and a salutary reminder that the often attractive plan of …Nc6-a5-c4 isn’t always playable.
Wednesday, July 17
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Strategic Lesson on Protected Passed Pawn and Blockade | Strategy, Tactics
Everyone knows about the power of a protected passer and how to blockade it. In this game, we have a classic fight between two former superstars, Beliavsky and Gulko. White reaches a famous structure from the Grunfeld with a protected d5 passer, but can Black bring the knight to d6 in time? As you’ll see, strategy is also about tempi, not just tactics. Black missed an opportunity to execute his idea and as result lost the strategic battle. A nice bonus, can you spot the beautiful tactic by White at the end?
Thursday, July 18
GM Robert Hungaski – A Classical Repertoire vs 1.e4: Facing the Four Knights Game | Strategy
We have already discussed all of White’s most important replies to 1.e4 e5 (Spanish, Scotch and Italian). Now we will turn our attention to one of White’s most underrated options: the Four Knights.
What makes this opening so interesting is its versatility. Depending on the kind of game White is aiming for, he can approach the position in “Scotch style” (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4) or “Spanish style” (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5). I believe the former is the most challenging, since Black’s options are quite limited, so White has a very good chance of entering the positions he wants. Moreover, the arising middle games involve minimal risk for White so it is no surprise that this is a popular choice among solid/positional players.
Friday, July 19
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Complete Hypermodern Repertoire for White: Play the Reti System – Part 6 | Strategy
In this lecture we will consider Black’s set-up which transposes the game into the closed Sicilian pawn structure. Specifically, Black pushes the c-pawn two squares whereas White plays d3 followed by Nbd2 to prepare playing e4. After White pushes the central pawn to the fourth rank he has a choice. In some variations he can close up the center by means of e5 and focus on a king side attack. Alternatively, White can exchange the central pawns (exd5) in order to make the play more open. In both cases White should take into account Black’s counter play on the queen side and be ready to accept some strategic risks if he gives up the center.