Monday, November 7 IM Valeri Lilov Build a Skeleton (middlegame)
Setting up the right pawn structure and backing it up with a good piece skeleton isn’t an easy task. In this lecture, IM Lilov will teach you how these two work perfectly together in the hands of the first world champion Wilhelm Steinitz!
Tuesday, November 8 IM Bill Paschall Giri Starts Hot at the Tal Memorial (middlegame)
Giri faces the super solid Gelfand, as black in a fianchetto King’s Indian. Black trades his strong point, the e5 pawn, for some freedom of movement, and then provokes Gelfand with Nc6-e7-f5. White plays well, albeit becoming slightly overextended with 13.g4, he reaches a better position, but blunders a crucial tempo with the mistaken 18.Qf4, Gelfand indeed becomes overextended and grabs a rather risky pawn on offer by Giri. White could have saved the game with perfect play, but collapses due to pressure on the board and the clock after a key Giri sacrifice. The entire concept of Giri’s advantage and sacrifice depended entirely on the power of centralization of the pieces.
Wednesday, November 9 FM Dennis Monokroussos Dvoretsky v Pohla (openings)
The famous author and trainer Mark Dvoretsky just passed away, and while his literary legacy will live on for a long time (and rightly so), his abilities as a competitive chess player are likely to get short shrift. So we’ll take a very small step towards remedying that with a look at a nice win from one of his tournament successes, an event in which he finished ahead of Mikhail Tal, among others. Dvoretsky won a good game, but it has to be admitted that it could have been even nicer, as Tal himself demonstrated. You’ll want to watch the video, if only for the Tal anecdote!
Thursday, November 10 GM Leonid Kritz Punishing a Passive Caro-Kann (strategy)
A game from the last round from the Olympiad where Bareev obviously was too focused on playing safe. This resulted in Caruana outplaying him in a typical, strategic way. This game is a very good example of how to play 3.e5 system against Caro-Kann and what to do if your opponent plays to slowly.
Friday, November 11 GM Bryan Smith Coffeehouse Chess, Part 1 (tactics)
The purpose of this series is to entertain you with wild, somewhat flawed but beautiful games. Through enjoyment, however, you can learn a lot. Part one covers the game F.Perez-J.Durao, a wild King’s Indian where the board becomes spectacularly lopsided.