Monday, October 19 IM Valeri Lilov The Early Attacks (middlegame)
Beginners who are eager to win see opportunities in every move to attack or capture one of the opponent’s pieces. They may have a difficult time focusing on the “big picture” of the game. When an opening comes available to attack the opponent, the beginner leaps on the chance, and jumps into the attack without thinking or from fear of losing or getting countered.
Tuesday, October 20 IM Bill Paschall Boris Spassky’s Spastacular Attacking Miniatures, Part 2 (tactics, strategy)
Spassky features his favorite 6.Bg5 against the Najdorf. Black chooses a passive setup giving white the initiative. Spassky relentlessly sets up a kingside attack with strategically principled double pawn sacrifice. Black cannot cope with the coordinated white attack and has too little counterplay. White then punishes black in short order for his lack of dynamism and routine play.
Wednesday, October 21 IM David Vigorito Inside Coverage of the USCL 2015 – part 15 (openings, endgame)
In this game I repeat the opening I had in my USCL game with IM M.Brooks – and the game follows the same story. I play the ‘boring’ Caro-Kann and getting a pawn up rook ending in less than 30 moves! Usually this means a long and difficult grind but after a couple of inaccuracies from my opponent a little calculation leads to a surprisingly quick victory.
Thursday, October 22 GM Leonid Kritz Tricks in the Open Spanish (openings)
An interesting game for multiple reasons. One of them is that the all-known attacker Mamedyarov selects a very positional opening and goes into and endgame right in move 8. However, even then he finds tactical possibilities to destroy his opponent’s position. The idea b4 is a classic and definitely needs to be known!
Friday, October 23 GM Eugene Perelshteyn Student Game Analysis: Understanding Statics and Dynamics (opening, strategy)
In a typical battle of Accelerated Dragon vs the c3 Sicilian, what would prevail: White’s static advantages or Black’s dynamic play? Watch and learn how both sides missed critical positional ideas. The lessons: When you have a static weakness, look for dynamic ways to get rid of it! When attacking a weakness, fix it first! There’s a nice endgame bonus at the end!