Monday, September 21
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match – Part 5 | Openings, Tactics
Though popular debate has always raged, it appears the match could be won by a margin of a single victory, not a margin of two victories as Lasker would have asked in the case of a longer thirty game match. With the match in his grasp by holding a draw as Black it seems Schlechter perhaps succumbed to the immense psychological pressure. It is true that playing Black with draw odds is not an easy task as many modern tournaments have proven. Both players have been accused of playing recklessly, but it seems Schlechter mishandled the opening first and foremost. White played aggressively and Black – despite his chances – failed to grasp a draw. Lasker was the match victor finally by virtue of tying the match. The final score five games to five. A respectable but disappointing result for Karl Sclhechter, but he did not prove to be superior to Lasker overall in this short fighting match.
Tuesday, September 22
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – White Sets a Deadly Trap in the Scandinavian Qa5 | Opening, Endgame
GM Perelshteyn digs out an old game from World Junior Championship of 1995 and discovers a hidden trap in the Scandinavian Qa5. Can you guess White’s winning percentage in this line? It’s an unbelievable statistic: a 100% win rate for White. Even SuperGM Rapport fell for this trap vs Grischuk, who actually messed up and didn’t execute the right idea. Once you learn the g4, h4, Nf4 setup, Black is pretty much busted!
Wednesday, September 23
FM Dennis Monokroussos – One Good Piece Doesn’t Guarantee a Good Position | Tactics
1.b3 has been fairly popular the past few years, especially in blitz, but some players don’t like facing 1…e5. For those players, 1.Nf3 and then 2.b3 fits the bill, semi-guaranteeing that their bishops will have a splendid diagonal on b2. That’s how Taimanov handled things, and because he avoided a subsequent d2-d4 (which would have transposed the game into a Tarrasch) his bishop retained its beautiful, unobstructed diagonal almost throughout the game. And it was a disaster! White’s bishop was wonderful, but too many of the other 56 squares came under Black’s control. Kaidanov’s energetic play led to a spectacular and successful attack that was a model for his Tarrasch-style approach. Taimanov was a two-time Candidate and a very experienced GM, but even he (badly) underestimated the power of Black’s approach.
Thursday, September 24
GM Nadya Kosintseva – A Battle of World Champions: Smyslov-Tal, 1964 | Strategy, Endgame
In this lecture I will analyze for you one of my favorite games between two former world chess champions. Mikhail Tal, playing black, took the initiative from the beginning of the game and consistently, step by step started increasing the pressure on the army of Vasily Smyslov. However, White’s position remained solid for a while and it was not obvious how to break through in a closed pawn structure. But if Tal had at least a small chance to attack the enemy king he never missed it. If this attack required a queen sacrifice – no problem for him either. Another reason why I recommend studying this game is Tal’s excellent endgame technique.
Friday, September 25
GM Robert Hungaski -Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 5 | Openings
We conclude our series with two more very interesting ideas which are not very popular, 7.Qa3 and 7.Qd2, but which present challenges which you’ll want to be prepared for. And now, you should be ready to face anyone with this nearly forgotten but incredibly practical choice – the Lowenthal Sicilian.