Monday, September 7
IM Bill Paschall – Practical Play: Evaluating and Converting Advantages, Part 1 | Endgame
In this series we will identify typical strategic advantages and show examples of their exploitation in practical play. In part one, we see veteran Grandmaster Eugenio Torre gaining 2 significant advantages by the early middlegame. Black must use his bishop pair and strong protected passed pawn to push his advantage into the endgame and then convert these concepts into a full point.
Tuesday, September 8
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – Tal Attacks by Going Backwards! | Opening, Tactics
In this rare gem by the Magician from Riga, Tal shows his amazing attacking skills. All of us can attack by sacrificing and going forward, but can you attack by going backwards? Can you guess his amazing idea that completely stumped a World-Class GM?
The key idea is to think outside the box! Once you find the re-grouping the rest is easy and this game is definitely deserves a top miniature prize!
Wednesday, September 9
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Counterattack in the Kan Sicilian | Openings
Vasily Smyslov, the 7th World Champion, made major contributions to many different openings, including (to my surprise) the Kan Sicilian. Playing a line he independently discovered and introduced into top-level play, he impressively outplayed Bulgarian GM Nikola Padevsky. If White’s attacking play in the Open Sicilian makes you nervous, have a look at Smyslov’s calm way of meeting it and then taking over the initiative himself.
Thursday, September 10
GM Nadya Kosintseva – Facing the Evans Gambit | Strategy
In this lecture we will consider a chess opening characterized by the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4. This aggressive line was invented almost 200 years ago and still can be popular at different skill levels. White sacrifices the pawn in the beginning of the game to force either the black knight from c6 or his dark-squared bishop to the b4-square. It allows White to occupy the center quickly by means of c3-d4 moves. In doing so White creates a lot of pressure on the center and what’s more, opens up the b-file for the rook as well as the d1-a4 diagonal for the queen, which can go to the same diagonal with White’s light-squared bishop to threaten the f7-point. For Black we will consider the principal continuations when he accepts the sacrifices – gaining material – but needs to be precise in his defense.
Friday, September 11
GM Robert Hungaski – Opening Strategy: The Sheltered Knight, Part 2 | Openings, Strategy
Having introduced and discussed the topic of the Sheltered Knight in a previous video, I turn to a game I recently played where this strategic theme played a central role. I was white against Argentine GM Garcia Palermo, but who currently represents Italy. Garcia Palermo is somewhat of a celebrity in Argentina for defeating Karpov while he was reigning World Champion and Fischer in a simultaneous exhibition he gave back in 1970. Both of these games are included in the PGN.
It was no accident that the Sheltered Knight reared its head in this game, since I played an opening that has this idea built into it as one of the main strategic tools at White’s disposal. Weaving strategic themes into my opening repertoire is one of my favorite techniques that I use to reinforce ideas I’ve been working on. In this case I’m speaking of the Exchange Caro-Kann, which in my opinion perhaps one of White’s most underestimated weapons against this opening.