Monday, September 7
IM Bill Paschall – World Chess Championship 1910: The Controversial Lasker-Schlechter Match – Part 3 | Openings, Endgame
Karl Schlechter’s reputation as a draw master and great defender was greatly enhanced by this match with Lasker. In the fifth game, with the match tied after four consecutive draws, Lasker emerges into the endgame with an extra pawn, but a slightly exposed king makes the conversion difficult. Lasker finally overreaches and blunders instead of accepting a likely draw, leaving his chances of winning the short match in a in a perilous situation.
Tuesday, September 8
GM Eugene Perelshteyn – A Fresh Idea in the Scandinavian Qa5 for Black! | Openings, Tactics
Some openings are bad and some are forgotten. However, GM Eugene Perelshteyn brings main line Scandi Qa5 into the limelight with a fresh idea. Black avoids the doubled f-pawn with a rare move and a new plan. Top engines likes Leela like it, and so does a young Russian superstar, GM Esipenko! Eugene’s student plays this idea immediately gets a winning position in chess.com’s weekly Titled Tuesday blitz event, as he explains in this video. Don’t miss this surprise weapon!
Wednesday, September 9
FM Dennis Monokroussos – Legends of Chess 2020: Magnus Dings Liren with a Move Order Trick | Openings, Tactics
One of the fundamentals when it comes to learning one’s openings is to master many of the move order finesses available to both sides. One reason to do it is that a player might want to avoid a certain line, and knows how to do it through move order #1, but if the opponent switches to move order #2 it’s possible that one might get tricked into it all the same. Here’s a simple example: suppose you play the Berlin, but you know that your next opponent likes to meet it with 4.Nc3. For whatever reason you dislike this, and against 4.Nc3 anti-Berliners have a habit of switching to 3…a6 against the Ruy. If that opponent knows that you meet 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 with 3…Nf6, however, you can be tricked: he’ll play that variation and then go 4.Bb5. Oops. Ding Liren, #3 in the world, essentially fell victim to a subtler version of the same trick, and it didn’t go well for him. Sure, he was playing Magnus Carlsen, but as we’ll see the main problem was the mess he got himself into. Have a look!
Thursday, September 10
GM Leonid Kritz – Weak Center or Strong Center? | Strategy
The pawn structure in this game is very important because it can occur from different openings for both white and black and the main question is always the same – can the side who has the center keep it safe? In this game White produced a good example of how to play against such a center and forced Black to weaken the center by playing 13…d4. Black should have played much more carefully in the opening to be able to maintain the center and thus, equal chances.
Friday, September 11
GM Robert Hungaski – Lowenthal: The Original …e5 Sicilian! Part 3 | Strategy
We will now proceed to examine the move that has made me believe that the Lowenthal is playable again. After 15…Nf6! Black’s play continues down its thematic path, while White must make more and more “computer” moves. Again, White walks a very tight rope, but as I illustrated in the previous video, his efforts will be rewarded in the case of 15…Bh3 or 15…Rb8, where I believe Black’s position to be practically lost. I believe that with best play, White will achieve a better position where he will be up an exchange but I will argue that Black can reach a fortress position. This is the true test of the variation.