Monday, March 20 IM Valeri Lilov The f3 Sicilian (openings)
The move f3 in the Sicilian Defense is often used as a key preparation for White’s kingside attack. However, there is another use for the f3 move. Often times it is used by White to provide a solid Maroczy bind that can give you a solid grip on Black’s whole development!
Tuesday, March 21 IM Bill Paschall Tonight: Two Knights! (strategy, openings)
Veselin Topalov gives a good imitation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense while playing the 4.e3 Slav as black! Topalov proves that any sort of variation can become tactical and sharp if creative ideas are put to use and pieces remain on board. In this striking example, Veselin shows the power of two coordinates knights against two bishops. White plays for a central pawn majority, but black keeps him constantly off balance with creative tactical threats.
Wednesday, March 22 FM Dennis Monokroussos The Two Knights Caro-Kann with 5.gxf3, Part 1 (strategy, tactics)
The line 1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.gxf3!? is a sideline and deservedly so, but it leads to interesting, non-standard positions that will take at least some Caro players out of their comfort zone. Tal and his second, Alexander Koblentz, prepared this line for Tal’s first world championship match with Botvinnik, and we’ll see both that game and a training game between Tal and Koblentz. (Some more recent games are also available in the PGN file.) Both games were messy in very different ways, and that’s part of the variation’s charm!
Thursday, March 23 GM Nadya Kosintseva How To Improve Calculation And Reduce Blunders (middlegame, tactics)
Nobody is perfect – not even Magnus Carlsen. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes – that’s OK. In fact, chess is an appealing game because it cannot be fully mastered. However, to progress one should permanently search for ways of reducing the frequency and seriousness of his or her own mistakes. Thus, in this lecture I am going to demonstrate to you the importance of considering forcing lines for yourself and for your opponent to avoid several miscalculations and oversights in the game.
Friday, March 24 GM Bryan Smith Long-term Sacrifice (tactics)
GM Bryan Smith shows a game featuring an intuitive piece sacrifice, and discusses the genesis of such a sacrifice.