Dennis Monokroussos writes:
With the passing of the 11th World Chess Champion, the legendary Robert James
Fischer, it's appropriate to spend some time commemorating his great career
and contributions to the game. We'll start this week with the game that launched
him on the world stage, his win as a 13-year-old over the very strong master
Donald Byrne, from the 1956 Rosenwald tournament.
Though it was a prestigious event, Fischer's participation was not "on
the merits", as it were (his rating in 1956 was a not exactly whopping
1726!), but because he had won the U.S. Junior Championship earlier in the year.
So although he was clearly on the rise, I'm sure he was still looked upon as
an outside in the de facto U.S. Championship. He didn't win the event, but he
finished with a very respectable –2 performance. And then there's the
game with Donald Byrne...
To say that the game was brilliant is to understate things, though Hans Kmoch's
label "Game of the Century" may go a bit too far. He's right in spirit,
though: this was a stunning debut by the youngster. Not only was it a great
game, but it was a promise of much more to come, a promise that was fulfilled
– at least in chess – over the years to come. So I think this is an appropriate
way to begin our tribute to Fischer's career, and I hope you'll join me tonight
(Wednesday) night at 9 p.m. ET on the playchess.com server as we examine this
game.
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h
GMT, 03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Thursday). Other time zones
can be found at the bottom of this page. You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible
program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download
a free trial client. |
You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here.
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:
Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two ducats.
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).
Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007
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Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and occasionally works as an adjunct professor of philosophy
at the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.
At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten years now, giving lessons
to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of
years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of
the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very
active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.
When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas
of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame
(or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present
some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database),
which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess
software.
