Dennis Monokroussos writes:
The FIDE World Championship in San Luis, Argentina is just around the corner,
and with that in mind, I thought it high time to remedy an omission and do
a show featuring previously uncovered participant Peter Svidler. Svidler's
résumé is extremely impressive: he's #6 on the current FIDE list
(excluding the retired Kasparov), won three Russian championships before his
twenty-second birthday, and has won numerous other significant events in his
career.

One of his most notable tournament victories was also one of his first. Tilburg
1997 was an extremely strong event, featuring (among others) Kasparov, Kramnik,
Shirov, Adams, Polgar and Leko. The 21-year-old Svidler didn't have much experience
outside of Russia, but proved himself a member of the world elite, beating
Kasparov in their individual game and tying with him and Kramnik for first
place.
The win over Kasparov would itself make for a great show, but we're going
to take a look at a different game, one which, according to Svidler himself
(as of June 2004), was the best game of his career. This game, with wild man
Alexei Shirov, offers an outstanding example of the resilience and counterattacking
potential of the Sicilian Defense. Shirov plays for the kingside attack with
his customary aggressiveness, but Svidler proves that White's attack has left
more weaknesses in its wake than it has done damage. A terrific game, and very
instructive for all budding Sicilian players.
Hope to see everyone this Monday night at 9 p.m. ET!
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT, which translates to 02:00h GMT,
03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Tuesday). 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. |
Dennis
Monokroussos is 38, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor
of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy
time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest
juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s.
His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s
– "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven 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.
Here are the exact times for different locations in the world