Alexander Morozevich: most imaginative player of our time

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

Alexander Morozevich has been exciting chess fans for over a decade now as not only one of the strongest but most imaginative players around. Not only can he defeat anyone, he can do it playing practically anything: the Chigorin, the Albin, 3...Be7 in the French, the King's Gambit, the Evans Gambit...and on occasion he'll play normal openings too. It's not just that he plays unusual openings; his creative play extends to all phases of the game. This, his fighting spirit and streaky results all contribute to making him the fan favorite he is today.

As an example to illustrate what he is capable of, we'll have a look at his impressive win over Vladimir Kramnik in last year's Tal Memorial. Choosing a main line – the 6.Qc2 Anti-Meran with the Shabalov/Shirov Gambit (7.g4), he went right into the heart of Kramnik's preparation and proved himself more than up to the task. Kramnik played very well for a while, and the balance between Morozevich's initiative and Kramnik's extra pawn remained intact for a good while. As it turned out, Kramnik blinked first, and his single inaccurate move was all Morozevich needed to take over – and he did, going on to win with brutal attacking play.

We'll look at this outstanding game tonight – Wednesday night – at 9 p.m. ET (3 a.m. CET Thursday morning for European late-nighters). Just log on to the Playchess server, go to the Broadcasts room and look for Morozevich-Kramnik under the games tab. It's as simple as that, and I look forward to seeing you there.

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

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.