Boo! Terrifying blunders at Playchess.com

by ChessBase
11/1/2004 – Tonight's Playchess lecture by Dennis Monokroussos covers some scary blunders. You can learn from their mistakes or just feel comforted that they make them too. The lecture begins at 9pm EST. Read on for how you can watch the lecture and the starting time in your area. Don't be afraid!

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So bad it's scary

In honor of Halloween, it’s time to see something that’s scary…but in a way comforting, too. In short, it’s time to watch strong players blunder! We’ll take a look at opening catastrophes, middlegame oversights, time trouble horrors – the whole gamut of grandmasterly goofs. We all know it, of course, but it’s nice to be reminded every now and then that even the world’s best players are human, just like us…sometimes more so. See you Monday night!

Schedule

  • Dennis Monokroussos' lectures begin on Mondays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h London/GMT, 03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Tuesday).

    Other time zones can be found at the bottom of the 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 (the site of the University of Notre Dame), and is writing a Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy (in the philosophy of mind) while adjuncting at the University.

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 international starting times for Dennis's lectures every Monday
 
Abu DhabiTue 6:00 AM  HalifaxMon 10:00 PM  New OrleansMon 8:00 PM
Addis AbabaTue 5:00 AMHanoiTue 9:00 AMNew YorkMon 9:00 PM
Adelaide *Tue 12:30 PMHarareTue 4:00 AMOdesaTue 4:00 AM
AdenTue 5:00 AMHavana *Mon 10:00 PMOsloTue 3:00 AM
AklavikMon 7:00 PMHelsinkiTue 4:00 AMOttawaMon 9:00 PM
AlgiersTue 3:00 AMHong KongTue 10:00 AMParisTue 3:00 AM
AmmanTue 4:00 AMHonoluluMon 4:00 PMPerthTue 10:00 AM
AmsterdamTue 3:00 AMHoustonMon 8:00 PMPhiladelphiaMon 9:00 PM
AnadyrTue 2:00 PMIndianapolisMon 9:00 PMPhoenixMon 7:00 PM
AnchorageMon 5:00 PMIslamabadTue 7:00 AMPragueTue 3:00 AM
AnkaraTue 4:00 AMIstanbulTue 4:00 AMReykjavikTue 2:00 AM
AntananarivoTue 5:00 AMJakartaTue 9:00 AMRio de JaneiroMon 11:00 PM
Asuncion *Mon 11:00 PMJerusalemTue 4:00 AMRiyadhTue 5:00 AM
AthensTue 4:00 AMJohannesburgTue 4:00 AMRomeTue 3:00 AM
AtlantaMon 9:00 PMKabulTue 6:30 AMSan FranciscoMon 6:00 PM
BaghdadTue 5:00 AMKamchatkaTue 2:00 PMSan JuanMon 10:00 PM
BangkokTue 9:00 AMKarachiTue 7:00 AMSan SalvadorMon 8:00 PM
BarcelonaTue 3:00 AMKathmanduTue 7:45 AMSantiago *Mon 11:00 PM
BeijingTue 10:00 AMKhartoumTue 5:00 AMSanto DomingoMon 10:00 PM
BeirutTue 4:00 AMKingstonMon 9:00 PMSao PauloMon 11:00 PM
BelgradeTue 3:00 AMKiritimatiTue 4:00 PMSeattleMon 6:00 PM
BerlinTue 3:00 AMKolkataTue 7:30 AMSeoulTue 11:00 AM
BogotaMon 9:00 PMKuala LumpurTue 10:00 AMShanghaiTue 10:00 AM
BostonMon 9:00 PMKuwait CityTue 5:00 AMSingaporeTue 10:00 AM
BrasiliaMon 11:00 PMKyivTue 4:00 AMSofiaTue 4:00 AM
BrisbaneTue NoonLa PazMon 10:00 PMSt. John'sMon 10:30 PM
BrusselsTue 3:00 AMLagosTue 3:00 AMSt. PaulMon 8:00 PM
BucharestTue 4:00 AMLahoreTue 7:00 AMStockholmTue 3:00 AM
BudapestTue 3:00 AMLimaMon 9:00 PMSuvaTue 2:00 PM
Buenos AiresMon 11:00 PMLisbonTue 2:00 AMSydney *Tue 1:00 PM
CairoTue 4:00 AMLondonTue 2:00 AMTaipeiTue 10:00 AM
Canberra *Tue 1:00 PMLos AngelesMon 6:00 PMTallinnTue 4:00 AM
Cape TownTue 4:00 AMMadridTue 3:00 AMTashkentTue 7:00 AM
CaracasMon 10:00 PMManaguaMon 8:00 PMTegucigalpaMon 8:00 PM
CasablancaTue 2:00 AMManilaTue 10:00 AMTehranTue 5:30 AM
Chatham Island *Tue 3:45 PMMelbourne *Tue 1:00 PMTokyoTue 11:00 AM
ChicagoMon 8:00 PMMexico CityMon 8:00 PMTorontoMon 9:00 PM
CopenhagenTue 3:00 AMMinneapolisMon 8:00 PMVancouverMon 6:00 PM
DarwinTue 11:30 AMMinskTue 4:00 AMViennaTue 3:00 AM
DenverMon 7:00 PMMontevideo *Tue MidnightVladivostokTue Noon
DetroitMon 9:00 PMMontgomeryMon 8:00 PMWarsawTue 3:00 AM
DhakaTue 8:00 AMMontrealMon 9:00 PMWashington DCMon 9:00 PM
DublinTue 2:00 AMMoscowTue 5:00 AMWellington *Tue 3:00 PM
EdmontonMon 7:00 PMMumbaiTue 7:30 AMWinnipegMon 8:00 PM
FrankfurtTue 3:00 AMNairobiTue 5:00 AMYangonTue 8:30 AM
GenevaTue 3:00 AMNassauMon 9:00 PMZagrebTue 3:00 AM
GuatemalaMon 8:00 PMNew DelhiTue 7:30 AMZürichTue 3:00 AM

* indicates that the place is currently observing daylight saving time (DST)


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