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Dennis Monokroussos writes:
The Ukranian-German great Efim Bogoljubow will be the star of this Wednesday's ChessBase show. One of the world's best player in the 1920s and 1930s, his name is familiar to us; his chess, less so. So let's take a step towards remedying this state of affairs by looking at some highlights of his career, at some games that demonstrate his terrific feel for combinations and the attack.
We'll start with excerpts from two of his games. The first, against Jacques Mieses, links "Bogo" with the past and present. The present, in that his adept handling of an attack on all sides of the board demonstrates an ability more common in today's chess; the past, in that the winning combination bears a slight resemblance to a famous Morphy combination against Bird. The second excerpt finds Bogoljubow making, and succeeding, with a speculative sacrifice against none other than his future tormentor, Alexander Alekhine. The sac is unsound, but it worked, and against a very strong opponent.
Finally, the main course is a brilliant win over Rudolf Spielmann. The other games had their flaws, but this is a gem - Bogoljubow's "Immortal Game" if anything is. Guaranteed to cheer you up, or your money back (offer good for live audiences only)! Directions for watching the show, which starts at 9 p.m. ET, are here.
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 |
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.
