Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Everyone loves the Dragon Sicilian, right? Maybe they don't enjoy playing or
facing it, but if nothing else it's often a lot of fun watching games in that
variation. That's what we'll do this week, but be warned: the contest between
Vasily Byvshev and his strong grandmaster opponent Alexander Tolush is anything
but theoretical. The actual move order was a Najdorf, and after 6.Bg5 Black
played the theoretically questionable 6...Nbd7. Only after 7.Bc4 did the game
take on a Dragon appearance with 7...g6 8.h4 Bg7 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0, and even
then some unusual things happened from the perspective of modern ideas. Yet
the game remained quite interesting, and Tolush's play is instructive even for
today's Dragoneer.
We shouldn't be too surprised by this, as Tolush (1910-1969) was a strong GM
who played in 10 Soviet championships, finishing in the top 5 three times, and
whose work as a trainer was instrumental in Boris Spassky's development into
an elite player. Known as a bloodthirsty attacking player who "always"
went forward, Tolush shows in this game that he can also defend when necessary.
Byvshev started out on the right foot, but once Tolush seized the initiative
it was over in a hurry.
The opening of this game should be quickly forgotten, but there are lessons
in the remainder that deserve to be remembered. It's impossible to remember
what you don't experience, however, so you'll have to tune in. The show, which
is free, starts Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on the playchess.com server and goes
for about an hour. See you then!
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
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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.
