Dennis Monokroussos writes: "These days Pal Benko is best-known
for his endgame column in the U.S. Chess Federation’s Chess Life.
For years, however, he was one of the best players in the world, twice making
it to Candidates’ tournaments – a tremendous achievement for any
player. Especially renowned for his virtuoso endgame technique, his best games
are a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to improve their positional and
endgame play.
In our weekly lecture we’ll take a look at one of his many positional
masterpieces, this one against Fridrik Olafsson from the 1959 Candidates event
(won by Tal). On the White side of a 6.Bg5 Najdorf (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4
4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5), Benko throws in an interesting positional twist
that worked to perfection. Best of all, this is a line no one knows, so you
can start counting the free points now! Tune in and watch a game replete with
positional and technical ideas we can all use and benefit from; Benko, like
Capablanca, has a way of making it look easy in his best games. Easy or not,
they’re great to learn from, and that’s just what we’ll do
this Monday night. Enjoy!"
Dennis Monokroussos' Radio
ChessBase lectures begin on Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT, which translates
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Dennis
Monokroussos is 37, 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.
