Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Although he has long been a Najdorf specialist, Mexico City runner-up (technically
third, on tiebreak) Boris Gelfand isn't generally counted among the more dynamic
players of our era. There are reasons for this – his use of the Catalan
with white and the Petroff with black, together with his inadequate (from the
fan's perspective) antipathy toward short draws. But overall it's a mistake,
as we'll see. As for his opponent, Alexei Shirov, there's no doubt among chess
fans about his love of crazy positions. And when you put the two together, the
result is often mind-boggling, with both players having won brilliancies against
each other.
This week's show will see such a game – but with a bit of a Halloween
twist. This was the first of two games in their first round mini-match (played
in the 1992 Immopar rapid event in Paris; the event was won by Kasparov, who
defeated Anand in the final), and although Gelfand opened with the Catalan,
the position soon became insanely complex. Gelfand sacrificed a pawn, then a
rook, a piece, and another piece – and he probably should have given even
more! In return he enjoyed a massive attack and an objectively won position.
But did he win? Aye, there's the rub. This game is another entry into the museum
of missed brilliancies, but it's a wonderful game just the same – in fact,
Gelfand includes it in his book of memorable games (a terrific book, by the
way). It is truly a game worth seeing, and I hope you'll join me this Thursday
night at 9 p.m. ET; you'll be glad you did! Just be prepared to see some really
staggering tactics – this game's a roller coaster.
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Thursdays at 9 p.m. EDT, which translates to 01:00h
GMT, 02:00 Paris/Berlin, 11:00h Sydney (on Friday). 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).
Dennis
Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor
of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
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.
