Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Last week Kramnik, this week Anand, as we draw near the start of their world chess championship match in Bonn, Germany. Viswanathan Anand, the current World Champion, has played so many beautiful games over the years that choosing just one for the show is a difficult task. Fortunately, Anand himself came to the rescue, calling attention on his second DVD to a comparatively unknown, recent game.
As I've noted more than once on my blog, the German Bundesliga features some of the best chess almost no one sees, because the games are spread out over many months and they tend to receive rather sporadic live coverage. Many great games fail to receive the widespread publicity they deserve, and Anand's win over Polish GM Bartlomiej Macieja is case in point.
The game features a Classical Caro-Kann with the players castling on opposite wings, and as is well known that's a prescription for attacking chess. So it was here, too, but Anand did a lot more of it than his opponent! All the same, the game was extremely interesting and close, and Macieja committed but a single error. Anand's attacking conception was outstanding, and the behind-the-scenes variations make the game even more memorable.
I do hope, therefore, to see all of you tonight at 9 p.m. ET on the Playchess.com server. To watch the show, log on to the server, enter the Broadcasts room, select the Games tab and double-click on the Anand-Macieja game; after that, just sit back and enjoy!
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.
