Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Peter Leko may not be the most popular player among amateurs, but to neglect
his chess would be a pity both aesthetically and instructionally. He is one
of the world’s strongest players, after all, and came within a single
draw of the world title back in 2004. His wins have a strategic clarity reminiscent
of players like Capablanca and Fischer, and that makes them very useful to study.
We’ll have a look at just such a model game in this week’s show,
a win over Alexander Beliavsky from the 2002 Olympiad in Bled.
Beliavsky, no slouch himself, essayed the Breyer Variation of the Ruy Lopez,
and despite many years of experience on the Black side of the Ruy, he found
himself on the receiving end of a chess clinic. First, Leko put into action
a then little-known prophylactic plan which neutralized Black’s hopes
of queenside and central counterplay. With that taken care of, he started augmenting
the pressure on the kingside, forcing a series of small concessions along the
way. The next step was to stretch Black’s defenses too thin, and that
required finding the game’s best move. Having found the move, and the
various plans it made possible, it was time to administer the denouement, and
Leko finished the game in style.
The win was beautiful and strategically complete, and very much worthy of our
attention. I hope therefore that you’ll join me tonight, Wednesday night,
at 9 p.m. ET (3 a.m. CET) as we examine this masterpiece; you’ll be glad
you did!
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.
