Dennis Monokroussos writes:
With world champion Viswanathan Anand set to defend his title against Vladimir
Kramnik, and Gata Kamsky to do battle with Veselin Topalov for the right to
play for the title next year, it's conceivable that 2009 will see an Anand-Kamsky
championship match. If so, it will be their third tilt, with their two previous
contests taking place in candidates matches in the mid-1990s.

Anand under pressure – from his nemesis Gata Kamsky
In the first, an eight-game match in Sanghi Nagar, Anand led by two games with
three to go. All would seem to be well, but he lost games six and seven, and
after a draw in round eight, continued his collapse in the rapid tiebreak, losing
both games (the last in just 17 moves). That was the semi-final match in the
FIDE cycle. Kamsky ultimately made it to the world championship match against
Karpov in 1996, where he was defeated. He retired shortly thereafter.

Gata Kamsky after his win over Anand in the Candidates Match in 1994
Meanwhile, they met again in a 12-game match, the final of the PCA Candidates,
and here too they were tied after eight games. While Anand had generally enjoyed
the better positions in their games, Kamsky had shown himself the better pressure
player – up to this point. But now, in game nine, Anand rose to the occasion
and played a beautiful game, winning convincingly and destroying Kamsky's main
black opening for the match. Game ten was drawn, and Kamsky's backup opening
was beaten soundly in the finale. This gave Anand the right to face Kasparov
the next year, and like Kamsky against Karpov, Anand too was ultimately unsuccessful
in his first shot at the title.

Gata Kamsky, who might face Anand in a World Championship match in 2009
Still, the match was a big success for Anand, as he overcame a difficult opponent
and proved that he could handle a big pressure situation – and with style.
In our show this week, we'll look at his majestic win in game nine of the 1995
match. The game demonstrated practically everything: a nice, new opening idea,
a sustained attack that involved play on all three parts of the board in beautiful
harmony, nice variations, the interplay of strategic goals and tactical play,
a few ingenious maneuvers – this game had it all, aside from an endgame.

Will we see more of this in 2009? Anand vs Kamsky in Wijk aan Zee 2006
Now that I've whetted your appetite, all you need to do is tune in to the playchess.com
server tonight – Wednesday night – at 9 p.m. ET. Log on to the server,
go into the broadcast room, and double-click on my nickname there (Initiative)
and you're good to go. (Further directions here,
especially for those who would like to watch archived shows.) Hope to see you
there!
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.