Dennis Monokroussos writes:
In a recent poll on the Russian website chesspro.ru
they picked their ten best games of 2008. The winner was Topalov-Kramnik, from
Wijk aan Zee. The game had a bit of everything: a starting opening novelty,
sacrifices, brilliant attacking ideas and some errors and missed chances to
boot. If you don't know the game, you'll love it; if you do, you'll enjoy a
second, closer look.
The game of the day in round nine of the 2008
Wijk aan Zee tournament was Veselin Topalov vs Vladimir Kramnik, and the
question of the day whether the two, who have been mortal enemies since the
scandals around the 2006
FIDE World Championship in Elista, would shake hands before the game. They
didn't. But everything was done in full compliance with the FIDE directive:
neither of the players refused to shake hands, because neither of the players
offered to do so. They simply ignored each other completely, to the extent that
even eye contact was studiously avoided.
No handshake, no eye contact – but strictly according to FIDE rules
"What must be done to watch the lecture?" – you ask. The answer
is simple: tune in to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. Wednesday night (that's
ET; in Europe, it's 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning), go to the Broadcast room,
find Topalov-Kramnik under the games tab, and you're good to go. (But bring
your own popcorn.)
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.
