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Dennis Monokroussos writes:
If you haven't heard of these players, that's okay: I hadn't heard of them either until a few days ago. A friend, who saw this discussion on the ChessBase news site, pointed me to the game, and now it's your turn. Our weekly shows often feature great games by the greatest players in chess history, but from time to time it's worthwhile to take a look at the masterpieces of lesser-known players, too, especially as their games are the likeliest to pass by unnoticed.
Our principals are Josef Krejcik (1885-1957), a master known for his brilliant but inconsistent play, and Konrad Krobot...or Krobst – it's apparently unclear. The date isn't completely clear either: was the game played on February 14 or 24, and in 1908 or 1909? The location of this game is also unclear, with the Cafe Veronika and the Cafe Viktoria (both in Vienna) the competing options.
What is clear is that White's play is brilliant. Although it's lightweight compared to (e.g.) the action in Linares, it's the kind of entertaining game that drew almost all of us to chess and made us fans for life. I therefore hope you'll join me tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET for a very entertaining game on the Playchess server – see you then!
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.
