Dennis Monokroussos writes:
The many-headed Semi-Slav is one of the sharpest variations (really a cluster
of variations) in all of chess, and that's just what we get in this week's game,
from the 1993 edition of the sadly defunct yearly event in Tilburg. The opening
is precisified into the Meran Variation, and Dreev achieved quite a nice position
in the early middlegame. What makes the game special is his decision to first
sac the exchange (on move 24) and then a piece for two pawns (on move 29 - and
quite possibly foreseen at the time of the first sac). Neither sac won outright;
they were genuine offers for long-term control, for enduring pressure.
While it takes both imagination and guts to make sacrifices of that sort, it's
easier, once the sac has been made, to be on the aggressor's side. It's difficult
both from a purely chess standpoint and especially from the psychological perspective
to defend against an opponent's long-term initiative. Gelfand is a gifted defender
of such positions in the Najdorf (see last week's show; see also his games this
year with Radjabov and Nakamura), but on this occasion he wasn't up to the job,
and Dreev brought home the full point on move 44.
With a sharp opening, long-term sacrifices and aggressive positional play,
there's something of instructional and entertainment value for virtually all
chess fans. I hope, therefore, to see all my readers this Monday night at 9
p.m. ET.
P.S. Next week is the Halloween Show, when I like to commemorate horrifying
blunders, gut-wrenching chokes, and other examples of noteworthy folly from
the history of the game. I haven’t yet decided what to cover for this
year’s program, so if you show up this week and stay afterwards, you can
help by suggesting suitably hideous games for next week’s show!
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT, which translates to 02:00h GMT,
03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Tuesday). 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. |
Note: you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos here:
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).
Dennis
Monokroussos is 39, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor
of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy
time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest
juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s.
His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s
– "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven 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.
Here are the exact times for different locations in the world
If your own city or time zone is not listed you can find it at World
Tima and Date