Dennis Monokroussos writes:
When I was a kid, I remember reading that Tigran Petrosian knew by heart every
game that had ever been played. That, I’m sure, was a fantastic exaggeration,
but given the relative paucity of tournaments from, say, Morphy’s time
through Petrosian’s young adulthood in the early 1950s, it’s at
least possible to imagine he had played or read through a great many of the
most important games of that interval. That was then; today, it’s a challenge
just keeping up with the games of the previous day, to say nothing of the previous
week, month or year. That’s one big reason why the very best players have
permanent seconds. Even a serious chess fan like myself who tries to keep up
with important games on a near-daily basis will miss out on some real gems,
if they’re not played by the world’s super-elite or in an opening
of immediate interest.
Fortunately, thanks to ChessBase Magazine 113 (spectacularly upgraded from
previous issues – it’s now a full DVD instead of an ordinary CD,
with more theory sections and videos…but I digress), one great game I
would have missed has come to my attention, and now will come to yours. It’s
a battle between Ukranian great Oleg Romanishin (USSR Championship runner-up
in 1976 and a PCA Candidate in 1994) and young German IM Georg Meier, from the
Hockenheim tournament held this past May.
Early in the game Romanishin produces an important and impressive novelty,
a temporary pawn sac missed by greats like Ulf Andersson, Levon Aronian and
even Mikhail Tal! And the sequel is even better, as Romanishin goes on to overwhelm
his opponent with an array of tactics and pawn levers sure to expand your understanding
of the game. Finally, his technique at the end of the game is instructive, making
for a nice, complete game.
This is one of the best games of the past year, and a game most of us are unlikely
to see anywhere else. So I hope you’ll join me this Monday night at 9
p.m. ET on the Playchess.com server – you’ll be glad you did!
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. Please
double-check at World Time
and Date for your time zone.