Dennis Monokroussos writes: "Rating systems aren’t infallible, but
they’re certainly a good indicator of what’s likely to happen. Likely, but
not guaranteed, especially when one’s opponent has prepared something special
in the opening!
Take this week’s game, for example, between Hans-Joerg Cordes, rated 2290,
and the late GM Anthony Miles, in 1985 in the world’s elite and towards the
top of his career. Miles probably assumed he was going to have a relatively
easy time of things, but Cordes had something special planned – a very interesting
novelty followed by an amazing series of sacrifices. Miles withstood the initial
wave of the attack, but Cordes kept up the pressure, achieving a beautiful
win over one of the 1980’s true Goliaths.
Let this game give hope to all of us who are underdogs – which is all of us
until we find a way to get Anand, Kasparov or Kramnik (in alphabetical order)
to watch the show – upsets are always possible! Finally, our game also features
a very interesting line in the Nimzo-Indian, so it’s worth tuning in for that
as well. See you Monday! "
Dennis Monokroussos' Radio
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Dennis
Monokroussos is 38, lives in South Bend, IN (the site of the University
of Notre Dame), and is writing a Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy (in the philosophy
of mind) while adjuncting at the University.
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.
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(DST)