Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Caro-Kann players have to be a hardy lot. There are quite a few aggressive
schemes against it, and a moment's carelessness can get even a player slaughtered
in 25 moves or less. Just ask Larsen, Hort, Tal, Timman, Speelman, Akopian,
Dreev, Shirov, Karpov and Kasparov! One must be alert. Once one has survived
White's early initiative, however, any result is possible. In fact, there are
a number of lines in the Caro-Kann where the long term prospects tend to favor
Black, and that makes this opening an attractive choice to players with good
technique.
One such player is Alexey Dreev. A great player who occasionally pops into
the Linares group, Dreev is an outstanding technician, and he has used the Caro-Kann
to good effect throughout his career. As an example, we'll have a look at his
game with Konstantin Lerner from the Rostov-on-Don Open in 1993. Lerner played
1.c4 c6 2.e4 (transposing to the C-K) d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Bb5+ and held
on to the pawn, eventually ceding the bishop pair to do so. When we take a superficial
glance at the position after, say, Black's 15th move, we might think that Black's
compensation isn't anything special.
When we take a deeper look, however, we'll see that Black's compensation is
substantial. Dreev's technique is so powerful and logical that we're likely
to do an about-face and wonder if White could have saved himself in the queenless
middlegame. We'll examine this game in depth, because most of us could stand
to improve our technique, and analyzing the games of players who excel in that
area is a great way to improve.
So if you're a player whose technique could be just a little better, you could
do a lot worse than to join us tomorrow night - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m.
ET. The show is free; hope to 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
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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.