Dennis Monokroussos writes:
The tournament was Linares 1999, one of the great successes of Garry Kasparov's
greatest year. After 12 of 14 rounds, Kasparov led by 2.5 points, while Vassily
Ivanchuk, the hero of this week's show, was languishing near the bottom with
a minus score. It was too late for Ivanchuk to salvage a good result in the
tournament, but it's never too late to play well. To make this happen, drastic
measures were required. In "preparation" for his 13th round game, against Veselin
Topalov, Ivanchuk almost took his life in his hands.
The players in Linares typically ate each day at the Restaurant Himilce, and
Kasparov – as Kasparov – had an essentially permanent table for
his entourage, and a chair that was only his. So what did Ivanchuk do? Shortly
before the Kasparov crew came in, he went to Kasparov's table and sat in his
chair! As he explained to the imploring restaurant staff and then to Kasparov's
mother (who then gave him her blessing), he wanted to sit there for five minutes
"to absorb Kasparov's spirit."

Absorbing Kasparov's spirit: Vassily Ivanchuk in Linares
It would be a great story no matter what happened, but what makes it perfect
is that he went on to blast Topalov off the board with the black pieces in just
25 moves. It's a beautiful game, replete with sacrifices, and instructive too.
(Ivanchuk himself said that "[s]tudents of the middle game should study it [the
key piece sacrifice that kept White's king in the center] attentively." That's
just what we'll do tomorrow, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET on ChessBase's Playchess.com
server. The show is free, the stories are entertaining, and the game is fantastic.
Why would anyone miss it?? (If you need instructions for watching my ChessBase
shows, whether live ones or those in the archives, this
post will tell you what you need to know.)
Hope to see you there.
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.