Dennis Monokroussos writes: Amateurs rarely have time to really study
their openings, but often that’s not too large a liability: as long as
one reaches a position with which one is familiar. With some opening variations,
however, that sort of approach is far less likely to succeed. Case in point:
the Moeller Attack in the Giuoco Piano. This sharp line is filled with traps
Black must avoid, and it’s not the sort of variation one can just figure
out over the board. What should you 1…e5 lovers out there do? Become
theory slaves? Take up the Hungarian Defense? Give up 1…e5 altogether?
Answer: of course not! The right course of action is to watch this week’s
show, when you’ll learn not only how to survive this trappy line, but
how to force White to fight for his or her life. As we’ll see, a bit
of familiarity with this line will remove all your Italian Game nightmares
(except for those emerging from the Evans Gambit); soon, you’ll see the
Moeller as a free win for you when you have the black pieces. Tune in as we
tame the Giuoco while enjoying some great games old and new!
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.