Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Last week we started to look at the terrific correspondence chess battle between
former world champion Vytas Palciauskas and Vytautas Andriulaitis, but we didn't
even make it out of the opening! The Velimirovic Attack in the Classical Sicilian
leads to wild, sacrifice-filled play, and it's important to have some idea
of what in the world is going on before rushing to the middlegame.
It isn't any less complicated where we left off, but at least now we'll have
some understanding of what's happening, some markers to help find our way through
the terrain. Surprisingly, the ultra-complicated phase only lasts another ten
moves or so, when it resolves into a more generality-friendly position. Ironically,
it is at that point that Andriulaitis finally errs, after which his opponent's
accurate play gradually brings in the point.
A fascinating opening, wild variations, and accurate positional play –
what more could a chess fan want? Join me this Monday night at 9 pm on the
playchess server for a truly great game; 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. Since Europe
has switched from Summer to Regular time please double-check at World
Time and Date for your time zone.
If your own city or time zone is not listed you can find it at World
Time and Dat
