The Weekly Show: Hello 2020!

New Year's events

The Baffling 2.b3 Sicilian

Make life difficult for the Sicilian! 2.b3 is a thoroughly venomous but still solid kind of "Anti-Sicilian". No matter what setup black chooses, the bishop on b2 will always be unpleasant for him.

Today we're going to have a look at Hastings and a quick update on the Women's World Championships plus a Tata Steel Chess preview.

Some brilliant individual performances including the winner GM Panchanathan and our very own Ginger GM Simon Williams.

GOTD will be Panchanathan's win vs Sengupta in round 8. A brilliant attacking performance by the tournament winner.

But first: In the position below, Simon Williams has played in his typical aggressive style, but where is the knockout blow?

Black to play — Try your moves!

This week's show

Lawrence is on-demand this week and free for a limited time. You can register a free 90-day account and will gain access to this and many more shows from a variety of authors. 

A Classical Guide to the French Defence

This DVD gives you the key to start out with the French Defence. GM Yannick Pelletier is a specialist of this opening, and believes that the most efficient way to understand its ideas, plans, and typical structures is to study classical lines.

Lawrence is live most Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST)

Follow along with Lawrence and try your own moves

Previous shows on-demand

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Lawrence Trent's latest

Read a review of Trent's previous FritzTrainer on the "Bombastic Bird's Opening"!

The Bombastic Bird's - an energetic and exciting repertoire after 1.f4

Welcome to the Bombastic Bird's, a revolutionary repertoire for one of the most enterprising and underrated openings in chess theory (1.f4). In this series, IM Lawrence Trent uncovers a number of groundbreaking theoretical novelties and new ideas that will soon have scorners of this romantic system regretting they ever doubted its soundness.

Solution to the puzzle

12.♗xc4!

Links

• All videos by Lawrence Trent (ChessBase Shop)
• @LawrenceTrentIM on Twitter