Tiger Lilov’s Chess Show: The Art of Defense

Superior defensive skills make many players proud to be called tough even by renowned IMs and GMs and earn them invaluable points in the most decisive games in chess competitions. The art of defense is not a privilege for everyone and many players, though having the talent, never develop this important skill, so it can save them even in desperate positions. Defense can be observed in different levels, as the most fierce defense in chess is the counter-attack, which can not only get you out of the hardest position you can ever imagine, but also bring you the so much needed win by shattering your opponent's king fortress that's been weakened more or less for the purposes of their attack.

This Monday, FM Valeri Lilov will cover the topic of defense and the importance of gaining the initiative while defending by looking at some splendid, unexpected wins in games played during resent super-tournaments around the globe. He will also acquaint you with the main principles of the counter-attack and how to conduct it in a successful way without fearing the risks and tactical pitfalls that are waiting for you to fall in. As famous military leaders have said, attack is the best defense, all of you need to learn or enrich your knowledge in this delicate area where chess theory, skills, talent and psychology are mixed together in an unseen combination and each of them plays crucial role for the outcome of a chess game at any level.

For this week's Playchess lecture you can try to solve this interesting chess problem on counter-attacks, that we are going to start with on Monday!

In this position, which occurred in a grandmaster game, what is the best way for Black to take advantage of his more active pieces and the weakened white's king on the kingside? You can send your solutions through http://www.tigerlilov.com/contact.html. The winners will be given free lectures and training materials by FM Lilov.

Valeri Lilov, chess master and teacher

FM Valeri Lilov is a renowned chess prodigy, who reached the highest levels of chess coaching and gained tremendous success from the first months in the big business. Now, he is working as a private chess coach and you can review his rates and invaluable service in every possible field in chess at http://www.tigerlilov.com. He is now working for five of the most famous chess giants on the internet, such as Chess.com, ChessLecture.com, and ICC and is signing a sixth contract with ChessCube.com, while receiving countless offers to comment international opens, train whole national teams for important competitions and help anyone who needs some improvement in chess without any kind discrimination. Last year he also reached his new highest FIDE rating of 2443 and gained his FIDE master title plus two IM norms, so we can expect him to become an international master very soon, which will well match his unusually high FIDE rating for a FM. We are looking forward to seeing you Monday night. Don't miss the Tiger's Show!