Tiger Lilov’s Chess Show: the Power of Initiative

The initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can set up threats that cannot be ignored. He puts his opponent in the position of having to use his moves responding to threats rather than making any of his own. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver his pieces into more and more advantageous positions as he launches successive attacks. Initiative is often described as "The Soul of Chess."

This Monday FM Valeri Lilov will discuss initiative with its many implications in modern chess at the highest level. He will cover fascinating games and positions taken from recent international chess tournaments and will focus especially on the advantage of possessing the initiative and how it helps chess masters outplay their opponents in seemingly “equal” positions.

We hope to see you all at this broadcast, gaining an advantage over opponents who missed it because they were playing bullet in the Main Hall. FM Lilov will be here every Monday night for you to give you some good advice and answer your questions.

Valeri Lilov has been working on improving students’ chess skills for more than five years, and recently became popular internationally with his many quality lectures. He aims at working with each of his students individually and adjusting his teaching approach after taking into account his students’ personal preferences, character, manner of most efficient studies and more.

For this week's Playchess lecture you can try to solve the following position. The solution will be revealed in the Monday evening show:

In this position, which occurred in a recent grandmaster game, what is the way for White to take advantage of his more active pieces and the black king stranded in the middle of the board?

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.