Playchess training with FM Dennis Monokroussos
The
late American grandmaster Sammy Reshevsky (1911-1992) was one of the strongest
players in the world for the middle third of the 20th century. His credentials
are many: a tie for third in the 1948 World Championship, a Candidate in 1953
(= 2nd) and 1968 (and qualified in 1950, but didn't play), seven times the U.S.
Champion (and tied for first an eighth time, losing in a playoff), drawing a
match with Bobby Fischer in 1961. And those are just some of the highlights.
His great results go back as far as winning the U.S. Open in 1931, and continued
up until he drew a match with Vassily Smyslov the year before his death.
Despite his great strength and many accomplishments, he had his weaknesses
too. He was a time trouble addict, and although he generally handled it well
it cost him from time to time. He was a bit lazy about his opening preparation,
and that too cost him on occasion, though not that often back in the pre-computer
days. And a somewhat weird weakness was an apparent blind spot to stalemate.
It is this quirky flaw that will be the subject of our ChessBase show this week.
On three occasions, each about a decade apart and always in an important event,
Reshevsky let wins slip by missing his opponents' stalemate tricks.
This makes for a bit of schadenfreude-style entertainment for us, but it's
instructive, too: by being reminded about this pitfall, we're less likely to
fall for it ourselves, and more likely to wriggle out of a loss by using it
on a hapless opponent. We'll explore this in more depth tomorrow, and I hope
to see you then. To join in the fun, log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m.
ET Wednesday night/3 a.m. CET Thursday morning. Go to the Broadcast room and
look for Reshevsky-Stalemates under the Games tab. The show is free for premium
members, or 50 ducats for those who want to watch "a la carte".
Hope to see you there!
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h GMT,
03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Thursday). You can find the times for
different locations in the world at World
Time and Date, with exact times for most larger cities here.
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:
Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007
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Dennis Monokroussos is 43, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and has worked as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the
University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.
At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten 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.
Playchess Training with IM Merijn van Delft
Everyone is invited to join this weekly training hour on Wednesday evening.
Together we will have a look at the most recent grandmaster games. Recurring
themes during our analyses and discussions are the latest opening developments
and how to work on your own chess.
A word about myself: I was born (March 13, 1979) and raised in Apeldoorn, The
Netherlands. In 1995 I won the Dutch U16 Championship and played the European
Championship in Poland and the World Championship in Brasil. In 1998 I moved
to Amsterdam to study psychology and had a great time there. In 2003 I met my
wife Evi Zickelbein and ever since we've been living together in Hamburg, Germany.
In 2004 I made both master titles: one at the university and one in chess. Since
2005 I've been working fulltime in the chess world: training, coaching, writing,
organizing and still actively playing myself. By now I have about fifteen years
of experience as a chess trainer. Together with my dad I wrote a book
about chess training (Schaaktalent Ontwikkelen), of which the Dutch
version is already available and the English
version will follow April 2010.
IM Merijn van Delft's lecture starts at 20:00h Central European Time (Berlin,
Paris, Rome), which translates to 19:00h London. You can find the times for
different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here.
The lecture is in the "Broadcast" room of Playchess. It is free for
Premium Playchess members (50 Ducats for others).
Links
The lectures are broadcast live on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009! |
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