Wednesday night training on Playchess

Playchess training with FM Dennis Monokroussos

In early 2002, when he was still just 18 years old, Ponomariov managed to win the FIDE world championship in a similar knockout event, defeating his countryman Vassily Ivanchuk in the final.

He was considered a great talent at the time, and a few years earlier had set the (then-) record for becoming the youngest GM ever. But no one expected him to win the title when players like Viswanathan Anand, Michael Adams, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, and other greats were playing. In fact, Ponomariov was only the 19th seed, but despite this he plowed through the opposition, defeating Li Wenliang, Sergei Tiviakov, Kiril Georgiev, Morozevich, Evgeny Bareev, Peter Svidler and then Ivanchuk. Very impressive!

We'll look at one of his games against Morozevich, both because of the game's own merits and because it's typical of Ponomariov's style. It's combative and he doesn't shy away from complications, and once the game reaches the technical phase he's extremely efficient. Morozevich is also known as a great endgame player, but he was never given the chance to show what he could do. Add to it that Ponomariov outplayed "Moro" in one of the latter's favorite openings, and you've got a game worth seeing.

And how does one do that? It's simple: log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday night (= 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning), go to the Broadcast room and double-click on Ponomariov-Morozevich under the Games tab. The show is free for Premium members and available for a fee for those interested in checking it out, "a la carte". Hope to see you there!

See you then!

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

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!