In a new series on Tuesdays for Chess.FM, IM John L. Watson will depart from his interview show Chess Talk to develop a new strategy-based show called "Beyond the Opening."
Last week IM Watson concluded his course on the 1.d4 d5 structures, with the interesting series about the "triangle". With this week video, John starts a new series of lectures on the Indian systems Structures, which are defenses for black against 1.d4, but can also be used against 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. There defenses were late comers, in terms of high-level use and general acceptance: they appeared in the 1920's, to become much more important in the 1930's and after the war. the Indian Systems are the essence of modern chess: they reject central occupation by pawns. In this course IM Watson guides us through pawn structures, plans and strategies of these widely-used systems.
Ronen's Opening Survey: "Caro-Kann Defense: Fantasy variation"
May 21, 2012
We are going to follow and enjoy the World Championship Match in May, with ICC Chess.FM LIVE commentary, and in a new series GM Ronen offers us a Special Opening Survey Series: he will be investigating openings played by the two contenders for the World Championship 2012: from Anand's opening in his previous Championship matches against Kramnik and Topalov, to Gelfand's openings in the candidates match that led the Israeli super-GM on to the great challenge. Ronen will be with us all the way through the big match, with updates and analysis on the openings and novelties played by World Champion GM Anand and challenger GM Gelfand.
Openings from the World Championship Matches - Part 5
Former World Champion and legendary chess teacher Mikhail Botvinnik was the originator of the “Every Russian school boy knows” chess aphorism, which alluded to the fact that thousands of unknown schoolboys back in Russia - due to the intense training methods they received from a young age - likely knew more about the game than most professionals did in the West.
One player who came through that legendary Soviet training camp is former U.S. Champion GM Alexander Yermolinsky. And each Sunday in his new hit show, “Every Russian Schoolboy Knows”, Alex will explain and expand on all the top tips and tricks gleaned from those famed training methods.
Today's show is: "The Rook: the best defender your money can buy - Part 3"
The great Mikhail Botvinnik was referring to a rook ending when he uttered his famous exclamation "But… every Russian schoolboy knows!", which gives the title to GM Yermolinsky's Chess.FM weekly show. And now GM Alex shows us what the Russian schoolboy really knows about Rook endgames, a fascinating and very important part of the chess game: probably half of the endings you are going to encounter in your practice are Rook endgames. In this interesting and instructive series, GM Yermolinsky demonstrates how "there is more to Rook endgames than just push your pawns forward" and that "the Rook has an uncanny ability to do many defensive tasks simultaneously: stop the opponent's passer, attack his other pawns and most importantly, harass the enemy's King!" The series is a study of the Rook's defensive ability.
National Master Dan Heisman is a name that is synonymous with excellence in chess coaching and teaching. Dan authors the award-winning Novice Nook column (winner of three Chess Journalists of America "Best Instruction" awards), aimed at improving adults, for chesscafe.com that are clearly written and offer very practical advice and tips on how to improve your game. More info about Dan can be found here.
In the new Improve Your Chess IV series, Dan provides instruction by reviewing amateur games played on ICC and showing where the players went wrong and how to improve.
Three-time U.S. Champion GM Joel Benjamin brings you a new show every Friday at 15:00 Server Time. Joel is regarded by many as one of the best commentators and analysts' we have in the game today -- so if you want to get ahead of the game, get ready to tune-in!
At various times, Vassily Ivanchuk has been dubbed “the most talented player in the world.” If only he had a more stable personality and did not let his losses affect him so deeply, perhaps he could have already become World Champion. Indeed, of all the heavyweights Joel has battled, "Chucky was the one that made me feel the most like a chess playing monkey". So fans might expect big moves from Ivanchuk: profound attacks, colorful tactics and so on. But one of Ivanchuk’s great talents is a flair for technical chess, or “Seinfeld chess” if you will. Against Dominguez in the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba, one of Ivanchuk’s favorite events, Vassily won a pretty game by seemingly doing nothing. It can be just as difficult to emulate as a slam-bang attack, and it surely left Dominguez scratching his head about what exactly went wrong. Let's check out the game with GM Joel!
GM Boris continues his chess course with a strategic approach to one of the important themes of the game: Opposite Side Castling Attack.
Often in the game opponents castle their Kings in different directions. Playing with opposite castling is fundamentally different from one-side castling. When we castle on the same flank, we mainly develop our attack with the help of pieces: pawns are rarely involved in this case. It is quite different when we castle opposite way: here the attacker could push his pawns forward. Such a pawn storm with the opposite castling is the typical strategy: the pawns are "cheap" chess material, and is most advantageous to use them in order to destroy the enemy's position; even when we have to sacrifice pawns, that is done to achieve open files for our heavy pieces.
Here a few simple principles to remember :
Attack will be successful when your storming pawns help you get the initiative, and force your opponent into following the defending strategy instead of counterattacking.
Planning your pawn storm, you must take into account two important factors :control over the center and pieces development. The attack won't be successful without our pieces fast mobilization.
Try to open files against your opponent's King rapidly, using the weak spots in your opponent's position.
If your pieces are far away from attacking the opponent's king, then try to bring them as close as possible to the position of the enemy king's, so that they can effectively use the results of the assault and the breakout.
These are, of course, the main and general principles to follow. Each position has its own specific characteristics, but these considerations may help with solving problems arising during the struggle.
GM Larry Christiansen is a three-time U.S. Champion and one of the most dangerous and respected attacking players of his generation. He is a feared competitor and attacker who authored two popular books that showcase his aggressive
style: Storming
the Barricades and Rocking
the Ramparts. Each week on the show, Larry
will feature various attacking motifs and themes and showing
you how best to play for mate.
Today's show is: Model Games: Leningrad Nimzo-Indian
This week GM Christiansen gets back to his Model Games series, with a very interesting video on the Samish Nimzo-Indian (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. a3). This opening was brought to success by German Grandmaster Friedrich Samish in the 1920's, and maintains its popularity to this day, being a notable attacking weapon against the widely used Nimzo-Indian defense: very direct, blunt, to the point and effective; White questions the Black Bishop in b4 with 4.a3, opening a lot of possibilities to the control of the center. LarryC chooses to show us an example of the implications of this opening by illustrating a game that, in the full spirit of the Samish, is already an open battle at move 14, with tactics everywhere: White forces Black to resign at move 28, in spite of being a whole rook down!
John Watson is on break the next two weeks. IM Mark Ginsburg will be stepping in with an excellent video series Upholding the Sicilian: Smith-Morra Gambit.
The Sicilian Defense is by far Black's most popular answer to 1 e4 at all levels of chess - but many White players prefer to avoid the main lines by playing one of the multitude of so-called ‘Anti-Sicilian' lines on offer. These alternatives to 2 Nf3 include the primitive but dangerous Grand Prix Attack, one or two wild gambits, and also some tedious and niggling variations such as the Alapin with 2. c3, the Closed Sicilian, the Moscow/Rossolimo with 3. Bb5(+) and the KIA which are all designed to stamp out any fun Black was envisaging when playing 1...c5.
But fear not, because there's an antidote to it all: "Upholding the Sicilian" by IM Mark Ginsburg, who in a new video series provides a reliable repertoire to all those annoying sidelines!
The Holiday season is always a favorite time of the year to watch The French Connection, and here on ICC Chess.FM, we have our own version of the cult classic with a new series of GM Varuzhan "Popeye" Akobian videos based on his own ideas and repertoire as a lifelong maven of the French Defense!
Akobian's French Connection is a new five-part series that will give everyone from beginner to expert player the framework for further research on a reliable system to meet 1 e4 with e6!
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Show
Members
Preview
1
12/01/2011
Advanced variation
2
12/08/2011
Classical variation
3
12/15/2011
Exchange variation
4
12/22/2011
Tarrasch variation
5
12/29/2011
Unusual sidelines
GM Boris Alterman will be on holiday throughout December and Gambit Guide will be back again in January 2012.
"Positional Exchange Sacrifice" by FM Valeri Lilov (Tiger-Lilov)
While IM John Watson takes a well-earned break from his regular show Beyond the Opening, his spot for the next two Tuesdays is filled by FM Valeri Lilov, with a bonus 4-part video series for members on positional exchange sacrifices. Pt 1 & 2 are shown together, with 3 & 4 next week.
This month (Tue., 7 June ), replacing IM John Watson for now as guest host of Chess Talk will be international chess journalist Janis Nisii (Janis on ICC). Janis lives and works in Italy and has reported on several major elite tournaments for magazines such as New In Chess, Chess (UK), 64 (Russia), Europe Echecs (France), Jaque (Spain), Schach (Germany) and Torre & Cavallo (Italy).
And her very special guest in a two-part Chess Talk special needs no introduction, as it is world No.3 and recent candidate Levon Aronian. Levon Aronian has led tiny chess mad Armenia to two Olympiad Golds in 2006 and 2008 and his most recent victory was winning the final Amber Tournament in Monte Carlo.
Mikhail Tal has a special place in the hearts of most chess players. Tal deeply loved the game of chess and believed "Chess, first of all, is Art."
Fittingly, the 2009 Tal Memorial in honor of the "Magician from Riga" is the strongest tournament of the year, and one of the strongest fields of all time. MORE INFO.
The 2nd Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament takes place 27th Sept - 9th October 2009 in Nanjing, China. The total prize fund is $365,000 (250,000 Euros) and event is part of the Grand Slam series, with the winner getting an automatic seat into next year’s Grand Slam Masters Final. MORE INFO.
Bilbao starts on Sept. 6 and runs through the 12th. ICC will have live coverage each day, along with the "Game of the Day" video.
For more information, please see the official event page.
IM Alex Lenderman provides a two-part, introductory lecture
about chess endings. Follow along as he annotates moves upon the board
for play-by-play action.
The Scandinavian Defense (or Centre Counter) has risen in a relatively short time from being a theoretical backwater to a fully-blown main line opening. Its change in name to the Scandinavian came in the mid-1980s with its rehabilitation at top level by Denmark's Bent Larsen. And its rise since then has been nothing short of meteoric, even being used with great effect by Vishy Anand in his unsuccessful 1995 world title match against Garry Kasparov.
Against 1 e4, the Scandinavian is hugely popular at club level
because Black gains a minor psychological victory by setting the agenda from
the off with 1..d5! And in his new ICC Chess.FM series on the Scandinavian,
Pete Tamburro explores the 2...Qxd5 lines in five videos (and with a two volume
set to come later on 2 ..Nf6) that will take you through all the key themes
and strategies required for Black to play this popular, and easy-to-play opening
with confidence - and sizzling success!
This service is FREE to members and non-members of the ICC as a sampler
of our full 4 hour daily shows hosted by Mig Greengard, featuring the famed
New In Chess Trivia Quiz, where each day listeners
to the show can win a 1-year subscription to New
In Chess magazine.
Full Dortmund 2009 coverage and results can be found here.
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The Holiday season is always a favorite time of the year to watch The French Connection, and here on ICC Chess.FM, we have our own version of the cult classic with a new series of GM Varuzhan "Popeye" Akobian videos based on his own ideas and repertoire as a lifelong maven of the French Defense!
Bilbao starts on Sept. 6 and runs through the 12th. ICC will have live coverage each day, along with the "Game of the Day" video.
For more information, please see the 
