When Bush was V.P. and Ljubo was king
26.07.2004 From the mid-70s through the early 90s there was a non-Russian player who was incredibly dynamic and creative, thriving in imbalanced, tactical positions with a strength very few of his peers could match. Our online trainer Dennis Monokroussos looks at a 1985 gem of a
game by Ljubomir Ljubojevic.
Dennis Monokroussos writes:
The people have spoken! Last week, I opened the choice for this week’s
show to an audience vote, and we have a winner! The year was 1985, and the
world was much different than it is today. For example, a Bush was in the White
House – but it was Bush senior, and he was just V.P. Also, Kasparov wasn’t
world champion but someone with a “K” name was, and Kasparov was
to play him within a few months – but then it was Karpov and now it’s
Kasimdzhanov. And Korchnoi was still winning tournaments at an age when the
typical self-respecting chess player had long since retired from big-time chess.
Some things really just don’t change!
One difference from then till now, however, is an unfortunate one. Nowadays
Ljubomir Ljubojevic
has retired from the chess scene, but from the mid-70s through the early 90s,
he was among the best players in the world; certainly one of the absolute best
from outside the (now former) USSR. “Ljubo” was an incredibly dynamic
and creative player, thriving in imbalanced, tactical positions with a strength
very few of his peers could match. Today’s game, taken from the 1985
Linares event, in which Ljubojevic and Robert Hübner shared first place,
finds Ljubo on the White side of a very sharp French Defense against Korchnoi.
In a very unclear position, Korchnoi launches a speculative, very dangerous
attack that would seem to have every chance of success, but Ljubojevic’s
brilliant defense carries the day. Tune in, learn something about the Winawer
French, and enjoy a very impressive effort by a player in danger of becoming
unjustly forgotten by today’s chess public. Enjoy!
Dennis Monokroussos' Radio
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Dennis
Monokroussos is 37, lives in South Bend, IN (the site of the University
of Notre Dame), and is writing a Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy (in the philosophy
of mind) while adjuncting at the University.
He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his non-philosophy
time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time he was one of the strongest
juniors in the U.S., but quit for about eight years starting in his early 20s.
His highest rating was 2434 USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s
– "too much blitz, too little tournament chess", he says.
Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven 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.
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