Dennis Monokroussos writes:
This week, I'll take a look at a game William Ewart Napier described as the
best game of his career - and he lost it! To feel that way about a loss, the
game would probably have to be a remarkable battle with a special opponent,
and it was.
Emanuel Lasker was one of the all-time greats, holding the World Championship
title for 27 years, and even afterwards maintaining a world-class level into
his late 60s. Perhaps part of the secret of his mental fecundity was its diversity:
not only was he skilled in other games (like bridge), he was also an accomplished
mathematician who dabbled in philosophy and even wrote a play.
But back to chess. In this game, from the 1904 tournament in Cambridge Springs,
Lasker met Napier's Dragon Sicilian with an aggressive attacking plan involving
the advance of his kingside pawns. We're used to this nowadays, of course, in
the context of the Yugoslav Attack, where White castles queenside and the players
attack on opposite wings. In this game, however, Lasker's king remained uncastled,
and Napier initiated the melee by blowing open the center.
It is a tactical feast indeed, and although it is a well-known game discussed
by generations of commentators, secrets remain. So join me this Monday night
at 9 p.m. as we delve, and take the results as the basis for further sleuthing
on your own part – what better way to combine enjoyment with the possibility
of improvement?
Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT, which translates to 02:00h GMT,
03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Tuesday). Other time zones can
be found at the bottom of this page. You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible
program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or
download a free trial client. |
Note: you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos here:
Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two ducats.
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).
Dennis
Monokroussos is 39, lives in South Bend, IN, and is an adjunct professor
of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.
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.
Here are the exact times for different locations in the world. Since Europe
has switched from Summer to Regular time please double-check at World
Time and Date for your time zone.
If your own city or time zone is not listed you can find it at World
Time and Date