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When you were a kid, your mom made you eat vegetables that you didn't want... but, they were good for you! As GM Melik Khachiyan teaches us today, sometimes in order to win, you must play moves you don't want to... because they're good for you! Being disciplined about your opponent's counter-play, and making the "tough decisions", is what wins games at a high level. That and knowing when not to activate your King in a complicated Endgame! | Watch video
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Today Khachiyan divulges several brilliant insights into the thought process of a Grandmaster in the Endgame. When he sat down to play IM Amanov at the American Open last November, Melik expected a draw after the very "equal Opening choice" by his opponent. However, after a slight mistake, Melik began "thinking from the end" and played like a prophylactic genius to take home the full point! | Watch video
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Today, once again, Chess.com gets to play "tag along" with GM Melik Khachiyan as he continues his own journey of self discovery, self critique, and chess mastery! Today he reviews a game in which he broke a few of his own rules of technique, including making the game tactical and "fancy" when the correct approach would have led to a simple positional victory. However, when all seemed lost, Melik held his nerves together and displayed several important "lessons of good defense". | Watch video
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Today GM Khachiyan reviews one of his own games, highlighting how to dominate your opponent with the little guys! Here black achieves a strong structural advantage and manages to "hold the fort" for the remainder of the battle. As usual, Melik offers great advice on how to play against your opponent's bad pieces (take away their "teammates"), how to recognize and target weaknesses, and how to play opposite colored bishop endings with skill. | Watch video
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Fasten your seat belts! This weekend we get to see a great game from the personal library of GM Melik Khachiyan! Here we review a "complete" battle in every sense of the description: Starting with white's active development and anticipation of black's threats; transitioning into a middlegame where white gets the most out of his space advantage; and finally we see a "bishop pair dominated" endgame with flawless technique my GM Khachiyan. Enjoy! | Watch video
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GM Khachiyan follows up his first 'Structural Thinking' video (September 8th) with a masterpiece by the legendary Capablanca. We hope you will enjoy this game and come to admire Capablanca's positional vision as much as Melik does. Try to visualize the pawn structure weaknesses (open c-file) as Melik recommends, then take notes on Capablanca's patience in shuffling the major pieces back and forth from the king-side to the queen-side. Brilliant technique! | Watch video
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In the climax to his five part video series on advanced Rook Endings, and the typical mistakes made therein, Grandmaster Melik Khachiyan gives us two examples of how to lose against the "theoretically drawn" Rook and Bishop pawns. He then however offers the much more important guide to using the fundamental, thematic and easy-to-understand drawing technique. Enjoy this lecture, and draw your Rook Endings! | Watch video
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In his fourth installment of this video series, Grandmaster Khachiyan brings us a two part lesson: The first being a "blunder fest" between GMs Fischer and Gligoric; and the second being one of the more advanced defensive methods when dealing with an enemy corner pawn. The "Vancura Defense" describes a technique in which the rook can defend by checking laterally -- a very awkward yet effective defensive maneuver. Enjoy! | Watch video
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Today Grandmaster Khachiyan continues to enlighten us as to what the most typical mistakes are (by both amateurs and professionals alike) in Rook Endgames! Combine this video's "practical examples" with the technical knowledge from IM Rensch's Rook Endings "Beginner to Master" videos 5 and 6 (the Frontal Attack) and you will be ready for battle in these incredibly tricky, yet incredibly common chess endings! | Watch video
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In this prequel video to GM Melik's "Typical Mistakes II" -- displaying the Lasker's Defense method, Khachiyan explains the importance of having your King on the short side, and Rook on the long side of the enemy pawn. A very good "next step" video series to IM Rensch's Rook Engames videos, Melik helps us take the important concept of keeping your "Rook on the 8th rank" home. Did you know that Triangulation was a Rook Endgame concept? You do now! | Watch video