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Grandmaster Melik Khachiyan brings us more from his days as a schoolboy, this time providing more insight into how his tutor -- former World Champion Tigran Petrosian -- viewed positional chess and sacrifices. watch as white correctly evaluates that the control over the light-squares, along with black's potentially weak King, would be more than enough to compensate for the sacrificed material...
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Today GM Melik Khachiyan lectures on the imbalances of positional weaknesses vs activity and the initiative. In the end, it turns out white's strongest piece was one of the "little guys". The anchor on f6 allows white to infiltrate, and eventually create a mating net against black's King. Enjoy Melik's personal review of this battle against the former US Champ, and apply your new knowledge in your own games! | Watch video
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Grandmaster Khachiyan continues his new video series on the subject of recognizing and then exploiting your opponent's sub-par positional (pawn play) understanding. Here we see his young opponent walk into a reverse Benoni, and Melik thinks: "this is bologna"! Pay attention to Melik's thought process and how it quickly led to a much better position for white (the Nh4-f5 and f4-pawn break being the key ideas). Enjoy! | Watch video
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Today GM Melik Khachiyan begins a new videos series designed to show examples of exceptional, and sometimes not-so-exceptional, pawn play in chess. We start with a classic battle between Botvinnik and Keres in which the former World Champion "pioneers" the idea of the f3-e4 breakthrough in the Carlsbad pawn structure. Though black eventually trades the dark-squared Bishop, his passive play is punished harshly! | Watch video
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Another Rook Ending video lecture by GM Khachiyan... another Super-GM blows a theoretical draw! This video lecture contains arguably one of the most practical lessons of your chess life. Understanding that not all Rook Endings are drawn when your opponent possesses an outside passer is perhaps even more important than knowing how to win the endgame. Pay special attention to black's King maneuver to c5... | Watch video
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FIDE Master Kayden Troff earned his first International Master Norm with a thrilling victory over IM-Elect Roman Yankovsky... but this exciting game isn't the whole story. As Troff's coach, Melik Khachiyan explains -- the hard work was done off the board on a psychological level. Namely, the ability to forget about a previous loss that could have devastated Kayden's norm chances. Watch this exciting Benko Gambit game on pins and needles! | Watch video
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In honor of the 4th of July, we decided to bring a little "fire" to our boards! When Melik's poor health led to poor results at this recent tournament, he decided to create a little bit of chaos on the chess board! He resorted back to a "pet line" for some good old fashioned fun against his opponent's King. Once his opponent's preparation ran out (after...Ne6 by black) it was an inevitable process of Melik outplaying his opponent with tactics and tricks! | Watch video
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GM Khachiyan has so many talented students, and reviews so many of their games for our "viewing pleasure", that we decided to give the video series a name! Here you will see first hand what interesting analysis, practical lessons, and psychological insights are relayed from one of the America's best chess coaches (Melik of course) to his students. Try applying some of Melik's advice to your own chess, and learn to rebound from tough losses! | Watch video
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Space... the "final frontier" in chess! These are the voyages of the Starship Khachiyan. His continuing mission: To outplay his opponents using deep positional planning, an understanding of the Caro-Slav Structure, and the prophylactic skills to never underestimate his opponent's plans. You will learn all these things and more in this episode of: "Playing with a Space Advantage - the Next Generation"! | Watch video
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Today Melik reminisces once again about his old coach, recalling one of his more interesting battles with the "Magician from Riga". In Tal-Petrosian, USSR Championship 1958 we witness a "topsy-turvy" battle, jump started once again by a Petrosian exchange sacrifice. This game ultimately showed Tal's inexperience. Enjoy Melik's personal take, along with references to Kasparov's comments from the "Predecessor" series. | Watch video