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To bring his debut series to an end, GM Mikahlevski reviews his win over GM Akobian that led to him earning a Best Game Prize at the Gibraltar tournament in 2011. Once again, Victor makes a "long term" sacrifice, with compensation stemming from the uncoordinated pieces in the opponent's camp, and his ability to seize the initiative to be in the "right place at the right time". Enjoy! | Watch video
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In the exciting conclusion of this monumentally important game for the young Sam Shankland's career, we get to see white slowly work his way back from a slightly worse ending, to one of equality, to an endgame where his opponent is fighting for a draw, to eventually, well, you'll have to watch to see! Take notes on Sam's excellent defensive technique, and his "practical poise" in seizing the moment to go for it! | Watch video
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FIDE Master Kavutskiy brings his contribution to the Beauty & Entertainment series to a close today with a video lecture that includes many practical solutions, and logical reasoning skills. He highlights what the correct "thought process" is in a position to clearly establish what your opponent's issues are, what their resourceful chances might be, and how to properly exploit them! The positions are, of course, beautiful and entertaining... | Watch video
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At the crucial stage in his career, Capablanca and his predecessor weren't getting along that well, but their chess games were a cooperative creation of beauty! Here we see a classic battle between these two legends, in the typical fashion of the era. A Queen's Gambit Decline in which black does not make the necessary early equalizing breakthroughs (e5 and c5) and finds himself dominated by the young Cuban! | Watch video
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In part 2 Grandmaster Kaidanov gives his recommendations for facing black's 2nd and 3rd most popular moves against the Panov-Botvinnik Attack. He discusses 5...g6 and 5...Nc6, suggesting the slightly "less traveled roads" for white in both cases, but stressing that more space and active development make those positions very easy to play, and put tactical pressure on black at an early stage of the game. | Watch video
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Here Melik provides two final examples from the recent Tata Steel Super-GM Tourney in the Netherlands. Rather than highlighting bad technique as he did in part 2, here he focuses on where these strong GMs could have improved their defensive technique. He highlights the need to look to give up small amounts of material for activity or to head towards endings you know are drawn (like Opposite Colored Bishop Endings). | Watch video
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IM Rensch breaks down this well-known, theoretically driven opening (The Sicilian Dragon) not by focusing on all the complex variations available, but rather, explaining the evolution of those lines by revealing the patterns and repeating ideas within the pawn structure. Danny reviews the "stem game" Karpov-Kortchnoi, Moscow 1974 and he shows how Karpov changed white's approach in the Yugoslav forever, which inevitably led to black's modern approach (The Chinese Dragon)... | Watch video
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In perhaps the defining moment of his career (or at least one of them) a young Sam Shankland took down one of the world's top talents to claim a tie for first at the 2008 World Youth Chess Championships. Here he reveals all that was in a sharp, 9.0-0-0 Yugoslav Attack Dragon Sicilian. He highlights the in-depth variations both he and his opponent calculated, and instructs on the basic ideas of the line for players of all levels. Enjoy! | Watch video
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Losing for a second time to an eerily similar idea happens... but falling for the same long term, positional sacrifice to the same opponent? Here GM Mikhalevski takes his opponent to school a second time with a similar early sacrifice of a knight on f7. In the style of Tal, Victor gets a strong initiative and a lot of pawns in compensation for his pony, and his opponent wishes he had learned his lesson the first time! | Watch video
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Today FM Kostya focuses on the theme of domination! Highlighting how creative, and sometimes brilliant ideas can occur when your pieces dominate your opponent's in terms of activity and total power, even in cases when they are "worth less" in total point value. We see minors dominate a queen, knights dominate rooks, and much more! | Watch video