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When GM Melik Khachiyan retreated his dark squared Bishop to d2, and then completely sealed it in with "dark-squared" pawns, we knew he was either crazy or a genius! It turned out the latter was true, and it was the beginning of a very "counter-intuitive" long-term plan to engineer a pawn breakthrough on the kingside - and eventually win a "positionally minded" endgame against the young National Master from Arizona, David Adelberg. Enjoy! | Watch video
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Learn how to further improve your thought process in critical positions today... and as a bonus, we kill some Dragons! International Master Mark Ginsburg reviews two recent games in the 9.0-0-0 Yugoslav Attack, explaining the "right" and "wrong" approach in a critical position of the 9...Nxd4 variation. We hope you will enjoy your first encounter with a Dragon, and learn a few things too... | 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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Pencils down! Seriously, you are about to take a quiz. Subject? The principles, attacking patterns, and tactical motifs within the confines of pawn "chains". IM David Pruess has been arming you with knowledge in his first two videos,and now it is time to see whether or not you paid any attention. In the climax of his 3-Part contribution to the Pawn Structure 101 series, David wants you to be ready to think about each and every position and the decisions you might make in a real game. Good luck! | Watch video
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"This way! Follow your pawn-chains to victory" - Mythological Chess Player, a very long time ago... IM David Pruess follows up his first Pawn Structure 101 video with a "counterpoint", clearly displaying all of black's attacking resources in a race position based around the pawn chains. Learn to develop an assault based on the pawn structure of your position! | 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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International Master Daniel Rensch begins a new video series today on the subject of "material imbalances" in the game of chess. What you need to know: In many cases where the "points" add up to be the same (or close to it) the entire story of the position, what you should do, who is better and why, etc is simply not being told. Learn the key factors to correctly evaluating these trades, and become an "Unbalanced Master"! | Watch video
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We're back! IM David Pruess "pinch-hits" for Daniel Rensch's "Pawn Structure 101" series this weekend -- and man does he "hit one out of the park"! There are a couple more videos to come, but today David kick starts our new "structure-discussion" by highlighting the attacking principles available to white in the "Chain and Wedge Formations". Whether you prefer sacrificing on h7, breaking through with f5, or slowly grinding the open files -- David is here to take you there! | Watch video
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Today Roman continues his video series on the discussion of his own best work! Two games: First a win over England's rising star (at the time) Jonathan Speelman; and second, a big "in house" win over his teammate, Viktor Kupreichik, that would determine the fate of the Soviet Olympiad team at the time... Enjoy! | Watch video