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If you weren't excited already about this afternoon's upcoming Blindfold Simul Show on Chess.com/TV, GM Gareev reviews his perfect 5-0 sweep of last week's Simul here for you today! In his second video this week, Timur breaks down each phase of the games, trying to provide as many "take aways" for our members as possible! Once again, his wide variety of opening choices should provide something instructional for everyone. Tune in tonight as GM Gareev players, and IM Rensch provides commentary! | Watch video
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We start off our week with GM Gareev's detailed breakdown of his Blindfold Simultaneous Exhibition Match, played in our Live Chess Arena a few weeks ago! Timur really mixed it up in this Simul, with games in the Bird's, the Dutch, the Vienna Game, the English and the Open Sicilian! What more can you ask for from this guy? Awesome post game review? Wish granted... Enjoy! | Watch video
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Today Melik continues his series on the different process and approaches one can take to "solve" tricky, critical positions. He focuses on how to calculate logically and use "process of elimination" calculation techniques to arrive a the correct answer. He first reviews an interesting game with fellow author WGM Abrahamyan, and then moves onto a few puzzles that illustrate his points. Enjoy! | Watch video
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In this epic King and Pawn Endgame battle, Rubinstein possessed one small, positional advantage on the kingside, and he turned it into a forced win! Realizing how the tiniest of weaknesses can come back to bite you is one thing all members should be learning from this excellent series by GM Bojkov. Stick around for the second game and watch the Good Doctor make one tough decision (...c5) after another (Knight trade for Bishop on d2). Enjoy! | Watch video
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Today GM Bojkov highlights another great contribution Nimzowitsch made to the chess community: Developing the theories of the blockade and over-protection as important themes in prophylactic thinking. Here Nimzo employs his own opening (1...Nc6 against 1.e4) and proceeds a deep plan surrounding the d5-square and blockading the bad dark-squared white Bishop. | Watch video
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Before delivering the amazing answer to the homework he assigned in Part 4, GM Bojkov lectures on the idea of trading off your opponent's pieces in order to clear squares for your own pieces. Trading off a key bishop to free a diagonal for your own, trading off your opponent's "majors" in order to gain access to open files, and eventually the 7th rank, are just a couple of the key pointers. | Watch video
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The more pieces there are on the board, the more points black will score! Or at least it certainly seems to be the case in the Berlin Defense. As we observe in the sixth video of GM Bojkov's series on the structure commonly reached via the Ruy Lopez, black needs to keep some sort of imbalance in the position in order to be successful. The imbalance of the day is Opposite Colored Bishops. Enjoy! | Watch video
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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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GM Khachiyan continues his discussion of the Ruy Lopez exchange, with another surprising opposite colored bishop endgame. Great lessons about practical play, your attitude while playing, and such positional themes as king activity, pawn placement, and anticipating the opponent's ideas. Super! | Watch video
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GM Khachiyan turns his eye to an oft neglected subject: how to play your less pretty positions. There are many points to be scored in these positions too, if you set your mind to it. Khachiyan presents us with a tricky opening position from the Gruenfeld, explains how he understood his problem as black, and how he chose to solve it; then guides us through the entire game to show the full scope of his defense. | Watch video