Master the Art of Defense

Ever had a game where you faced an attack you knew wasn’t sound but somehow you couldn’t wriggle out of it? You’re not alone. The art of defense in chess is one of the least studied skills. Pretty strange when it will when you as many points as learning how to attack.

Below I present a 1 hour webinar teaching you the principles top GMs use to avoid defeat – free and exclusive to all my YouTube followers.

If you want to follow the lecture attentively, you should maximize the broadcast window by clicking at the lecture title on top.

Many club players think that if they’re defending they’re losing. Or at least, they feel that way. Incidentally, this state of mind is one of the reasons they often do go on to lose.

However, many of the best players of all time actually relished the opportunity to defend. Wilhelm Steinitz and Bobby Fischer used to enjoy tempting sacrifices or grabbing material. They would let their opponents have the initiative, knowing it wasn’t enough. Knowing they could soak up the pressure and come out ahead.

Viktor Korchnoi also saw it as a challenge. A kind of “you can’t beat me!” declaration as his rivals got more and more frustrated. And Tigran Petrosian was legendary for his mastery of prophylaxis. His opponents would reach a position they believed to be winning only to notice he had cleverly prevented their big idea many moves before.

This is a great opportunity to acquire skills most club players simple do not have. You’ll learn:

• How to encourage unsound attacks as a sneaky way of winning material.
• When to bring your pieces back, when to launch a counter-attack and when to mix the two!
• How to return material at the critical moment to end the attack and emerge with a superior position.
• GM techniques for slowing down the attacker’s initiative until it disappears altogether.

The next webinar takes place at noon EST (5pm UK, 6pm France/Germany/Spain) on the following Saturday.