exd5!

24.10.2009
– Certainly an unusual four-player double round robin. In this "Crown Group" all games but one were draw, so that the winner of that game, Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov, came in first, and the loser, Judit Polgar, last. Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri scored 50%. In the Univé Open English GM Steward Haslinger was first by a full point. Final report.

The 13th Univé Tournament 2009 took place from October 16th to 24th
in the town hall in the center of the Dutch town of Hoogeveen. It was played
in a number of sections: the Crown Group with four players, the strong International
Univé Open, two tournaments for amateurs and a youth event. The insurance
company Univé was the new sponsor of the event, which was previously
known as the Essent Tournament. The prize fund for the for the Crown Group was
€10,000, the time control 40 moves in 1½ hours + 30 minutes to finish
the game, with a 30 seconds increment from the start.

The winner of a single game and the event: Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov

The only decisive game of the entire event came in round four, when Judit Polgar
slipped in her game against Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov:

Tiviakov,S (2670) - Polgar,Ju (2687) [B46]
Unive Crown Hoogeveen NED (4), 22.10.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.g3 d6 7.Bg2 Bd7 8.0-0
Nf6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.a4 Be7 11.Be3 0-0 12.a5 Nd7 13.Qd2 Qc7 14.Rfe1 Rac8 15.Bd4
Ne5 16.b3 Be8 17.Re3 Nd7 18.Re2 Bf6 19.Bxf6 Nxf6 20.Na2 Bd7 21.c4 Rfd8 22.Nb4
e5 23.Kh1 Ra8 24.f4 Re8 25.Re3 b5 26.axb6 Qxb6 27.Rae1 a5 28.fxe5 Rxe5 29.Nd3

The world's strongest female player is doing okay, but now, with her rook under
attack, she resorts to tricks (at which she excels): 29...Qd4?! 30.R3e2
Rb8. Insisting on the opponent accepting the exchange. 31.Nxe5
Qxe5 32.Qd3 h5 33.Rd2 Rb6 34.Qd4 Rxb3 35.Qxd6 Qxd6 36.Rxd6 Be6 37.c5 Ng4 38.c6
Rc3 39.e5 a4 40.Kg1

41...a3? Judit, who is in trouble, seems to have pinned her
hopes on this passed pawn, but now Tiviakov has a trick of his own: 41.Rd8+
Kh7 42.Rd3! The rook is protected by the bishop fork on e4. 42...Rc5
43.Rxa3 Nxe5 44.Ra6 g6 45.c7 Bc8 46.Rd6 Ng4 47.Rc6 Ra5 48.h3 Ne5 49.Rd6 Rc5
50.Rd5 Rxd5. Hopeless, Black resigned. 1-0.

The longest (by far) game of the event came in round three and saw Vassily
Ivanchuk determined to grab a point in a theoretically drawn position. Ivanchuk
also played the second-longest game (75 moves against Judit Polgar in round
two) and the third longest (59 moves against Sergei Tiviakov in round five).
He also set the opposite record for the event, as you can see in our third example.

Tiviakov,S (2670) - Ivanchuk,V (2756) [B17]
Unive Crown Hoogeveen NED (3), 20.10.2009
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Bc4
Bf5 8.Qe2 e6 9.Bg5 Qa5+ 10.c3 Bg4 11.Qe5 Nd5 12.Nd2 f6 13.Qg3 h5 14.h3 Bf5 15.Be3
g5 16.Qf3 g4 17.Qe2 gxh3 18.gxh3 0-0-0 19.Nb3 Qa4 20.Bd3 Bxd3 21.Qxd3 c5 22.Qe2
cxd4 23.Nxd4 e5 24.Qc2 Qc4 25.Qe2 Nxe3 26.fxe3 Qxe2+ 27.Nxe2 Rd3 28.Rf1 Rxe3
29.Rxf6 Be7 30.Rf5 e4 31.Kd2 Rxh3 32.Re5 e3+ 33.Kd3 Bd6 34.Rxe3 Rxe3+ 35.Kxe3
h4 36.Rd1 Bc7 37.Ng1 Bb6+ 38.Kf4 Rf8+ 39.Ke4 Rf2 40.Nf3 Rxb2 41.Nxh4 Rxa2 42.Nf5
Kc7 43.Rh1 Bc5 44.Kd5 Ra5 45.Kc4 a6 46.Ng7 Bb6 47.Ne8+ Kb8 48.Nd6 Rc5+ 49.Kb3
Rc6 50.Rh8+ Kc7 51.Nc4 Bf2 52.Rh7+ Kb8 53.Rd7 Bg3 54.Ne3 Be5 55.Nd5 Rc5 56.c4
Rc8 57.Nb6 Rc6 58.Nd5 Bd6 59.Rd8+ Ka7 60.Rd7 Bf8 61.Rd8 Bc5 62.Rd7 Rh6 63.Rc7
Rh3+ 64.Kc2 Bd4 65.Re7 a5 66.Re4 Bh8 67.Re3 Rh2+ 68.Kb3 Bd4 69.Re8 Bc5 70.Ka4
b6 71.Rg8 Rb2 72.Rg7+ Ka6 73.Nc7+ Kb7 74.Nb5+ Kc8 75.Na7+ Kd8 76.Nc6+ Ke8 77.Rh7
Ra2+ 78.Kb3 Ra3+ 79.Kc2 Re3 80.Ra7 Re6 81.Nxa5 bxa5 82.Rxa5

On the last move White captured the last black pawn. It now takes Ivanchuk
27 moves to pick up the white pawn on d4. 82...Re5 83.Kd3 Kd7 84.Ra6
Kc7 85.Rg6 Re3+ 86.Kd2 Rh3 87.Rf6 Bb4+ 88.Ke2 Rc3 89.Rf3 Rc2+ 90.Kd3 Rd2+ 91.Ke4
Kc6 92.Rf5 Rd1 93.Rd5 Rc1 94.Kd3 Rc3+ 95.Kd4 Rh3 96.Rg5 Bc3+ 97.Ke4 Bb2 98.Rd5
Ba3 99.Rg5 Bd6 100.Rd5 Bc5 101.Re5 Re3+ 102.Kf5 Rc3 103.Re4 Bb4 104.Re6+ Kc5
105.Re4 Rd3 106.Kf4 Bd2+ 107.Kg4 Bc3 108.Kf4 Bd4 109.Re2 Kxc4

This ending is a theoretical draw, but the veteran Ukrainian GM prods and probes
for 36 move moves. Tiviakov, our tablebases tell us, never goes astray.
110.Ke4 Rh3 111.Rc2+ Bc3 112.Re2 Rh4+ 113.Ke3 Bd4+ 114.Kd2 Rh1 115.Kc2 Ra1 116.Kd2
Bc3+ 117.Ke3 Kd5 118.Kd3 Bd4 119.Kc2 Ra3 120.Re8 Kc4 121.Rc8+ Bc5 122.Rc7 Ra2+
123.Kc1 Rg2 124.Rc8 Kd4 125.Kb1 Kd5 126.Rc7 Be3 127.Rc2 Rg1+ 128.Ka2 Bd4 129.Rc8
Ke4 130.Kb3 Rb1+ 131.Ka4 Kd5 132.Ka3 Rb7 133.Rc2 Ke4 134.Ka4 Kd3 135.Rc8 Bc3
136.Rc5 Rb6 137.Rb5 Ra6+ 138.Kb3 Ra1 139.Rd5+ Bd4 140.Rb5 Rc1 141.Rb4 Bc5 142.Rb5
Rc3+ 143.Kb2 Ba3+ 144.Ka2 Kc4 145.Rb8 Bc5 146.Kb2 Rh3 draw.

That was clearly the longest game of the tournament. Here's the shortest, from
the final round:

Polgar,Ju (2687) - Ivanchuk,V (2756) [C42]
Unive Crown Hoogeveen NED (6), 24.10.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 0-0
8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0 Nc5 10.Nd4 Re8 11.f3 Ne6 12.Be3 Bg5 13.h4 Bxe3 14.Qxe3 Nxd4
15.Qxd4 Qe7 16.Bc4 Qe3+ 17.Qxe3 Rxe3 draw.

Judit Polgar after completing six percent of her final game against
Ivanchuk

Vassily Ivanchuk after 4...Nxe4 and 24 percent of the game

Final standings

Univé Open

This strong international open was won by GM Stewart Haslinger, a full point
ahead of the field.

The winner of the Univé Open: Steward Haslinger of England

Three GMs and an IM followed in second to fifth.

#
Player
Nat.
Rtng
Pts
WWe
BH
SB
perf.

1
GM Haslinger, Stewart
ENG
2529
7.5
+1.91
49.0
40.75
2707

2
GM Brodsky, Michail
UKR
2530
6.5
+0.96
54.0
37.0
2605

3
GM Nijboer, Friso
NED
2540
6.5
+0.66
51.0
34.75
2585

4
GM Ulibin, Mikhail
RUS
2533
6.5
+0.26
47.0
33.75
2536

5
IM Caspi, Israel
ISR
2404
6.5
+1.57
46.5
30.75
2521

6
GM Kasparov, Sergey
BLR
2488
6.0
+0.55
50.5
32.5
2527

7
GM Friedel, Joshua E
USA
2555
6.0
-0.37
50.0
31.0
2511

8
GM Genov, Petar
BUL
2470
6.0
-0.04
46.5
30.0
2456

9
IM Willemze, Thomas
NED
2391
6.0
+1.06
46.0
27.25
2469

10
IM Riemersma, Li
NED
2431
6.0
-0.12
45.5
27.5
2410

11
GM Romanishin, Oleg
UKR
2515
5.5
-0.75
48.5
27.25
2440

12
GM Gruenfeld, Yehuda
ISR
2474
5.5
-0.22
48.5
27.25
2445

13
IM Slingerland, Fred
NED
2395
5.5
+0.48
46.5
26.25
2430

14
IM Van Delft, Merijn
NED
2374
5.5
-0.08
43.0
24.5
2361

15
Vedder, Henk
NED
2364
5.5
-0.02
41.5
23.75
2355

16
FM Van Kooten, Luuk
NED
2292
5.5
+0.80
40.5
22.75
2356

17
IM Van Oosterom, Chiel
NED
2386
5.0
+0.27
46.0
22.75
2406

18
IM Grooten, Herman
NED
2328
5.0
+0.33
45.5
23.5
2352

19
GM Kraai, Jesse
USA
2526
5.0
-1.69
45.0
23.0
2372

20
Hoffman, Ron
NED
2107
5.0
+2.86
43.0
25.0
2388

21
GM Vul, Arkadi
RUS
2309
5.0
+0.89
42.0
20.0
2386

22
Klein, David
NED
2248
5.0
+0.68
41.0
21.25
2307

23
Timmermans, Ivo
NED
2237
5.0
+0.60
39.5
17.5
2285

24
FM Bezemer, Arno
NED
2364
5.0
-1.17
38.0
19.5
2264

25
FM Heemskerk, Wim
NED
2236
5.0
+0.07
38.0
19.0
2244

26
IM Afek, Yochanan
ISR
2303
5.0
-0.44
36.5
17.25
2266

27
Lagrotteria, Salvatore
ITA
2221
5.0
-0.26
33.5
15.0
2203

Chess in the city, chess in the town hall of Hoogeveen

The sign next to the main entrance and the flags outside tell the story

Playing in front of monumental paintings on the wall

All eyes are focussed on Anna Maja Kazarian, nine years old

Anish Giri and Vassily Ivanchuk analysing in the press center

Photos by Frans van Amerongen

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Crown Group – Univé Open (zipped) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

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22.10.2009
– After returning safely to Earth from the 128th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, during which he played a game of chess against the readers of a Swedish newspaper, the astronaut Christer Fuglesang was given a prize (in spite of losing the game). It was a Rybka program, signed by five World Champions. One of his reader opponents received a similar prize. Illustrated report with videos.

Swedish Astronaut played Chess from Space

The leading Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter covered a chess game between the
astronaut Christer Fuglesang, who was orbiting Earth in the International Space
Station, and the Swedish public. Fuglesang was transported to the ISS by the
space shuttle Discovery, which blazed into orbit on August 28 with seven astronauts
on board. He returned to Earth on September 11 (Flight Day 15) at Edwards Air Force
Base, California.

Dagens Nyheter covered the game "move by move" in the printed version
of the newspaper. Chess moderators picked out three different moves that the
public, playing black, were able to choose from by voting online. The move that
got the most votes is sent out to space. Two unique prizes awaited Christer
Fuglesang and one lucky reader when the chess game was over. Five World Chess
Champions has signed two chess games on Dagens Nyheter's behalf.

The Fritz 11 and Rybka programs were signed by Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov,
Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Spassky and Viswanathan Anand. One prize, Rybka, was
for Christer Fuglesang and one for a reader who was raffled in a dedicated chess
quiz launched on DN.se. There is a video of the prize-giving.

Watch
the video (in Swedish) here

Christer says that he very much enjoyed the match and that he is glad that
it had so much publicity via Dagens Nyheter. He also says that he felt okay
with his game, as long as he was on earth. At the time he had more time to think
about his moves and work on the positions. When he was in space he was otherwise
occupied and didn’t have so much time for chess. He had to make quick
decisions. After the first blunder (he doesn’t mention when) he felt that
the game went out of control.

Fuglesang,Christer - Dagens Nyheter readers [D23]
ISS-Sweden Zurich, 20.08.2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.h3 Bh5 7.0-0 Be7 8.Nc3
0-0 9.g4 Bg6 10.Ne5 Nbd7 11.Nxg6 fxg6 12.Bxe6+ Kh8 13.f3 Nb6 14.Qb3 c6 15.Ne2
Nfd5 16.e4 Nc7 17.Be3 Nxe6 18.Qxe6 Bd6 19.Qb3 Qe7 20.Qd3 Rae8 21.Nc3 Qh4 22.Qe2
Nc4 23.Bf2 Qxh3 24.Be1 Ne3 25.Rf2 Qg3+ 26.Rg2 Qxf3 27.Qxf3 Rxf3 28.e5

Black (the readers) was a pawn up and had brought tremendous pressure to bear
on White's king. With his last move the astronaut has set a little trap: capturing
the rook on g2 with the knight would have lead to a recapture by the king and
a double attack on the black rook and bishop. So the latter had to retreat.
28...Bc7

29.Rg3? Rf1+ 30.Kh2 Nc2 0-1. [Click
to replay]

• Dagens
  Nyheter chess game page (Swedish)

Fuglesang shows off the prize with the signatures which he has received

The student Anna Tylleskär won the reader’s prize. She says that
she became interested in chess after continuously loosing against a school friend.
Wanting to beat her friend she joined a club, got better, and started winning.

Christer shows us the Velcro board he had on the ISS. It was necessary to
use it in order to avoid chessmen flying around the space station. The position
on the board is the final one in the game, when he resigned.

The student and the chess playing astronaut with their prizes

There was a brief exchange between the World Champion Vishy Anand and Fuglesang,
before the latter had received his prize. Anand wrote:

Dear Christer,

Wish you a safe return on Thursday (or Friday). I'll be watching on the news
casts. I am following your game with interest. You seem to be in a spot of
trouble. Need some help and advice? I don't know if you can save it, but you
can give them a fight.

Regards
Viswanathan Anand

P.S. You have a REALLY cool job. Maybe we can trade places some
day...

To which the astronaut replied:

Dear Anand,

Thanks for your nice greeting. I guess I could have made good use of your
help earlier, but now it is too late (smiley). I think I put more emphasis
on the job in space than the game, but I anyhow enjoyed both very much. It
is an honor to get greetings from world champions and I have seen the great,
signed prize waiting for me (although I lost). BTW, I was in India last year
with my wife and son and we also stayed in Chennai a couple of days. We very
much enjoyed it!

Best greetings
Christer

The International Space Station as seen from the approaching Space Shuttle

Christer Fuglesang, STS-128 mission specialist, is pictured floating freely
in the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), temporarily attached
to the International Space Station while Space Shuttle Discovery remains docked
with the station.

Astronaut Fuglesang on extravehicular activity (EVA or "space walk")

Backdropped by New Zealand and Cook Strait in the Pacific Ocean, astronaut Robert
L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang
participate in the first EVAs.

Christer Fuglesang on the mission's third and final EVA session

During the seven-hour spacewalk, Fuglesang and NASA astronaut John "Danny"
Olivas deployed the Payload Attachment System (PAS), replaced the Rate Gyro
Assembly #2, installed two GPS antennae and did some work to prepare for the
installation of Node 3 next year. During connection of one of two sets of avionics
cables for Node 3, one of the connectors could not be mated. This cable and
connector were wrapped in a protective sleeve and saved. All other cables were
mated successfully.

• Preflight
  interview with Christer Fuglesang
• Video:
  The STS-128 crew conducts operations aboard space shuttle Discovery
• Video:
  The STS-128 crew is greeted by the Expedition 20 crew aboard the ISS
• Video:
  The STS-128 and Expedition 20 crews transfer and install the Minus Eighty-Degree
  Laboratory Freezer-2 on the International Space Station
• Video:
  Astronauts Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang prepare space suits for EVA3
• Video:STS-128
  mission specialists Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang reconfigure spacesuits
  aboard the International Space Station

Previous ChessBase reports

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22.10.2009
– After returning safely to Earth from the 128th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program, during which he had played a game of chess against the readers of a Swedish newspaper, astronaut Christer Fuglesang was [...]

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20.10.2009
– It used to be known as the Essent Tournament, but the 13th edition of this
chess festival has a new sponsor, the Dutch insurance
company Univé. There are a number of sections, including a strong
international Open. Of greatest interest is the Crown Group, a four-player
double round robin, with Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergei Tiviakov, Judit Polgar and
15-year-old Anish Giri. Round two report.

The 13th Univé Tournament 2009 is taking place from October 16th to
24th in the town hall in the center of the Dutch town of Hoogeveen. It is played
in a number of sections: the Crown Group with four players, the strong international
Univé Open, two tournaments for amateurs and a youth event. The insurance
company Univé is the new sponsor of the event, which was previously
known as the Essent Tournament. The prize fund for the for the Crown Group is
€10,000, the time control 40 moves in 1½ hours + 30 minutes to finish
the game, with a 30 seconds increment from the start.

Participants of the Crown Group

Player
Country

Rating

Vassily Ivanchuk
Ukraine

2746

Sergei Tiviakov
Netherlands

2697

Judit Polgar
Hungary

2693

Anish Giri
Netherlands

2517

  Average rating 2663 – Category: 17

Anish Giri, 14, grandmaster and Dutch Champion

All four games of the first two rounds in the Crown Group were drawn, which
was mainly a success for 15-year-old GM Anish Giri, who was playing 161 points
above his nominal 2552 rating. The second round had the more exciting games:
a hard-fought 52-move draw between Giri and Sergei Tiviakov, and an exciting
effort by Judit Polgar, who missed a good chance (46..Qd4!) with the black pieces
against Vassily Ivanchuk, and then tried to eke out a win in a rook and minor
piece ending. The game was drawn in 75 moves.

• Click to
  replay and download the games

Hoogeveen: cascade in the Main Street [photo Willem Jan Kleppe]

The town hall, decorated with flags of the participant during the tournament

Top GM in the Crown Group: Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine

Judit Polgar, the strongest female player in the history of the game

Sergei Tiviakov, who won the Dutch Championship in 2006 and 2007

Anish Giri, of Russian-Nepalese descent, is the reigning Dutch Champion

Photos by Harry Gielen

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

Chessbase.com

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14.10.2009
– It is one of the most famous games in chess history, one which used to be a
part of every player's education back in the book era. It has even found its
way on to a postage stamp. In his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos takes another look at the heavyweight battle between
two all-time greats. Be there at 9 p.m. ET or 3 a.m. CEST.

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

Nowadays, though, there is so much information available to new players –
most of it opening-related – and the old classics are often squeezed out.
Overall, the increased access to information is a very good thing, but there's
a downside too. There's a lot of beauty in many old games, and there's a lot
of instructional value in them too. For one thing, there are plans that strong
players know and take for granted that amateurs may never discover, because
they never see the games that introduced them.

That's the case with the game we'll look at this week, a heavyweight battle
between two all-time greats. Mikhail Botvinnik, world champion from 1948-1957,
1958-1960 and 1960-1963 had White, against Jose Capablanca, the champion from
1921-1927. Capablanca was renowned as one of the great "natural" talents
of all time, someone considered to know chess like a native tongue; Botvinnik,
on the other hand, was the exemplar of hard work, a man who burned the midnight
oil to perfect his abilities and his opening preparation. Overall, the players
broke even against each other for their careers, but on this particular occasion
preparation beat over the board inspiration.

The game was a Nimzo-Indian, and while this game was not the introduction of
White's pawn roller plan, Botvinnik worked it to perfection. He pushed forward
in the center and kingside, while Black grabbed a queenside pawn and tried to
break through over there. The race came down to a single tempo in the end, and
Botvinnik won with the help of a very famous combination.

A postage stamp from the Republic of Central Africa celebrating Mikhail
Botvinnik and one of the most celebrated combinations in chess history.

Botvinnik himself dedicated a good part of his retired life trying to
program a computer to understand chess dynamics and strategy to the extent
that it would find the key move of this combination. He did not succeed.
It is a sobering to discover that today's chess engines – Fritz,
Rybka – find it in a matter of seconds.

For some the game and the combo will be old hat, but for those who haven't
will find both delightful and instructive. And those of you who know this game
well should definitely tune in next week, as we'll cover a game that is a perfect
antithesis to this one. That said, I hope you'll all come this week, too. The
show starts at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday night at 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning. Just
log on, go to the Broadcast room and find Botvinnik-Capablanca under the Games
tab. It's that simple!

Dennis Monokroussos'
Radio ChessBase
lectures begin on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EST, which translates to 02:00h
GMT, 03:00 Paris/Berlin, 13:00h Sydney (on Thursday). Other time zones
can be found at the bottom of this page. You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible
program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download
a free trial client.

You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here.
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:

Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two ducats.
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).

Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007
 

Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and occasionally works as an adjunct professor of philosophy
at the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.

At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten years now, giving lessons
to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of
years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of
the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very
active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas
of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame
(or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present
some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database),
which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess
software.

Chessbase.com

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