Monokroussos on Lilienthal vs Ragozin
Posted in ChessBase on Окт 21, 2009
21.10.2009
– Viacheslav Ragozin, who passed away in 1962, was one of the trainers of Mikhail
Botvinnik. He became famous for blowing smoke into the legendary World Champion's
face in order to steel the non-smoker for opponents who did the same. In his
Wednesday night lecture Dennis
Monokroussos shows us Ragozin at his best against Andor Lilienthal. Be there at 9 p.m. ET or 3 a.m. CEST.
Dennis Monokroussos writes:
Last week, we took a look at the famous Mikhail Botvinnik-Jose Capablanca game
from AVRO 1938. That game is famous not only because of the concluding combination
starting with 30.Ba3, but for Botvinnik's powerful strategy. The "pawn
roller" he used to push through the center and create a kingside attack
is not unique to that game, but has been used many times over the generations
to steamroll helpless opponents in the Nimzo-Indian and certain Exchange Queen's
Gambit lines. It is a very simple but powerful plan.
But despite this, it's not unstoppable and not an automatic win. This week,
we'll have a look at a 1935 game between Andor Lilienthal (the world's oldest
living grandmaster – he's 98!) and Viacheslav Ragozin (also a grandmaster,
but no longer with us, having passed away in 1962). Ragozin, ironically one
of Botvinnik's sometime trainers, perhaps best-known for the following story:
Botvinnik, as a non-smoker, had a difficult time when his opponents smoked at
the board. So he set up some training games with Ragozin where the latter not
only smoked, but blew the smoke in Botvinnik's face as well. (Now that's training!)
Anyway, in the game against Lilienthal Ragozin demonstrated Black's defensive
resources in this poorly known gem. It required patience, and for quite a while
all he did was prevent Lilienthal from achieving the e4 break. Finally, when
it seemed as if it would finally happen, a timely exchange sacrifice reversed
the initiative, and now it was White's turn to defend. He didn't manage to do
so, however, and Ragozin finished the game in style.
Just like last week's game, the game was a battle between opposing strategies,
and the triumphant strategy was crowned with accurate tactical play. In short,
both were complete games with both instructional and aesthetic value.
To watch, go to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday night (= 3 a.m.
CET Thursday morning), enter the Broadcast room and find Lilienthal-Ragozin
in the games list. Note: Only premium members can watch for free; other viewers
will have to pay 50 ducats (about five euros). ChessBase will make further announcements
about premium memberships soon, but at the moment premium members are those
with an activated copy of Fritz 12.
Dennis Monokroussos'
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 .
You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are .
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 .
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.
