Marvellous Chess - New Topics This Week

FM Michael Humphreys continues his Marvellous Chess series (#7) this Thursday, May 18 at 7:00 PM with the following topics:

Commonly Overlooked Tactics

The importance of pattern recognition in chess is widely understood and difficult to overstate, but some patterns occur so rarely that even masters will quite reliably overlook them.  In this lesson we'll look at comparatively rare tactics such as the cross-pin, the life-line, sneaky retreating moves, and the unexpected opening of files. 

A Weapon for Black in the Saemisch KID

Having read the previous paragraph, you might wonder: "Do masters really lose regularly to these tactics, or is the author suffering from some form of selection bias?"  By searching through openings which make use of these tactics on the Lichess database, we can gather reliable data on the subject and conclude that the answer is: Yes—more often than not even titled players will overlook these tactical resources.  One particularly noteworthy example occurs in a sideline for black in Panno variation of the Saemisch King's Indian. Over Ten Thousand games in this line have been played on Lichess and black's score is fantastic: they win 53% of games, draw 7% and lose just 40% against an opposition whose average rating is over 2300!  

The Best Games of Leonid Stein

In this lesson we'll look at the games of a master in unexpected tactics. Although not so well known in the western hemisphere, Leonid Stein was unquestionably one of the top players in the world throughout the 1960's and until his untimely death in 1973.  We'll pay tribute to this great player by examining a few of his tactical masterpieces.

The cost to attend this week's class is only $25 ($20 for ACC members).

What a great value!

You can register here for Marvellous Chess.