Defense And Prophylaxis
Defense wins championships! The old cliche may not always apply to chess, but great defenders have certainly made a name for themselves. Tigran Petrosian and Vladimir Krammnik knew one thing for sure, if your opponent keeps crashing into a brick wall, eventually they'll break. In our next series, explore the art of defense and prophylaxis.
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Defense & Prophylaxis: Opposite Colored Bishops 1 With his new video series, GM Sam Shankland intends to turn all of our members into great defenders! In this first, highly instructive position, Shanky breaks down the "steps of defense" with both practical and concrete principals. He talks about the importance of establishing what your opponent is threatening and then finding the "weak link" that you can actually prevent! You must watch this video if you consider yourself an ambitious chess player!
Defense & Prophylaxis: Opposite Colored Bishops 2 Shankland continues his new video series on how to develop defensive plans with another opposite-color bishop ending. He breaks down the difficulties one might face when trying to prevent the opponent's goals, and he offers step-by-step advice to improve your critical thinking skills! He provides an advance example that even stumped fellow Chess.com Video Author GM Josh Friedel in a real game...
Defense & Prophylaxis: Opposite Colored Bishops 3 Shankland provides his next defensive planning and prophylactic thinking video today. It's his last on the subject of opposite-color bishop endings to illustrate his critical thinking points. Once again, there is much to learn about how to prevent your opponent from achieving their goals. This time, Black's task is much harder because one can't simply sacrifice the bishop for the pawns.
Defense & Prophylaxis 4: Sharp King's Indian! With the fourth installment in his new video series on defense and prophylactic thinking, Shankland reviews a loss he had when he was a lowly IM. In this sharp King's Indian, despite outplaying his opponent, Sam underestimates and doesn't take into account all of his opponent's attacking resources (mainly, the brilliant ...Nc6). Learn from Sam's mistake and improve your defense!
Defense & Prophylaxis 5: A Practical Endgame! Sam acknowledges breaking a promise with his latest video lecture on the concepts of defense, but we would have all missed out had he not! After claiming to have wrapped up the ideas of defense (both concrete and practical) surrounding Opposite Colored Bishop positions, GM Shankland played a highly instructive game against IM Yankovsky at the California State Championship that simply had to be included in this video series.
Defense & Prophylaxis 6: Carlsen's Tenacity! When the best in the world actually has to play defense, he does it pretty well! In the game McShane vs Carlsen from the 2011 London Classic, the "world's greatest amateur" had the world number-one on the ropes, but when Magnus puts on a defensive clinic (clearly recognizing White's plan as well as which pieces to exchange and when/how to exchange them) the young Englishman is unable to crackBblack's blockade. Enjoy Shankland's review and take more notes on how to play defense!
Defense & Prophylaxis 7: Leko vs. Caruana! In his next installment, Shankland observes some stellar defense by GM Fabiano Caruana against Shanky's former opponent on the "big stage," GM Peter Leko. In this Poisoned-Pawn-esque French position, Black finds himself in trouble, but swindles his way out of trouble to hold the draw. Enjoy!
Defense & Prophylaxis 8: Stay Put and Hold! When he finds himself on the worse end of an opposite-color bishop ending, Shankland must make a critical decision: either try to improve his defensive setup before his opponent increases the pressure or just stay put. This difficult decision has plagued chess players on the defensive since the beginning of time. The game Sokolov vs Shankland from the World Open was no exception...
