Chess: Meeting the King’s Indian – with Petrosian

Chessbase News, Germany
June 14 2004

Meeting the King’s Indian – with Petrosian

13.06.2004 To commemorate the 75th birthday of the late world
champion Tigran Petrosian our Internet trainer Dennis Monokroussos
will look at his distinctive way of meeting the King’s Indian
Defense. Join him on Monday night, especially if you would like to
add a new anti-King’s Indian weapon to your repertoire. Catch it on
the Playchess server.

Dennis Monokroussos writes: “This Thursday, Tigran Petrosian, the 9th
World Chess Champion, would have been 75. In Armenia, his home
country, a match between those with a connection to Armenia or
Petrosian against a Rest of the World team is taking place to
commemorate the occasion, and we’ll use this week’s show to
commemorate it in our own way. In particular, we’ll look at his
distinctive way of meeting the King’s Indian Defense and some of its
most notable successes over the years (its victims include Fischer
and Kasparov!). So please join us tonight, especially if you would
like to add a new anti-King’s Indian weapon to your repertoire, as
well as to take a look at one of the great geniuses of positional
chess of all time.”

Dennis Monokroussos is 37, lives in South Bend, IN (the site of the
University of Notre Dame), and is writing a Ph.D. dissertation in
philosophy (in the philosophy of mind) while adjuncting at the
University.

He is fairly inactive as a player right now, spending most of his
non-philosophy time being a husband and teaching chess. At one time
he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S., but quit for about
eight years starting in his early 20s. His highest rating was 2434
USCF, but he has now fallen to the low-mid 2300s – “too much blitz,
too little tournament chess”, he says.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for seven 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.

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