Yelena Dembo's Blog

An “easy, but nice” example

yelenadembo — Sat, 12 May 2012 04:32:17 +0000

While teaching one of my students yesterday we came across an example which was simple, yet nice. You can apply a “Dembo-rule” – “I would like…” from my first middlegame book to find it quickly! If something looks interesting in the position, always look for what you would like to do and try to make it work!

It is Black to move.

My dad’s attacks and sacrifices – Part II

yelenadembo — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:06:27 +0000

This is the second part of my dad’s attacking games and sacrifices, studying which will help you to implement them in your own games

Starting a new theme

yelenadembo — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:50:42 +0000

Today I want to start a new theme! And it will be, I hope, both interesting and useful for many not so strong players. When I was 5-6 years old, my dad (my trainer all my life) taught me: “Lenochka! You must play blitz games! It is very useful! And you need to play them very bravely, very brightly, very quickly! You must be able to quickly play the opening (and to do this you need to know the openings!), you need to know what to do in the middlegame (and to know it you must study them seriously), you need to work on endgame technique. But most importantly, you need to learn to sacrifice in these games (and to do this, you need to calculate variations very quickly and to be ready every move to give pieces and pawns to create an attack or checkmate). Playing blitz exactly in this way, you will definitely learn to play colourfully, giftedly, actively. In general, we will look especially for such opponents who will help you to master all this!
And so, my dad – chess trainer, pianist, writer, phychologist, is already 62 years old . But in his spare minutes he gladly plays blitz games online, and only 2 (!!) minute per game. He says, that it is a great means against getting old! and I want to show you some fragments from his games. I like them! These is not only great study material. These is nice study material . I wish you to enjoy them and use in your games too!

Training Summer Camp on Andros Island

yelenadembo — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:24:49 +0000

I will be hosting a training camp (individual, possibly pair or even group lessons) on Andros Island this summer. Andros Island is just two hours by ferry from Athens. Those who want to participate in the camp (or ask about it) are welcome to e-mail me at yelena@yelenadembo.com . Students will be staying at Krinos Suites Hotel (Alexandra Logotheti – my sister-in-law is the owner and manager of Krinos) or nearby and will usually be studying around 4-5 hours a day (or less/more if they wish!). The beach is 50 meters away from the hotel, and there are lots of other activities available! You are welcome to view the photo gallery of the hotel and Andros Island here.

An example of how to think & evaluate the position correctly (also taken from my first book “The Very Unusual Book About Chess”)

yelenadembo — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 08:28:57 +0000

This game is from my own practice. The game was played back in 2000 and (I believe) is not only a slightly wild and interesting game but more importantly is a good example of how to think and evaluate the position correctly. Many people, including my students who have just started taking lessons often ask me how to do it. The answer is in this game!

Game of the day (an example from my first book – “The Very Unusual Book About Chess”

yelenadembo — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:33:58 +0000

We learn from Anatoly Karpov

yelenadembo — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:20:42 +0000

WE LEARN FROM ANATOLY KARPOV

The 12th World champion Anatoly Karpov has no as well-known students as Kasparov was in Botvinnik’s chess-school and Yussupov in chess-school of Dvoretsky. First of all he is a chess-player. Preferring to create works of art but not “to make Grandmasters” he is a great practical worker in chess. Why? Each person has his own mission!
But any genuine work of art (it makes no difference if it is music of Mozart, pictures of impressionists or games of best chess-players) can be considered in two aspects:
1) you can admire and enjoy it,
2) you can learn to use it.
Today we’ll see one of the most interesting moments of Karpov’s games – his interpretation of the theme “Opposite color Bishops with Rooks”. I don’t want to press on anybody but I am sure that Karpov is one of the best specialists in this subject. And therefore just now we all are students of Karpov in this matter.

Conclusions

So how to win positions with opposite color Bishops and Rooks?
Necessary condition: our last minor piece (Bishop) has to be better than its opponent. But what does it mean: a better Bishop?
It is a Bishop, which:
a) attacks a King of a rival better than its opposite color colleague one and creates threats of mate without counteract of a rival’s Bishop (!); as a particular case it is possible to notice an active participation of King and pawns in making checkmate positions;
b) attacks weaknesses;
c) captures important squares.
By the way, very often a pair of Bishops leads to good for one side opposite color Bishops. Let’s remember one of the well-known phrases of not less well-known Grandmaster E. Gufeld:”What is there a pair of Bishops for? To exchange one of them in right moment with advantage!”
As a summary of above-stated it is possible to say that good for you opposite color Bishop is a result of an art of piece exchange; it is a very interesting and global theme. And it would be good to return to it later!

Analysis, thoughts, etc

yelenadembo — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:35:47 +0000

So, the holidays are over and it is time to analyse the events, successes and failures of last year Understanding what you did well or not so well will help you to play and think better in the future. For me, the whole 2011 was very pleasant, so the difficulties I was having in the very last event of the year – the women’s world team championship in Mardin, couldn’t spoil anything After all, I had to play against the likes of the current World Champion Hou Yifan, 2nd player in the world – Koneru and many other very strong GMs. Here is a small selection of annotated games from the last two events of mine – the Mind Sports Games (Beijing) and Women’s World Team Championship (Mardin, Turkey).

Hopefully we will all learn from our mistakes and play better this year! Good luck!

Happy New Year!

yelenadembo — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:58:02 +0000

Wish you and your family a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Morning exercise

yelenadembo — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:41:26 +0000

White to move and win