Description
This Rustam Kasimdzhanov DVD removes the veil of mystery, on the position arising after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6. There are 14 lectures covering over three hours of material which includes an introduction, a lecture on theoretical considerations, and then a number of interesting games that put into practice the ideas learned in the theoretical lectures. At the end of the DVD, there is a five minute lecture, which is all the knowledge neatly structured as Kasimdzhanov describes it. This summary material is quite useful, and can be viewed first instead of last as it provides a framework which keeps the viewer from losing the forest for the trees. As Kasimdzhanov explains, this is a classical French position so in order to understand what the players are doing in the practical games one should learn the ideas for both sides in this position. For example, the knight on d4 dominates the position and cant be easily attacked. Black will likely get a difficult ending, but with other minor pieces present Black may have some counterplay such as a breakthrough with g5, trying to undermine the pawn on e5. There are games from well known players such as Grischuk, Leko, Kasparov, Short, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Shirov and others, as well as an instructive old game played by Sultan Khan and Tartakower. Their endgame is a prime example of how to exploit small weaknesses in what may seem to be a drawn position, and there is some instructive material dealing with the recurring French motif of good knight vs bad bishop. Video running time 3 hours and 17 minutes. System Requirements: Disc drive, Windows 7 or higher.
