Matthew Sadler's short but successful career

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

It's sad that British grandmaster Matthew Sadler is no longer with us. No, don't worry – I don't mean that he has died. It's rather that he's no longer part of the chess world, deciding in his mid-20s (around the turn of the millennium) that he'd prefer a larger and more stable income in IT to the vicissitudes of life as a chess professional. That's a pity, as Sadler was not only an elite GM (near-2700 when that was much rarer than it is today), but also one of the best writers on the game.

We'll commemorate his short but successful career with a short and successful game of his. Played in 1995 against the strong Spanish GM Miguel Illescas Cordoba, the game highlights Sadler's ingenuity in opening preparation. With black in a Queen's Gambit Accepted, Sadler found a major new idea on move seven, with the startling idea to sacrifice a piece a move later. To say that it worked brilliantly would be an understatement – but I'll leave the gory details for the show. Let's put it this way: the show might well last longer than the game did.

I think you'll enjoy it, but see for yourself. It's free if you watch it live, and here's how to do it: log on to the Playchess server Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET/Thursday morning at 3 a.m. CET, go to the Broadcasts Room, and then either double-click on "Initiative" under the list of players or Illescas-Sadler under the Games tab. After that, sit back and enjoy – and don't blink, or you might miss it. See you then.

You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here. And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in the Chess Media System room of Playchess:

Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures. The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and two ducats. That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).

Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007

Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where he teaches chess and occasionally works as an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.

At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach new heights.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten 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.