The Mysterious Minority Attack

Dennis Monokroussos writes: "On a number of occasions the past few months, I have alluded to something mysterious called the minority attack. Over the next two weeks, the mystery will be dissipated, as we first discuss how it works and see its successful operation, while next week we will take a gander at some of the defender’s typical resources.

This week, we will see a minority attack success story. After a little historical background on the attack itself and a precise definition (briefly, a minority attack generally occurs in the so-called Karlsbad pawn structure and involves the side with fewer pawns (a minority) on a given wing advancing one or more pawns so that, by means of a judicious pawn exchange, the opponent’s majority will be left with one or more weak pawns), we’ll look at a model game from one of the all-time greats of American chess, the legendary Sammy Reshevsky. Playing White against Miagmasuren (probably best known, unfortunately for him, for a famous and beautiful loss to Fischer from the same event) in the first round of the 1967 Sousse Interzonal, Reshevsky maximizes his opportunities while simultaneously putting the clamps on his opponent’s attempt at counterplay. Both aspects of his performance are essential, and Reshevsky will show us how it’s done. Tune in – enjoy!"

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.

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