january 20 2004

Welcome to the "workers' paradise" that the striking saboteurs, once again united against the St-Lazare lesson, have succeeded in establishing in our country.

As Audiard used to say, we are at a time of heartbreaking revisions and the incredible :

-- Anand starts to play well in the endgames (see 53 Ra7+!! against Shirov)

-- Fressinet starts playing well in the endgames (against Lobron & Tiviakov)

-- Adams is neither... nor...; he is Welsh and has an Irish fiancée; I am joining his fan club tomorrow.

Small Estonian festival: struggling with one quality less, the whites use a trick to get the zugzwang on the right side. Then, it's a Rook against Queen, and even a little later against Queen and

Knight. But the surplus of material is, as it were, paralysed. At last, an abandon in a draw endgame, a common phenomenon, because many players, and not the least, continue to underestimate the extraordinary richness of Chess in general, and of the endgames in particular. The defence consisted in placing a Knight in an unusual way.

Another good example, in the register of the unbelievable: the game of the day, whose winner qualified for a world championship match. Tired of... He is still waiting for his match, because of the shenanigans (usual since 1984) of the "13th world champion". Which fortunately is no longer the case.

Excellent reading.