january 27 2009
For once the Saint-Lazare railway workers have been heard, the strike will only take place on Thursday and not on Tuesday as had become customary.
For this 3rd session of January (what a health!) while waiting for the 1st one of February next week (!!), an affluence of faithful was present.
With their brains a little numb from the temperature and not quite cleared by the solution competition, the listeners did what they could, sometimes slowly.
The Master concocted the electronic version that you will find at the end of this email (thanks to him).
To warm up, a little study that will please the players
1. White to play and win
W.: Kf8, Td6 and g5, pf5
B.: Kh7, Qe5, pg6
Only two helpmate for Daniel, one of which was in honour of the wedding, a few years ago, of the current world solving champion (whose site "successful solving" I recommend). One solution is easy but the other... could have lead to 
divorce.
The whole (except for a trivial 2#) of the international solutions tournament of the day before yesterday, a traditional winter meeting. Both studies were correct, which is quite rare; the second one's scale was perfectible. Pospisil's 3# is very beautiful, and hardly obvious. The two helpmates also tortured many.
Two heavy piece fights by the same author, one with a far point. A curious example of "retreat for better jumping" in a tournament game, which embarrassed the audience far beyond the speaker's expectations. Then a Knight vs. two pawns fight with two twin variants... without a twin. Finally, a reminder of the classic D. Joseph in whose honour Breider's study was composed, although it rather evokes Grigoriev and Chekhover.
Two Knights against six pawns! Or two Rooks against Bishop and six pawns. These were the themes of the day's incredible game, which was particularly difficult even for scholars to recognise.
See you next Tuesday 3 February. Enjoy the game.
AV
There are a few stalemates lying around.
The next one is a little gem.
2. White to play and win
W.: Kb1, Ra8, Be7, pa6 and a7
B.: Ke1, Re6 and f7, pb7
Beautiful and with few resources.
Now, to get out of the routine, a position where it has just been played ..... Qxh2+ Kf1 is a wild position.
3. Black to play and win
W.: Kf1, Qe4, Ra1 and d1, Bc1 and d5, Nc5, pa3, b2, d4, f3 and g2
B.: Kg8, Qh2, Rc6 and h6, Bc7 and e6, pe3, f4, g7 and h7
The listeners were left hanging for a while and a stroke of genius from Eric allowed them to move on.
A study full of lessons to finish the section on positions to dig into before the game
4. White to play and draw
W.: Kb7, Nc7 and f8
B.: Ka1, pc3, g5 and h5
The day's game is a fine example of delirium pushed to the limit by the lack of time.
And yet it all begins quietly.
5. game of the day
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Be7 4. cd ed , 5. Bf4 c6 6. e3 Bf5 7. h3 Nf6 8. g4 Be6 9. Bd3 Nbd7 (9. ... c5 can be played) 10. Nf3 Nb6 11. Qc2 g6 12. Bh6 Nc4 13. Bxc4 (10. 0-0-0 b5) dc 11. e4 Qa5 15. a3 0-0-0 16. 0-0-0 Ne8 17. Bd2 Qa6 18. Bf4 (to attack a comming Nc7) Nc7 19. Rhe1 Bd6 (the threat 20.d5 being current, 19.... Rhe8 is tempting but comes up against 20.Bxc7 Kxc7 21. d5 ed 22. ed followed by 23. Re4 with idea Rxc4 but the best is h5 20. gh Rxh5 21. d5 Rxh3 22. Ng1 (found by Daniel) 20. Bg5 Rde8 21. Bf6 Rhg8 (or f8, it's not a problem, the game sheet was probably unreadable !) 22. Ne5 Kb8 25. f4 Bc8 24. Ne2 Re6 25. Bh4 Bxa3 (it is necessary to wake up the position otherwise Black dies suffocated) 26. ba Qxa3+ 27. Kd2 Nb5 28. Nxc4 Qxh3 29. e5 Nxd4 30. Qd3 Rd8 31. Nxd4 c5 and here the players fell into a deep zeitnot, as did the greffier, so you will only get the ending in the electronic version. White eventually won this position by fluttering the pieces with the flag horizontal.
then at the table we tackled restoration chess
6. hs#6,5 Restoration chess
helped selfmate : white plays and helps his opponent to produce a position where he is obliged to checkmate him in 1 move
with the .5 the move is black's
restoration chess : King promotion is allowed
W.: Qa3, Ra1, Bb8, pa2
B.: Bb7 and g1, ph7
Who better than a Sicilian to introduce the parrain Circe (maybe Brando)?
The 2 following problems are by (Don) Vito Rallo
7 - h#3,5 parrain Circe 2 solutions
helpmate black plays and helps white to checkmate them
with the .5 it is white who start
W.: Kc2, Nc3, pc4
B.: Ke5, Be6, Ne4
8 - h#4 parrain Circe 2 solutions
W.: Kd2, Nf7, pd3
B.: Ke6, Bf6, Nd4
See you next week.
Good reading to all.
Sincerely yours
Le greffier
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