june 2 2026

The students braved the heatwave to attend the Master’s lesson, which began with a pawn endgame to get the brain warmed up.

The rest of the session was devoted to marking the other exercises, including a very tricky rook endgame.

For the game of the day, we took a big leap back in time with a fine battle of heavy pieces.

The end of the lesson was fairy-tale-like, as it should be, with some beautiful compositions, including one by Bogdanov, for which we were expecting a twin!

The next session is scheduled for 27 June.

Happy reading to all.

Master's word

"It's written and filled with devotion from deep in my heart and with my teenage sonata
comes a prayer that we'll never part" (Sam Cooke).    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKaaP9qh6k 

https://youtu.be/4TPIjzEmyt0?si=buNBrYgpA1aMDMcw   Still missing you, California blue.

We are entering the resolution championship period. Allow me to introduce you to two future female stars. Note that they are using the portable game that brought me luck during my 8 world championships and 4 European championships. Let's hope it will be the same for them.

« Nothing could be worse than the fate of tomorrow’s man, as a satanic conspiracy is already at work today to fashion him before our very eyes. His mental and emotional degeneration would be complete. Just look at what we are already witnessing. No more romance novels: the sexuality of dogs. No more modesty: the soul is located in the lower abdomen. No more courage: the nonviolence of cowards. No more art: go visit the Museum of Modern Art in Paris these days, and you’ll see for yourself. No more family: temporary couplings. No more children: abortion is freely available and reimbursed by the state. No more race: distinguishing a Yellow from a Black is discrimination punishable by law. No more responsibility: the thief feels no remorse and the police officer is always wrong. No more God: either we no longer speak of Him; or we are told that He accepts everything and that we need not worry about Him. Not even national identity anymore: the legal authorities of our country spend millions to persuade us to sign the document by which we renounce this identity. The “end of history” will indeed be the end of the “last man,” for what remains of him will no longer have a name in any language, and indeed our language is already disappearing. Writing is giving way to pictographic signs, and French is now nothing more than a pidgin like the gibberish spoken in the 19th century by the inhabitants of the Levant coast.» (François Léger, 5-9-1992).

Following a 34-year-old text, here is one from 22 years ago: « The U.S. is living beyond its means and at the expense of the rest of the world: speculators are running rampant in the markets; military technology allows for the destruction of populations and infrastructure, and for setting their history back by several centuries, through a “zero-casualty” war (on the American side, of course)—that is, waged with technical means far out of proportion to the enemy’s capacity to retaliate: it is the machine gun against the spear, as in the colonial wars of the last century; in Israel, which has become a mini-Chicago, it is the invasion of Palestine by forty-ton tanks against rifles and slingshots, a sign of the moral decadence of a world where the notion of “honor” has completely vanished.» (R. Garaudy in 2004, “Western Terrorism,” p. 34).  

"When someone is silent, you can only hear them" (R. Devos).

"To die, when you have no imagination, is nothing." When you have it, it's too much" (R. Nimier at the funeral of L.-F. Céline, 1961).

"Journalism is a profession where you spend half your life talking about what you don't know and the other half keeping quiet about what you do know" (H. Béraud).

"Death? A lack of manners" (P. Dac).

"Life is a game of chess." By playing this game, we acquire insight, sharpness, caution, and... the ability not to be discouraged by the current appearance of a poor state of our affairs" (B. Franklin).

"Yes, I am a communist, in the manner of the first communist on earth, Jesus Christ!" (M. Botvinnik shortly before his death).

"Chess is a sea in which a gnat can bathe and an elephant drown" (Indian proverb).

"A drama whose intellectual quality truly surpasses its aesthetic quality" (H. Grasemann, delightfully describing an almost unplayable problem).

A surprising pawn endgame, in which Black devises a brilliant defence but does not dare to see it through to the end. Featuring numerous and surprising ZZ moves. And a curious instance of a mirror minority attack. Let us note that the truth of the 55th move was discovered late.  Just one mistake in the game, but more from the commentators!   

A discovery in a rook endgame by a great player, who is also a student and problemist. Life isn’t always simple with R+P/R+2P when one of the pawns has a clear path to the other side ("passed", as they say). See the first two endgames in these two lessons: https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2019/29-octobre-2019.html  et  https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2020/10-mars-2020.html and exercise 282 from a famous book. A case of "middle ground," a finesse on the "safety distance," then a foreground and a plan, just like in a real problem. And we relive the paradoxical case where the defensive Rook is better in front of the pawn than behind it.

Two lighter studies in which White is threatened with checkmate but manages to turn the tables. For the last lesson before the summer, a large number of easier exercises, a taste of the holidays.

The game of the day is historic. Black has the advantage, then the position is equal, and finally Black makes a mistake. It was annotated by many great players, including the worst annotator in history. As always, a few mini-studies. The move e4-e5! sometimes plays a major role, notably on moves 39 and 43. On move 54, the correct pawn move and the wrong one depend on the position of the white king. See also moves 36 and 47.

Training: of the 2#s, the 2, 4, 5, 10 & 12 are a bit trickier. A tribute to Klaus Wenda, who has also left us. RIP. Many of his fairy compositions have already been featured; let’s be a bit more orthodox. Finally, a quick hello to the great Petkov, whom I might have met at Messigny in 2003 had it not been for the incompetence of the French railway staff.

Bloopers. I read this nonsense on the internet: “Tal displayed extraordinary creativity between 1958 and 1960, then gradually dried up apart from a few flashes of brilliance.” Let us point out to this ignoramus how this “drying up” manifests itself, against Portisch 1964 & 65 (matches on 28 May 2024, 29 October 2024 & 7 January 2025), Larsen 1965 (28 February 2023) and the hippopotamus 1965 (6 May 2025).

To cheer us up, a warm welcome to a new reader of our course, Matilda Vlajčević, Croatian junior champion. Najveći uspjesi! 

Enjoy your meal. See you in a few weeks if Deus vult.