march 3 2026

For this third session in 2026, the same who attended the second session were present.

To start with, we tackled a big piece in the Rook endgame, which took us quite a bit of time, but it wasn't time wasted. Warming up our brains allowed us to tackle the rest of the session in good spirits and to be able to analyse, among other good things, Birnov's study and the game between Cubans, which had already kept us busy for quite a few years.

This was followed by some fairies celebrations to finish off our brain cells, including one in SAT with Royal Grasshoppers!

Happy reading, everyone, and see you at the end of March or beginning of April.

Master's word

« To stifle any revolt in advance, there is no need to resort to violence. All that is required is to create such powerful collective conditioning that the very idea of revolt no longer enters people's minds. The ideal would be to format individuals from birth by limiting their innate biological abilities. Then education would be drastically reduced to a form of vocational training. Access to knowledge must be made increasingly difficult and elitist, and information intended for the general public must be stripped of any subversive content. Above all, no philosophy. Information and entertainment that always appeal to the emotional or instinctive will be broadcast massively via television. We will occupy people's minds with what is futile and playful. It is good to prevent the mind from thinking with incessant chatter and music. Sexuality will be placed at the forefront of human interests. As a social tranquilliser, there is nothing better. In general, seriousness will be banished from existence, everything of high value will be ridiculed, and a constant apology for frivolity will be maintained, so that the euphoria of advertising becomes the standard of human happiness and the model of freedom. » (A. Huxley in 1939).

If happiness exists It is an artist's challenge  https://youtu.be/cB8kQm-CmHY Thank you, France. But nomen est omen (name is a sign).  

Do you feel "midnight blues" ?    https://youtu.be/6hJNGAOgFF8?list=RD6hJNGAOgFF8      

"Every time I gave someone a job, I ended up with 100 dissatisfied people and one ungrateful one." (Louis XIV, quoted by Guitry).

"Tacticians win battles, strategists win wars." (General P. de Villiers).

"No one knows who he is, because he is no one... In 2017, France elected nothingness, and it fell into it." (E. Zemmour speaking of Macron, 5-12-2021).

Wolves are noble creatures, representing vigilance, protection and strength, saving the life of Joan of Beauvais. It is said that ‘man is sometimes a wolf to man’, which is true. But I reply : the wolf is never a man to the wolf ! Welcome to the one from Pompeii who has come especially for our course.

"Everything I lack in life, I find in chess! Yet this game is like a cruel lover who causes you terrible suffering." (Julia Arias-Lebel).

"It has been said that life is not long enough for chess, but that is the fault of life, not of chess." (credited to I. Chernev and W. Napier).

The Rook endgame does indeed have a distant passed pawn on the queenside, but only two pawns against two on the kingside. Logically, therefore, it will be easier than the one on 7 October. Really? Brilliant analysis (despite a single omission) by white player, which makes a change from the mediocrity of a world champion in the last lesson.

Note that, for the same price, you get another study-endgame, also well played and well analysed. In addition, there is a curious dialogue between the two Kings, with White trying to escape Black (right-left, left-right), coupled with a phenomenon of undermining, counter-undermining and re-undermining (see 54...g6!). . And also, as you may have guessed, a superb ZZ and a case of the middle ground (on move 71).

Rest with 4 pawns, which strongly reminds us of the 4th example in this lesson  https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2004/october-12-2004.html  With, as expected, a considerable number of ZZs.

Then a strange conquest of the Black Rook (anticipated by the great ‘woodcutter’ of Chess) with a highly original manoeuvre on the 7th-11th moves. Finally, a spectacular Romanian battle, shorter than one might imagine but very intense.

For April: a lesson on R+Pf+Ph / R where the ‘safety distance’ is no longer immutable. With a small, unpublished composition based on a ZZ. Then one of the best studies of the 21st century. Finally, a well-deserved rest improving on an idea from 1930.

A crazy Cuban game, but we've seen crazier since then... First shown 35 years ago, it still holds up! A wealth of brilliant ideas that defy the material (appreciate a plethora of ‘minor’ piece model mates). The fact that the player who ‘makes the game’ ultimately lets go is just an avatar: the two players created the study, or rather the set of studies, in collaboration.

Training: among the 2#, the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 10th will require a little more effort, but a few others have a surprising key. A coveted c2 pawn in the first 3#, a Rook cross in the second, a tempting try in the third. We'll leave you with the solution to 4#: enjoy these back-and-forths. The same goes for the tireless Knight from our multi-move specialist.

Triple echo and echo-chameleon in the Finnish helpmates. The three ‘Abdu’ problems are a festival of politeness: long but easy, with three similar mates. Let's finish with three selfmates; I forgot to remove the solution from the last two.

"A key reason behind Andy's [Woodward] strength lies in the way he trained from a young age. He has spoken about how solving puzzles and, more importantly, endgame studies played a major role in shaping his understanding of chess". He has something in common with our junior world champion Anna, sharing two letters of her first name. At 15 years old, he has an Elo rating of 2608 and won the Wijk Challengers tournament. He certainly wouldn't be where he is today if he had listened to the idiotic ‘educators’ in France, EE, FE and elsewhere.

Less encouraging news: former world number three Jan Timman has left us. I have recounted here   https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2020/june-23-2020.html My first encounter with him was in 1971 on Rue Vivienne. When he returned the diagram to me, I said, ‘Of course you solved it,’ and he simply smiled in response. As the ‘poor man's Nostradamus,’ I then prophesied: he will go far! See also  https://www.france-echecs.com/article.php?art=20120816201337312   

Having retired from playing, he did not ‘resume his studies’ as an ignorant person wrote in the style of EE magazine, but rather began composing studies, and at a very high level at that. We will miss him as a composer as much as we will miss him as a player. God hebbe zijn ziel.

More cheerful news: our muse Anna, double world champion (games and problems, see lessons of 5 March 2024 and 8 April 2025), is back at the Cannes tournament. And with success: victory in the sixth round against a 2500; in the seventh, she checkmates a 2550: ‘a beautiful girl plays beautiful moves’ was her opponent's (imaginary) conclusion. Bravo Anna, поздравления Анне.

Enjoy your meal. Dios bendiga y te proteja. 

Master's diagrams