march 31 23026
This fourth session of 2026 saw the same regulars as the previous session attending the Master’s homily.
The start of the lesson was devoted to an important chapter on Rook endgames, as it deals with countering the f- and h-pawns (or a- and c-pawns), and that’s no walk in the park! There are plenty of subtleties in the variations, with, of course, the Master’s guidance.
The end of the exercise correction went a little faster than this chapter.
The game of the day between two young players who are now in the veterans’ category was quite lively and reached an exceptional position which Black failed to capitalise on; such a pity!
Naturally, a few fairy compositions brought the session to a close, including, amongst others, a new position in SAT featuring Royal Grasshoppers!
Happy reading to all, and see you on 26 April
Master's word
Oh, well! I’ve waited 40 years for Cathy to say ‘my only master’ to me, rather than to that idiot Heathcliff. I’ve hardly any illusions left. https://youtu.be/o18uc4kVhTU
Midnight blues again : https://youtu.be/AWB2alXccWg
‘Liberty, equality, fraternity or death were all the rage during the Revolution. Liberty ended up covering France in prisons, equality led to a proliferation of titles and decorations, fraternity divided us; only death succeeded’ (L. de Bonald).
We are constantly being fed the nonsense of ‘long live the republic’ (the “ripoublique”, power exercised by the financial oligarchies). A brief summary:
-- the motto ‘liberty-equality’ is a logical non-sequitur, as Solzhenitsyn and... Spassky explained, not to mention the irrelevant ‘fraternity’.
-- on the subject of “fraternity”, let us remember the Vendée genocide.
-- the shameful anthem, “La Marseillaise”, is a call to murder and regicide.
-- Place de la Concorde should be renamed ‘Place of Crime’ following the assassination of the King on 21 January 1793.
‘De Gaulle had only one way of avoiding being labelled a deserter in 1940: to declare one fine morning that the Vichy government was illegal’ (R. Holeindre). A sort of echo of the assassination of the King.
‘Unless you bring Louis XVI and Brasillach back to life’ (J. Anouilh’s reply to M. Genevoix, who had suggested he join the Académie française).
"Can men become women if they ‘feel like women’? Well, gender parity issues are solved: you have 10 men; all it takes is for 5 of them to ‘feel like women’ and that’s it” (J. Messiha).
“You grow old when you no longer make new enemies; their number remains stable” (attributed to Cioran).
‘If you can bear to hear your words Twisted by beggars to excite fools, And to hear their foolish mouths lie about you Without lying a word yourself... You will be a man, my son (R. Kipling)’.
‘Try for 24 hours to act as if you had never existed: you will see that, deep down, you have done a great deal of good around you’ (James Stewart in F. Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’).
‘A woman who runs off with her lover is not abandoning her husband; she is ridding him of an unfaithful wife’ (Sacha Guitry).
‘There are many chess masters, but no master of chess’ (A. Alekhine).
An excerpt from a recent conversation: “Do you think there are 2500-rated players who’ve never opened a book on endgames? — Yes — But surely not 2700-rated ones? — The difference between 2500-rated and 2700-rated players is that the 2700-rated ones have ‘opened a book on endgames’, but haven’t read it.”
We covered the famous Rook + Bishop-Pawn + Rook-Pawn vs Rook line here (2nd diagram) https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2016/22-mars-2016.html but only very briefly. More thoroughly here https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/moje-zavrsnice/finales-de-tour/t-vs-t-pp-1.html A return to this subject, from a more educational angle. Note a case where the ‘checking distance’, usually 3 (between the defensive rook and the pawn), becomes 4! In the endgame, a discovery by your ‘master’, where we see the same phenomenon.
One of the most extraordinary ZZs and one of the most significant works of the 21st century: when what appears to be a sprint turns out to be… something quite different. A moment of respite to round things off, almost a centenarian and a sixty-year-old all at once.
Exercises for next lesson: purely by chance, they all begin with a ‘B’! A fine Bishop endgame (singular) led by a French player who excels in this area. Then an incredible battle of Knights leading to an artistic study. Finally, a story of underpromotion and a ‘small difference’.
A crazy game, where we go from winning to losing in two moves, only to end in a draw a little later. Note that White would have won just before thanks to a Queen’s circuit. The opening is that of a famous game, played five years later, which was studied here: https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2013/15-janvier-2013.html
Training: the strongest #2 problems are the 3rd, 5th (a masterpiece), 9th and 11th. I’ve rediscovered a 19th-century #4 problem that had made a big impression on me in my youth (please, don’t look at the solution). I’ll take this opportunity to offer a brief overview of this German composer and player, who was capable of beating Burn, Paulsen, Schlechter, Von Bardeleben, Marshall, Rubinstein and Tarrasch. Clearly, his teachers were not the equivalent of the 21st-century French idiots who think they are ‘educators’.
Let’s finish with three easy helpmate problems and two selfmates that are less so, where we’ll leave the solution (pure weakness on our part).
Pierre Nolot, France’s leading expert on chess-playing computers, has also passed away. RIP. Here is what he wrote in 2009: Could a human still beat the best chess programmes? -- If matches were organised tomorrow, all the top players would probably be beaten. But I remain convinced that if these players trained against the machines for six months, they could beat them. However, playing against a computer does not interest grandmasters: from their point of view, it is a bit like a weightlifter competing against a crane, or a sprinter against a motorbike. Kasparov had agreed because he had managed to negotiate a large sum of money, even in the event of defeat.
‘I’m not getting older, I’m just moving up a level’ (Chuck Norris, who has also left us). Bruno Parma, our hero from the class on 6 January, is joining him. I won’t know who to choose anymore, at least among the grandmasters still alive. RIP.
To cheer us up, a quick hello from Darya, the new Russian junior champion (beating a whole host of ‘blokes’) in problem-solving (Anna wasn’t taking part). The competitors struggled with a #3 that I’d solved when I was very young, but without a time limit. Your turn!
Enjoy! Deus vos custodiat. Бог да ви благослови.
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