january 21 2003
The Maestro's word
I am often reproached for not looking for 2 moves mats, under the pretext that they are too easy. It's true that all my life I've been mainly interested in problems in 3, 4 or more moves. It's thanks to Thierry Manouck (French vice-champion 1980) that I started to look into it, after the challenge he had given us to solve any 2# in less than 5 minutes. It's crazy how this constraint makes things more interesting!
Let's keep the good habits. Blake's 3# was in "La Revue des Echecs" n°1: twenty years already... Then a "bohemian" classic. The 4# shows us an increasingly rare case where the experienced human, in resolution, crushes the computer. Precisely, speaking of experience, here is a long problem coming from an author on whom I had always dried up. This one is the first one I managed to solve.
The study of Russian genius is certainly more difficult, but the detailed solution is with you. It is a beautiful demonstration on the theme Queen against 2 doubled pawns. Then a nice pin trap. The game, finally, could be entitled "cold sweats" à la Hitchcock! Our friend Miguel, used to the "Carlos variants" of the 70-80's, will have had the satisfaction of sending a rook against the best player in the world...
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