march 4 2008

during the school holidays the audience was less full than usual, but our solutionist and composer Grand Master was there as well as our future solutionist and composer Grand Master and our neo-retired friend from the SNCF.
A small change of calendar concerning the end of season fairy course to be mentioned: the date initially retained of
3 June has been moved to 17 June
As it should be, the electronic version of the Master's report is at the end of the purely textual version. Thanks to him

To get the neuron in shape, a small test study for chess schools

1 - White to play and draw

W.:   Kb8, Bd5, pc2
B.:   Ka6, pa3, b7, c3 and f6

There are a few finesses, but they will not escape you.

A magnificent study to follow which would have deserved a much higher ranking if the judge had not had the suspicion of a computer-assisted composition.
So what! What's the problem when you see the result.
A pure marvel

2 - White to play and win

W.:   Kc6, Rb4, Bc4, Nd1
B.:   Ka8, Na6, ph2
 

 Two 4# helpmates for Daniel who will quickly find at least one of the two solutions for each. Three direct 2# to prepare for the 2008 solving-show (one of them was already given in the past, but with a misattribution to a Baudoin from the time). A nice 3-moves from a bohemian Norwegian, if I may be so bold as to call it an ethnic feat, which contains five (!) blocking mats.


Thanks to Guy's diligence, a booklet on the first prizes of our grandmaster Michel Caillaud has just been published. As a matter of fact, I am covering two of Michel's problems which have only obtained the second prize, but which seem to me to be superior to the first prize of the same competition: I am giving one of them (a Denkovski's PG) so that one can get an idea of what the first prize was..


An exercise for ten year olds. Then a curious pawn endgame where Reti's stratagem allows the king to avoid a trapped diagonal..


As a tribute to Philidor, about whom much has been said lately, especially because of the way the grozers trashed the Rook + Bishop vs Rook; He was the first person to study this subject seriously, and this is the first prize of the tournament organised in his honour in 1994, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his death. Organised by... the Batavians of course. If we had to rely on the French to glorify the best of the French, we would already have realised this..


A new twist in the case of the best study of the year: a very digestible study by Bazlov has been downgraded in the Bent magazine on the grounds that it is computer-assisted. While it is much more understandable on a human scale than the other studies by the same author, which were ranked 1st and 3rd respectively! This will stop the confused thinking of some foggy minds. ?


One often speaks about "echo" in chess problems. But we also find this phenomenon when, for example, ten years apart, an ex-world champion uses the same procedure to beat again... a future world champion. In this case, an apparent waste of time with "switchback" to weaken the opposing pawns.

Have a good trip and see you in a fortnight.


AV

A Pervakov to follow, so it's good stuff

3 - White to play and win

W.:   Kh1, Bb4 and e8, pa7, b2, d2 and h6
B.:   Ke1, Ra6, Bb1, pa5, b3, c7 and g4

To be enjoyed without moderation on the theme of Philidior

The last study is a pawn endgame

4 - white to play and draw

W.:   Kf7, pa4, c4 and c6
B.:   Kb6, pc5 and h7

With the help of Reti, you should find it easily enough, but beware that there are some threads.

The day's game and the end of the following one have a nice point in common noted by the Master

5 - game of the day

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 5. e3 c6 6. Nf3 Be7 7. Qc2 0-0  8. a3 (8. 0-0-0 is more in the modern concepts of play) Re8 9. Rc1 dc 10. Bxc4 Nd5 11. Bxe7 Qxe7 12. Ne4 (to avoid exchanges of pieces and in particular the cavalry) N5f6 13. Ng3 c5 (13. ... e5 14. Nf5) 14. 0-0 cd 15. Nxd4 Nb6 16. Ba2 (16. Bb5 Bd7 17. Qc7 Bxb5 18. Qxe7 Rxe7 19. Nxb5 Nd5 and it holds for Black) Rb8 (a prophylactic move with a tactical profile) 17. e4 Rd8 18. Rfd1 Bd7 19. e5 (19. Qc7 Rdc8 20. Qe5 Ne8! and all is well) Ne8! (19. ... Nd5 20 BxN NxB 21. Ndf5! Qg5 22. h4 Qf4 23. Nxg7 Ne3 24. Qd2 Nxg2 25. Nh5 with a good white figural game) 20. Bb1 g6 21. Qe4  Ba4 ! 22. b3 Bd7! 23. a4 (as a result of the manoeuvre the square b4 is available to the black knight) Nd5 24. Bd3 (24. h4 right away is worth exploring) Rbc8 25. Bc4 26. Nxc6 bc (it would be from Petrosian) 27. Rd3 (27. Bxd5 leads to a draw i.e. we move the Queen and bring the Knight on d4) Nb4 28. Rf3 Rc7 29. h4 Rcd7 30. h5 Qg5 31. Re1 Rd4  32. hg hg (32. ... Rxe4 33. gf+ Kf8 34. Nxe4 and fxe8=Q+ are sufficient to win) 33. Qe2 Rd2 34. Qf1 (threatens Ne4) Nc2 ! (even so) 35. Ne4 Qxe5 36. Nf6+ Qxf6 37. Rxf6 Nxf6 38. Rc1 (38. Re2) Ne4 39. Be2 Nd4 40. Bf3 Nxf2 41. Qc4 Nd3 42. Rf1 Ne5 43. Qb4 Nexf3+ 44. gf Ne2+ 45. Kh2 Nf4+ 46. Kh1 R2d4 27. Qc7 Kg7 48. Qc7 R8d5 49. Re1  Rg5 50. Qxc6 Rd8! resigns

6 - of the same after the 14th white move
position
W.:   Kg1, Qc2, Ra1 and f1, Bd3, Ne3 and f3, pa2, b2, d4, f2, f4, g3 and h2
B.:   Kg8, Qd8, Ra8 and e8, Bc8 and d6, Nf8, pa7, b7, c6, d5, f6, g7 and h7

14. ... Be6 15. Nh4 Bc7 (to put pressure on d4) 16. b4 Bb6 17. Nf3 Bf7 18. b5 (18. Rfd1) Bh5 19. g4 Bf7 (same way as in the previous game with same effects) 20. bc Rc8 21. Qb2 bc 22. f5 Qd6 23. Ng2 Bc7 24. Rfe1 h5 25. h3 Nh7 26. Rxe8 Rxe8 27. Re1 28. Qc1 Ng5 29. Ne5 fe 30. Qxg5 e4 31. f6 g6 32. f4 hg (32. ... ef e.p. 33. Re5) 33. Be2 gh 34. Bh5 Rb2 35. Nh4 Qxf4 resigns

a nice little helpmate to get the hang of it

7 - h#2 with Equihopper and Grasshopper
      helpmate : Black to play and help White to checkmate them
      Equihopper : piece that uses the support of another piece to move by an equipollent movement with respect to the sautoir
      Grasshopper : piece with march of the Queen who needs a sautoir to move and lands just behind the sautoir if the square is free or occupied by an opponent's piece

W.:   Kg7, Bd5, Ng5, pe2 Ee1
B.:   Ke5, Rb2, Bc4, pb3 and d6

a) statement position
b) Ee1 becomes Ge1

A little Circe of a special kind to finish

8 - h#3,5 Clone Circe
      helpmate 3,5 moves : white plays first and then we find ourselves in a 3 move helpmate
     Clone Circe : a captured piece changes its nature and adopts that of the capturing piece and is reborn on the original square of its new nature

W.:   Kf6, Ba1, ph2
B.:   Kf4, Rc3, Nf2

That's it, it's time to wrap up, so it remains to wish you a good reading and see you soon for the corrections made by the Master.

Yours sincerely

Le greffier

corrections

Philidor, who is a great lord, will not begrudge the master clerk a little skinning.

In the pawn ending (last study), read wPa2 (not a4).

I myself forgot to point out, in the general commentary, that Bazlov's study, which presents an horizontal-vertical echo, is thus an echo of the pair of games, which makes a monochromatic diagonal echo Kingside-Queenside.

Game of the day: I think 4...Nbd7 is more accurate. Obviously a test by the master greffier to see if you are following.

The variation 14 dxc5 Nxc5 15 Bb5 Bd7! seems to me important: Black does not lose a piece and is very good.

Variation 19...Nfd5: 23 Nxg7 Rbc8! is simple and good (23...Ne3? 24 N7h5) contrary to what I thought.

Read 47 Qe7

Game 2: 27...Rb8 is missing: an echo of the "prophylactic move with a tactical profile" of which the Master Greffier speaks, but with
but with much less profit-oriented intentions.

Spend two good weeks before our reunion

AV