november 10 2009

For this session, a guest of mark with the presence of the friend Jean-Luc, whose verve remains at the top.
Michel, Eric and Pierre were missing, but no doubt they will answer the Master's call to fill in the 64 squares on Thursday 17 December.
To begin with, and in the absence of a greffier due to the work stoppage of a certain category of transport staff and the discomfort of a compressed traveller, the Master exhibited one of his compositions which will be published in the near future.
It is therefore not yet possible to share it with the readers of this report.

The following position is a warm-up with little material.

1 - White to play and draw

8/8/8/6pb/4K1p1/7k/7P/7N
W. : Ké4 Nh1 Ph2
B. : Kh3 Bh5 Pg5g4
(3+4)

She reminded Jean-Luc of an early work that I didn't write down but which should look something like this:

1 bis - White to play and draw

W. : Ke2, Rb3 and h1
B. : Kd6, Bc5, Nf3 and h6, pe4, f2, g7 and h7

The theme is identical, and beautifully presented too

Now, a position for which the Saint-Lazare club sends its congratulations to the composer's wife.
Indeed, it doubles Musset's work

Let's take up the tradition of helpmates to keep Daniel busy, as we know how bored he is when he's not troubleshooting the fifty computers of all his friends... Two of which are from prestigious course participants. Michel's was solved in the bus that escaped between São Paulo and Paraty, allowing me to get back to the surface.

A few direct mats as well, two 2# from "maestro" Kovacevic, two 3# : The Ukrainian is the most remarkable but the English is far from trivial. Finally a strategic 6# from the French grandmaster of endgames André Chéron: a long marching piece gets locked in twice, which allows White to put the opponent in "obligation to play".

A forgotten Reshevsky-Fischer variation giving rise to brief emotions, a "coup de pat" from Kubbel, a tribute from Afek to Grigoriev, a reminder of another tribute to the same, this time from Gurgénidzé. A doubled variant of Musset's mat, administered on a row, then on a column. Finally, an astonishing rescue by a Ukrainian regular of our classes (his talent forces us to do so, but it is a pleasure). The obvious move must be restrained, but we only understand why 14 moves later!

The game of the day is one of the most quoted of the year 1998: it is particularly piquant that the two players qualify as "prosaic" the key move of the game, now famous, and that the loser has immediately after the abandonment indicated the variation he had calculated, even less... prosaic! But the moral is saved, the move actually played seems stronger all the same.

Enjoy. See you in a fortnight, on 24 November, God willing.

AV

2 - White to play and win

5R1r/5pkb/3N2nn/4P3/5N2/8/7K/8
W. : Kh2 Rf8 Nd6f4 Pé5
B. : Kg7 Rh8 Bh7 Ng6h6 Pf7
(5+6)

Whether horizontal or vertical, this composer makes us appreciate the position.

In the following one, I don't know if Afek's position is the most presentable.
But here it is

3 - black to play and win

8/8/pK5p/8/1N6/4k3/8/8
W. : Kb6 Nb4
B. : Ké3 Pa6h6
(2+3)

the knight has a good range, but after the black move, he will miss a square

A first prize to conclude the study series

4 - White to play and draw

8/7p/8/1P6/3K3n/1R6/3k1p2/7n
W. : Kd4 Rb3 Pb5
B. : Kd2 Nh4h1 Ph7f2
(3+5)

Quite complex, with a classy intro whose consequence is only seen at the end.

For the day's game, a magnificent fight.

5 - game of the day
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.ç4 Bg7 4.Nç3 d5 5.ç×d5 N×d5 6.é4 N×ç3 7.b×ç3 ç5 8.Rb1 0-0 9.Bé2 ç×d4 10.ç×d4 Qa5+ 11.Bd2 Q×a2 12.0-0 Bg4 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bh4 (14. Bxe7 Re8 and the e4 pawn is dead) a5 (or g5) 15.R×b7 g5 16.Bg3 a4 17.h4 (17. Rxe7 Nc6) a3 (Nc6) 18.h×g5 h×g5 19.Rç7 Na6 (Nd7 or Qb2) 20.R×é7 Qb2 21.Bç4 Qb4 (Ouch, could the whites have made a mistake ?) 22.B×f7!+ Kh8 23.Rd7 (23. Be6 is the brilliant alternative offered by Black post-mortem) B×d7 24.N×g5 Qb6 25.Bé6 Q×é6 (25. ... Be8 26. Qg4 Rf6 27. Be5 Rxe6 28. Nf7+) 26.N×é6 B×é6 27.Bé5 Rf7 28.Qh5+ Kg8 29.Qg6 Bd7 30.B×g7 R×g7 31.Qd6 Kh7 (31. ... Nc7! may hold up better with the continuation 32. Qxc7 Bb5) 32.Q×a3 Nç7 33.Qé3 Né6 34.d5 Ng5 35.f4 Nh3+ 36.Kh1 Ra2 37.f5 (37 gxh3 Rgg2) Ng5 38.f6 Rg6 39.f7 resigns

Games like that, we want more!

The restoration part took place in an Embassy, the one in Auvergne.
Master Guy, having some time constraints, was only able to arrive at that moment.
He did not fail in the tradition by exposing us his last creations in PG, of which a world premiere, in which it is clear that he is the uncontested Master of the tempo.

To close the proceedings, the Master presented 2 compositions with invisible pieces.
If I understood invisibility correctly, the piece does not appear on the chessboard but the solution produced means that it is necessarily unique (in its kind, of course)

6 - h#2 2 solutions
1 invisible white piece

8/2K5/8/R7/R7/1k6/8/8
W. : Kç7 Ra5a4
B. : Kb3
h‡2 (3+1)