april 12 2016
Master's words
Erratum: my formulation of "ancestor of the Babson", concerning Pauly's problem of 1913, is unfortunate. I was obviously thinking of Leonid Jarosch's superb finds in the direct mate, in 1983, realising Pierre Drumare's
dream (his 1980 Bab would be the first if the position were not illegal). But as it is a selfmate, the first complete Babson dating from 1926 (H. Bettmann), it would be more like a daddy, or even a big brother!
The "duty" for today came down to a curious R + P / N struggle where the White King is a little far from the theatre of operations. In order to get closer to it, he must paradoxically stand in the corner. Like a young dancer in a successful film from 30 years ago.
We follow this with an improved analysis of a suggestion to restart a draw. It doesn't win any more, but it is always good to put your opponent under pressure. If he has three cancelling moves, he is able to play... a fourth one, which does not lose in itself but forces him to a tighter defence. And, who knows, push him to a fault.
Then a study of a former, and probably future, world composition champion. A regular on our course, whose last visit was earlier this year. Observe carefully the path of the Knight, initially in d8.
Two little (easy) twins to look for in the next class. The trial of one is the solution of the other, and vice versa, as it should be.
A brilliant attack on a renowned theorist. To think that the winner was not even a grandmaster... But no, I won't say anything bad, for once, about our current grozélos. And I won't talk about the yawning contest caused by the 2016 "Candidates' Tournament". I'll just relive the 1959 tournament in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.
You will say to me, "Objection, your honour, at least the penultimate round woke you up, didn't it?". Indeed, unless it was a nightmare. A multiple Russian champion agrees to defend a T + F against T, when he could easily avoid it. So we assume he knows it well. Not at all, he plays like a monkey typist.
His opponent is in Philidor's gain. It is then that this player, a gifted of the 21st century (or pretended to be) shows the world that he was unable to understand an analysis dating from the 18th century... I quote: "I have studied this position of Philidor many times, but I never remember what to do".
Game of the day: many times we have observed the curious, and unexpected, homage of analytical engines to the geniuses of the human species. But modest humans, too, dream of burning their bridges, setting off the turmoil first. It becomes a firefight. What is it? What are you saying? They don't play like that anymore? I didn't dare say it.
Three 2# for practice. In the 2nd, we would have another mate in 2 by placing the white king on d7. The first 3# is from an Alsatian often represented in our class. Like our Russian-Ukrainian tandem (last minute: the Ukrainian part of this tandem has unfortunately just passed away at the age of 78; peace be with him). The last one is a little promotion party. Our 4# are, for once, exclusively French, with a curious feature: their 4 names start with a "g".
The helpmate 2# has quadruplets of the "Forsberg" type: we change the nature of the figure to b5. To which answers... but let's not reveal anything. Two amusing 3# helpmates: in the second, there is an "apparent play" (we would say nowadays "2.5# helpmate").
pinning and un-pinning in the 2# selfmate, then again some promotion stories. Finally, a superb 7# selfmate with just one black pawn, which has just been donated to the Slovakian Championship. You can quickly see the mate boards of each twin, but it takes a little time to force them. Look for it, you won't regret it. Note: (b) is easier than (a).
Add a comment