march 7 2017

Happiness of the day. Let's celebrate Spassky's 80th birthday. Some ignorant person recently dared to say that Spassky was one of the weakest (sic) of all the world champions. Fortunately, on the same media vehicle, he was told that his rise to the title between 1963 and 1969 was, on the contrary, one of the most remarkable in history. Having followed this period passionately live and been very impressed by this incredibly steep path, I can confirm this. No doubt the ignorant should read up and learn how Keres, Geller, Tal, Larsen, Kortchnoi and Petrossian were successively crushed. It must be said that a Chess history book forgets to mention even the "Tournament of Seven" of Moscow 1964: although of the level of a Candidates' tournament, it was however only a... zonal, prelude to the Amsterdam interzonal, both won by Spassky.

The game of the day. We alluded to it during the course of last January 17: the great Boris sacrifices his Knight in the Sicilian, what could be more banal? Except if we consider... on which square he sacrifices it! Do not miss the zugzwang after 28 Rd7!! in 20...Nxa4.

The sentence of the day: "May the creative Phoenix still find in each and every one of us the spark of its sacred fire ready to ignite again to reveal its ever-reborn life" (Ch. Ouellet, 2016). Well, I'll be damned!

The anger of the day. On a sub-forum known to a few unfortunate people, a hurluber once said "What will erony do when he is excluded? Will he survive?" Obviously, he and his ilk would have preferred him to commit suicide, but as Jean Cau once said to Alain de Benoist: "That would please them too much". For anyone who is not an intellectual ectoplasm, the answer was obvious: he would continue elsewhere. In France or abroad. So much the worse if the second success exceeds the first. The phenomenon is not new.

The anger of the day (2). This site is not the place, obviously, to make politics. However, current events lead me to this remark: four out of five of the main "candidates" (not the same, unfortunately, as above!) have a surname ending with the same two signs as a well-known three-letter word with a double meaning, which made a member of parliament say in the 1920s, when language was infinitely more expressive than today's lukewarm water: "You're wide, you say? For an ass, that is not a quality". Having said that, excuse me, but at this juncture, the main sentence that comes to mind is this one: "In the scale of creatures, there is only man to inspire sustained disgust. The repugnance that a beast gives rise to is fleeting" (Emil-Mihaï Cioran).

The studies of the day. Where do you place your bishop so as not to lose your only pawn? The answer depends on the initial location of the Black King. Then, how not to lose a figure. It is still "une histoire de Fous" .

Then, a regular of the course shows us that beauty can emerge from a very natural position, a game, one would think. Finally, the same regular graces us with a Queen's endgame where each one has only one idea in mind: to commit suicide.

The news of the day: in a tournament played three weeks ago in Lisbon, a French hopeful seems to have the advantage when... a thunderclap occurs.

The fairy tale of the day. One of the very first problems with equisauteur. The march of this bug is based on central symmetry, so it took some particularly convoluted minds to invent an interception in some cases and not others. But it was done, on the other side of the Channel. Our great composer Yves Cheylan said it perfectly: "Equihoppers are sometimes called 'French' and with good reason: for in Descartes' country, one can hardly see how a leaper... could be intercepted! [Unlike] the 'English' equihopper, perhaps so named because it conceals an illogicality... Isn't it, John ?".

Today's practice. Marjan selection of 2#, then a 3# given at the 2016 Belgian championship and three old French multi-moves. Finally three easy helpmates and an AUW in selfmate.

See you maybe in a month. May God keep you.