october 29 2024
There were major technical problems getting the course off the ground, as the clerk's computer was full of arthritic circuit boards.
The workaround was to use a tablet a little younger than the computer, only to find that the waiting room for the meeting was full of patients!
Nevertheless, despite the torrential downpours of the Mediterranean episode that the Master was experiencing (as for the clerk, who was passing through the Herault region of France, he was experiencing a cevenol episode that could explain the arthritis), the course eventually went ahead with the correction of the exercises, a Talian game followed by the traditional fairytale selection to finish turning over the neurons.
The next course will be held on 23 November.
Happy reading!
Master's words
"I won't let my heart control my head" (Céline Dion). And then some. On the contrary, it's when the head imposes too much on the heart that things go wrong! https://youtu.be/C5t-5ygKO9w Do you think the head wins out over the heart here? ? https://youtu.be/hAsFtuUz4tg Isn't it true that ‘God brings together those who love each other’? ?
« The real men of progress are those who have a deep respect for the past » (E. Renan).
« If death is the end of life, then life has no meaning; the only way to blind oneself to this fact is to use sophistry. » (A. von Harnack, 1902).
"Don't worry, he's in no danger: his guardian angel is over-trained." ("La chèvre", 1981).
"Navik on živi ki zgine pošteno" (F.K. Frankopan). (He who dies honourably, lives forever). It's not exactly Croatian, it's Kajkavski, a dialect from the Zagreb region..
« Stultorum infinitus est numerus. The number of idiots is infinite, as Solomon said » (J. Gabin in "Le Tonnerre de Dieu", 1965).
"The man who reigns today is the insect man. Innumerable, and increasingly uniform. Man, once an integral part of Nature (and sometimes his crowning) has become the executioner of all beauty, the enemy of the Universal Mother, the cancer of the planet’. (Maximine Portaz said Savitri Devi, "sun goddess").
Knight + 2 pawns / Bishop + pawn endgame : the world-class player, who analyses as well as he plays, has seen, using his brain only, one vital ZZ but not the other! He gives us a stunning winning sequence of 11 Knight moves, visiting the whole board. I add a 3rd ZZ (but with two pawns against zero) as the icing on the cake.
Our champion missed a win, but that was 14 years ago! Note that a winning black move is played on the same square as a winning white move... in another variation. Then a reminder of the elementary fortresses with Bishop and Knight, and finally a virtuoso Rook and Bishop performance, again, all over the chessboard.
For the next session: two episodes of a difficult defence in the Rooks endgame, two Mandler twins and a brilliant recent study.
What do 1931, 1959 and 1961 have in common? A super-tournament in Bled (Slovenia), which is no ordinary town, in the ideal setting of the Toplice hotel by the lake (the name means ‘’thermal spa‘’). The first tournament was won by Alekhine, the others by Tal. In 59, it was the first half of the Turnir Kandidata; in 61, Fischer was 2nd despite having beaten Tal.
Those who make the trip can continue on to Bohinj, whose lake is simply heavenly. They can also take the Vogel funicular, which brings us into contact with some charming animals.
Our game of the day was also played in Bled, like this one https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2023/28-fevrier-2023.html and this one https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2024/28-mai-2024.html : The candidates' tournament has been replaced by matches, which some say increase the combativeness of the protagonists, which was hardly necessary with such stars. In fact, today's game is a double: the same player with White in the candidates' tournament three years earlier. And just as tricky.
An anecdote for the openings preparation maniacs: the Black player asks his opponent why he didn't play such a move. ‘It didn't occur to me -- but you played it three years ago.!"
A Cheylan anti-circe reminiscent of the Millour of this lesson : https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/tools/cb-2005/les-positions-du-15-fevrier-2005.html In the Mars circe of the last lesson, the star was the White Rook. In the Cheylan, the Black one. In Millour, both !
The tribute continues. There's not much in common between a genius like Sam Loyd and your master-bidon. One thing they do have in common is their lack of talent for foreign languages. Having made the effort to write a long letter in French to Jean Préti, the latter replied that in future he would prefer Loyd to write to him in English because, despite his virtual ignorance of the language, it could not be less intelligible than Loyd's French and would therefore be preferable.
One thing he had in common, this time with R.C.O. Matthews, was that he preferred 3-movers. He too could have written a ‘Mostly three-movers’! He even thought that 99% of solvers were of the same opinion: ‘2#s are too easy and 4#s too difficult for popular taste’. At the time, there were solvers all over the world. Nowadays, the only ones left are in Russia, Poland and Serbia, or almost.
He also said that he was ‘not particularly interested in pure mates’ or models, although there are an appreciable number of them in his work. He was very attached to the quality of the tries, scoffing at ‘scientific problems completely devoid of plausible tries, so that the element of difficulty is entirely lacking’. What would he have said about the production, a century and a half later, of these disastrous yet award-winning 2# ‘’intellectuals‘’?
"There is a sure way to solve a Loyd problem. Carefully analyse all the possible moves and you'll find the solution... on your last try, but not before. !" (W. Steinitz).
Loydal training: in 2#, try in 1, 2, 5 (this one with a theoretical twist) and 6. In 3#, the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th might make you think. We'll leave the solution to the last one for its humour. In 4#, the 2nd, 3rd and 5th will take a little time, but the last two are also explained. Long live the Café de la Régence!
Enjoy your meal. Deus vos proteja.
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