december 9 2025

For this last lesson of the year, the audience braved the harsh winter weather and tried to warm up the atmosphere with some lively variations.

The warm-up began with a pawn endgame with, as usual, a few subtleties that should have led to a draw, but that was without counting on the temperament of young Bobby, for whom a draw was not an option and who ended up losing.

The exercises continued with a very fine Beasley, a no less fine Minski, and to conclude, an excellent Guy, to whom we pay tribute for his creativity.

For the game of the day, a beautiful battle with a face-to-face between Anand and Karpov, in which the audience was able to let loose on the variations in which the material deficit counts for little!

The fairy that followed brought us some beautiful compositions, always carefully selected by the Master.

Happy reading to all and see you in 2026.

Master's word

« Saying what I think about "humanity" in general is quite easy for me: I don't hold "humanity" in high regard; I think that the world is, a priori, made up of 95% of people who are completely uninteresting, incapable of the slightest personal reflection, driven by their impulses and desires, easily manipulated by anyone... The omnipresence of television has not helped matters. As a great writer once said, "alcoholism, gossip and politics have created enough idiots to make television necessary". What is more difficult in a short space of time (I am writing these lines in the middle of a Year 9 exam) is to explain why we can, and must, keep our spirits up and love life passionately despite everything. The fact is that among the remaining 5% there are enough geniuses, or simply healthy people (in body and mind, as they used to say), to make life beautiful. Someone once said that we remain young as long as we retain the ability to admire. But we must have developed this ability while we were young. And to develop it, we must know that there is something to admire (a great deal, in fact) and find it. This ability is not only an elixir of youth but the very raison d'être of existence, whatever our age. Beauty (immense beauty) exists in as many different areas as possible (and the time we spend on earth is ridiculously short to hope to take stock of it all). As far as I'm concerned, I discover new wonders every day. Seeing people's faces (I dare not say "mugs") on the underground (which I use as little as possible) shows me abundantly that this is not the case for them...". Text written by your "master" on 4-5-2000 at school, as already mentioned, and communicated to his pupils the following day. A quarter of a century later, I don't see a single word that needs changing. All that needs adding is: "television, mobile phones, the internet".

"We must communicate a taste for beautiful things, beauty, work, deep values... I have never seen a criminal come out of my music schools." (Y. Menuhin).

"The darkest hour is just before dawn". Dedicated to all course listeners ! https://youtu.be/zUr5_QVPCAI

"From the day I realised who the people were that I annoyed, I did everything I could to annoy them." (S. Guitry).

"We should have the courage, from time to time, to cheat on pretty women with women who are no longer young and who might be ugly. That would teach them a lesson about life." (S. Guitry).

"The English killed Joan of Arc. Today, she is killed at school." (P. Guth).

"I have never been convinced of the existence of God, but I am absolutely convinced of the existence of the Devil." (M. Bock-Côté).

"Bigamy consists of having one wife too many. So does monogamy." (H. L. Mencken).

"What attracts me to chess is not the rules, but their exceptions, which, fortunately, are very common." (V. Kortchnoï).

Endgame books: the scientific approach consists of reporting discoveries in chronological order. This was the approach taken by the Russian author (MD) who died in 2016. The anti-scientific approach, adopted by an English author, a German author and many others, consists of giving preference to the most recent, practising total amnesia regarding the heritage. Furthermore, these same questionable authors neglect pedagogy by misusing databases, giving preference to the first moves displayed by the machine rather than those that are most understandable. And they neglect dignity, shamelessly attributing cybernetic discoveries to themselves.

A light-hearted endgames to this lesson: a 16-year-old Bobby wreaks havoc in a pawn endgame, with an unexpected reciprocal zugzwang (ZZ) after a surprising defence. Another ZZ follows shortly afterwards, introduced by a white move on the same square as the aforementioned defence. Yet another ZZ occurs on the 48th move.

A very easy exercise from the late editor of BESN ("british endgame study news"), A charming study by Martin where White has a Bishop surplus. Finally, our friend Guy shows us 3 ZZ with a pawn on c3, c4 and c5 respectively. !

For the next lesson, a difficult bishop endgame with brilliant pawn moves, a bishop versus knight struggle with a sub-promotion, and finally a little play with heavy pieces.

The game is monstrous. The white player is fired up by a defeat the day before. A good reaction: our kids should follow this example! The bishop sacrifice is entirely correct, but demonstrating the advantage over any defence is sometimes very difficult. Many brilliant moves, some shown by the monster, but most... by humans!

Training: the 2# are easy, except perhaps the 2nd, 5th, 6th (appreciate the twin), 9th and 11th. Continuing the tribute to the brilliant Strydom: in these 3#, we could "do nothing", but there are no neutral moves, so we have to change all or part of what has been prepared. We leave the solution to the last two. An easy helpmate and 3 selfmates, including a long one that is fully explained.

News: Russia crushed the Women's World Team Championship, thanks in particular to the divine Polina Shuvalova, who scored 9.5 points out of 10 games. Also worth noting is the strong performance of our Anna, a living refutation of all the French idiots: the more chess problems she solves, the better she plays chess!

Have fun and Merry Christmas. As my friend Van Morrison said in the last lesson, "didn't I come to bring you a sense of wonder ?".

Semoga Tuhan memberkati Anda. Hari Om. Да благословит вас Бог.