january 7 2025
A small technical problem to start the year with a request for a password to access the Teams meeting.
We'll never cease to be amazed at the creativity of computer scientists who come up with tools to make our lives more comfortable!
In this session, and to get the year off to a good start, there was a Rook endgame in which you had to be careful not to fall into the trap.
This was followed by the rest of the exercises from the previous session, including an amazing domination of Queen.
For the game of the day, a Talian muddle in which his opponent begins to tremble in his chair despite his substantial material advantage.
A few choice pieces for the heterodox part of the course, including a tribute to the creativity of Roméo Bédoni.
The next session will be held on 1st February.
With all the traditional good wishes (chess and problems), happy reading.
Master's words
In this new ‘year of grace’, notwithstanding the reign of lies, may you survive in the face of the raving lunatics who are abounding, becoming assassins as has become fashionable.
"We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden" (Roberta Joan Anderson, aka Joni Mitchell). Alas, dear Joni, 50 years on, the bombers still haven't turned into butterflies.... https://youtu.be/CEBmKi2xmoU
« Beauty will save the world » (Dostoïevski, quoted by Daphné Du Barry).
"How do you get the least able to choose the most able? ?" (G. Valois on "democracy", or rather daemoncracy).
If you believe in your destiny If you believe in tomorrow Friend, don't hesitate. With us you can walk You can be and remain (paratroopers' motto).
"Sapiens nihil facit quod non debet, nihil preatermittit quod debet" (Seneca). The wise man does not do anything he should not do; he does not neglect to do what he should do.
"I drove the English out of the kingdom of France more easily than my father [Charles VII] did; for my father drove them out by force of arms, and I drove them out by force of venison pâtés and good wines." (Louis XI, august 30 1475).
"We Brits fight for honour and you fight for money -- yes, everyone fights for what they don't have." (R. Surcouf, anticipated by R. Duguay-Trouin, 1694).
A curious Rook endgame between the two best Argentinian players (one of them of Polish origin) which was as usual massacred by the commentators, who placed the "decisive mistake" on the 44th move, instead of the 46th. It has to be said that you have to go through a mini-study, which is hardly their speciality, ending with a nice stalemate. See also the ‘good-bad’ between ...hxg3 & ...h3 depending on the location of the white King.
Then a discovery by your ‘master’ from an alleged game of Karpov as a kid, involving a ‘reciprocal zugzwang’ (you bet) and... a case of middle way (you bet too). The following study is a jealousy contest between the Bishop and the Knight. Finally, an incredible struggle between Rook and Knight against Queen and Knight, which tortured us in the club more than 20 years ago.
For the next session, a lighter programme, the reason for which will be revealed in due course! The usual question: the best square for a Rook, then the same question for a King and two stories about Bishops.
Portisch-Tal: a ‘Nigger fight in a tunnel’, as they used to say, but as they apparently no longer have the right to say today, despite the work of Léopold Senghor and others.
"Can we not take into account that the expression "combat de nègres dans un tunnel" ("nigger fight in a tunnel") is part of the old French lexical and gnomic fund and that this formula never implies that the protagonists of the fight evoked by this formula are really niggers, nor that this confused confrontation actually takes place in a tunnel? I am even more attached to the defence and illustration of the word "nègre", which is in no way pejorative; in many more or less melanodem societies (including many Creole societies) the term "nègre" (or often "neg" or even, as in Réunion, "kaf" = cafre) is a friendly or even affectionate appellation that does not imply any depreciatory value. What's more, its use is illustrated throughout our literature by the greatest authors!" (R. Chaudenson).
60 years ago, this game was the subject, at the Cercle Caïssa, of a lecture by Camil Seneca, whose whole life was devoted to the beauty of chess. The happiness it brought him brought tears to his eyes! Rarely has the material seemed so insignificant: at one point, White can obtain, against a Queen, "an almost complete set of the other pieces" (Tal). Pure magic.
Fairy : winged pieces in tribute to Roméo Bédoni, still going strong at 97! Training: a series of 2# more difficult than usual, the 4th & 9th having the bigger number of tries. The second 3# is a tribute to the columnist of a quality French magazine half a century ago. https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/tools/cb-2008/les-positions-du-13-mai-2008.html A complex 5# where we ‘forget’ to remove the solution. Rest with the helpmates. Two superb selfmates to finish (3# and 6#).
News: a world champion had forgotten my page 76 (1998 edition) or 72 (1982 edition). And incidentally pages 71 & 39. The price he had to pay was high.
Enjoy your meal. Isten áldjon.
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