march 4 2025
There were no technical problems for this third lesson, except for Daniel who had a few difficulties, but fortunately they were not serious.
It's worth noting the presence of a new auditor who didn't intervene. I'm sure that with a bit of practice, he won't hesitate to contradict the Master or improve his variations!
We should also note the prolonged absence of Pierre, whose verve and culture are sorely missed.
For this session, a fairly long analysis of a R+p vs B endgame in which the black player showed that he had good memories of Ercole del Rio's work.
The rest of the correction led us to 3 very aesthetic studies that were fun to look for.
The game of the day was very sparkling, with the poisoned pawn variation.
The fairy followed and ended with a problem from the great Michel that allowed us to finish in the best possible way.
The next brain-teasing session is scheduled for april 5.
Master's words
« What mean "expendable"? -- It's like, you get invited to a dinner and you don't show up. No one cares if you make it. -- No, you're not expendable. (Julia Nickson and S. Stallone in Rambo 2, 1985). "No one is irreplaceable" ("Le deuxième souffle", 1966).
"Âme câline Offre nid tout près du soleil Près des étoiles"
https://youtu.be/OTXTM82Htzs A little late, happy 80th birthday, Michel !
"But when the people are masters They act only in tumult. The voice of reason is never consulted" (P. Corneille).
"Growing up in beauty" (Sibylle de Lafforest).
« By definition, it is impossible to equalise at the top, which explains why egalitarian societies are boredom and despair. Love presupposes a master. When there are no true masters, the whole of society is a slave. But sad and empty slaves. » (J. Cau).
"I may offend you, but I would point out that these ladies were little more than laughing-stocks and had no grace. Alas! men are made in such a way that the feminist movement would have a better chance of appealing to them if Marlène Dietrich and Danielle Darrieux were at the head of the women's movement." (R. Brasillach).
"The difference between a man and a child is the price of his toys" (Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon).
There is such a thing as a world champion who plays well in the endgames. In this case, he refers to the knowledge of the 18th century (in the previous lesson, we were in the 19th!) coming from the ‘anonymous man from Modena’, an assize judge who preferred to remain discreet. We take a closer look at the win on a bad position of the Black King and... it's no piece of cake.
Note the triplet of similar ZZs, just one column away, as well as a quadruple echo. Note also the importance of a key square (b1), so that the same defence would be ineffective one row down, in the absence of a b0 square.
Rest with a Queen and Knight against a Queen. Then a Rook fighting a phalanx (with a ‘good’ becoming a ‘bad’ and vice versa) and a two-variant fight against a black Queen, with the same effect.
For the next session, no tournament game for once! A bit of "beauty and depth" from the Czech genius. One of your "master's" discoveries, a quintuple visit to a column by a Rook. A masterpiece by the greatest study author of the 20th century. Finally, a little Platov to relax with.
Today's game is South American, and the victim is the best Argentine player from a long-ago era when we spent several nights blitzing with him in a hotel in Square Montholon (Paris 9e) named after the mother of King Henri IV! Our attentive readers have known this brilliant player for a long time. https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2003/january-21-2003.html
As each unconscious sufferer Wanders aimlessly Beware of Maya. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI11VO9haO4
"My words are not of two colours: what is in my mouth is in my heart." (Henri IV).
There are also two games by Fischer, which were poorly understood at the time, and (this was a long time ago!) one by Shirov.
Training: The 2#s will make you think a bit, but you'll be rewarded after solving them. The 1st has at least 4 tries (an unleashed Rook!) as do the 3rd and 10th, the 4th, 5th, 7th & 9th have 3, the 12th has... at least 2. All the best!
Christian Caminade passed away a year ago. Along with Alex Casa, Guy Sobrecases and a handful of others, he belonged to the family of "player-problemists" who nowadays constitute an elite, at least in terms of the rarity of their numbers, given the decadence of our country.
I met him in 1964 at the Bordeaux tournament. He was playing in the Open, I wasn't, being there only to get an autograph for A. O'Kelly's book on Petrossian and to admire the first "grandmasters" tournament to be held on French soil since Alekhine's time, although I was even more in awe of one of Madame Chaudé de Silans' 3 daughters. The tournament's constant leader was the Bulgarian G. Tringov, who lost in the last round to A. Matanović, bringing together 3 stars, respectively from Germany, Hungary and Serbia.
I saw Christian again at the Monaco tournaments (1967-8), then at Paul Balcaen's ‘Maison des Echecs’ (1971-3). Later, he was my constant guest at the ‘Marquis afternoons’ on Wednesdays with Nicolas Giffard and others. In these sessions, the game, the problem and the study were in the spotlight, as was humour. Later still, he helped me to get a computer and then, in view of my notorious incapacity, allowed me to get to grips with it, a role which, over the following decades, fell to Daniel Capron.
Christian was a bon vivant, a gourmet, a lover of controversy and never tired of arguing. Discussions with him were more than lively, and there were many disagreements, but there was one particularity that struck me: in 50 years, I never heard him denigrate, let alone insult or scorn anyone he spoke to, or anyone else for that matter. To say that this is a rarity these days is certainly an understatement. May he rest in peace.
We offer a choice of these problems. The 3# of this course https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2022/8-fevrier-2022.html had the honours of the FIDE album, as did this 4#, also with twin. A few less famous ones: two other 3#s with twins, the first offering a few promotions, the second with a (very) slight retrograde analysis. The last 3# is without a twin: it's up to you! The first helpmate has two ‘variations’: the 1st black move is the same, then two distinct continuations leading to an echo-chameleon. The second has 4 solutions forming 2 groups, which some people rather foolishly refer to as ‘helpmate of the future’, even though this theme belongs to the past. Finally, there is an extremely difficult ‘selfmate maximum’ (Black has to play the longest move geometrically each time), which you'll want to look for before you ‘crack’.
Breaking news: Boris Spassky died last Thursday. That same day, I had prepared one of his brilliant victories for the June course. I hope I didn't jinx it. In the meantime, enjoy his genius right here https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/pages/cours/cat-2017/7-mars-2017.html It's certainly commonplace to sacrifice a white knight against the Sicilian defence, but... not on this square! Requiescat in pace.
Enjoy your meal. Dios bendiga y te proteja.
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