october 7 2025

This back-to-school class saw a brief appearance by a former French champion and a much more regular appearance by a player we hadn't seen in 40 (!) years, who stayed until the end.
A performance to note, with fairy compositions that could turn your brain inside out.
Well done to him!

As usual, the beginning of the class was devoted to an endgame that kept us busy for almost three hours.

After the exercises were announced, the game of the day, which was extremely rare, was one played by the Master nearly 40 years ago.
As the audience was quite talkative, this left little room for the fairies that followed.

Only three, which is undoubtedly a record!

Happy reading, everyone. The date for the next class has not yet been set, but it will be added to the calendar shortly.

Master's word

Did you notice this: since the summer of 2021 (just four years ago), every lesson has been honoured with at least one photo of a woman, except for those on 8-2-22, 1-3-22 and 7-2-23. What can we deduce from this? After being a macho man (and therefore hated by feminists) and then opposed to the male-to-female sex change that distorts women's competitions (and therefore applauded by feminists), who am I? Simply a lover of (real) women and an admirer of Joanne Rowling.. https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2021/december-7-2021.html

"If I don't know who I am, I don't know where I'm going." (Olivia Maurel fighting the filth "gpa").

"I knew that I would not be able to face the future if I was not able to rediscover the past." (Gene Tierney as Ernest Renan's emulator).

"Children do not understand that people love each other and then suddenly do not love each other anymore." (Gene Tierney).

"I love you because, tu es la seule qui ne donne ta main à personne, la seule qui m'étonne" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1ktu7a0SbI

"You're not likely to be a vegetable, because even an artichoke has a heart." ("Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain", 2001).

"Everything earthly that I possess is perishing, but when my last moment comes, I will have barely been born: in a dead uncertainty like an empty breath, I will not disappear." (V. Nazor).

"Shut up! -- But we haven't said anything, Madam -- You've been thinking, I can hear you thinking." ("Le crime de Noël", episode of the "petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie" 2017).

« An obedient and docile schoolgirl, From such a master she soon learned The most secret mystery of the game of chess. A thousand kisses, as many given as received, Were the sweet reward for these lessons. Come, beautiful ladies, I give them at the same price.. » (Abbé Jacques Roman, 18th century).

"If you are better on the right, better on the left, better in the centre, then defend yourself." (B. Larsen).

"My centre is giving way, my right is retreating. Excellent situation, I'm attacking." (Marechal F. Foch).

And don't forget that we stand our ground by opposing, to prevent the other from imposing themselves. !

A single endgame, but a monstrous one. The theme is simple: three connected pawns on either side, with one more pawn at the other end. But a black pawn that would normally be on h5 is here on h6, which opens up a whole new world of possibilities!

A curious case where you win even though you promote late. Then a white rook is better placed on d4 than on c4, but a black rook is better placed on c8 than on e8... because the opposite will be true for its white colleague. ! Another case where the move f2-f4 does not win, but f2-f3 followed by f3-f4 does! A new example of the "middle ground”, simple or reciprocal zugzwangs, clever interceptions, a rook in love with a square, an echo-chameleon, the traditional good-bad (42nd-46th and 51st-52nd)... A wealth of ideas that we were unaware of 20 years ago when this game was played.

Hoping that this work, avoiding the "flood of variations" (on a desert of ideas, as G.-L. de Buffon said of the "flood of words") which is not at all educational, will convince you more than Dvoretzky's, if you remember the nine pages (condensing his "chess café") added in the 2004 French edition to the English and German editions on this material.

Exercises for the next lesson: two technical questions, a virtuosity problem, a symmetry problem, and a queen against five pawns.

I don't usually like to show you the ‘master’ games during class. But I was subjected to a (friendly) attack from Wikipedia, nicknamed Wokipedia, which is often reliable as long as it's not about politics or history. A certain Philgin, who was not very favourable towards me in 2016 when the article was first published, had the happy initiative of quoting my star game from the 1986 European Cup (how time flies...). From then on, it became unthinkable that our readers should not be treated better. And so, here are some original comments! More precisely, they are original because they have never been published (the announced book on the exploits of the Clichy team never appeared) but date from that period for the most part.

For nearly 40 years, I thought that just about anything would win once you had the free h6 pawn, the strong knight and the strong f5 square. The reality is a little different; it was less simple than I thought, and it seems that we went through a draw position! As "it's a small world", you can also see in the photo V. Baguirov, a specialist in the Alekhine Defence, who greatly inspired your "master", as well as S. Luce, who became a brilliant author of fairy problems.

This system (4.e3 against the Nimzo) has brought me luck throughout my life, and I am happy to mention a few games (from 1974 to 2007): victories against N. Jovanović, I. Farago, D. Sellos, L.-A. Schneider, O. Jakobsen, D. King, M. Sharif, E. Rozentalis, G. Andruet, V. Arbakov and N. Ninov; hard-fought draws against J. Maklès, Le. Lengyel, A. Sydor, B. Spassky, V. Chuchelov, E. Solozhenkin and B. Chatalbashev.

See the mate in 3 at the bottom of the page illustrating the commentary on the 48th move. And here (penultimate diagram) is the mini-study taken from this memorable game. : https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2010/page-6.html

Training: lots of spectacular keys in the 2#, some difficulties in problems 5 to 10, as well as 12. A little Irish festival of 3 and moremovers, with ideal accompaniment. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBV1xNVyrBs (14 mn of "soul restoration" !!). The 4th and 5th are the easiest, so we'll leave you with the solution to the 5th. To take your mind off things, here are two very witty helpmates from the Hungarian genius and an old selfmate from the Bulgarian genius..

While rummaging through some old memories, I stumbled upon a letter from Christmas 1963 revealing that we were supposed to host the 1964 Interzonal Tournament (which ultimately took place in Amsterdam), but that France had to give up organising it due to a lack of funds! Surely, with Spassky, Tal and all the others in Paris... dazzling the young 18-year-old apprentice, your future "master" would have become at least a "grandmaster"! But I prefer not to read you the rest of the letter, which would horrify you....

Just a quote from R. Godement (professor at the University of Paris): "The primary duty of mathematicians should be to train people in what is not asked of them, namely to be able to think for themselves and to detect false arguments and ambiguous statements." Hmm! Aren't we 60 years behind?

Triple rejuvenation: far fewer bland variations, lots of new discoveries. Ultimately, even more interesting and much more readable games. Take a look at these three courses.

https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2005/may-10-2005.html Kasparov-Short 1999. Don't miss the analysis of 21...Ng6?. Then 23...Bxb5!, 24...Qc3!, 25 Rb3 and a few others.

https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2013/page-8.html Kasparov-Karpov 1987. Enjoy (in 10 dxe3) the analysis of Topalov-Gelfand with 21...Qc5+ and the unimaginable 22 e3!! instead of Kh1. Then, on the 11th move, a reference to R. Byrne-Fischer 1963. The incredible queen sacrifice on the 26th move of the 20 Nd6 variation. And the continuation 21 Nc3, much more favourable to Black than we thought in 2013.

https://lecoursdumaitre.e-monsite.com/en/pages/lessons/cat-2003/december-2-2003.html Kasparov-Anand 1995. Did you know that in the 50th "memorable game" in Fischer's book, the defence can be improved twice? By 11...Be6!! and 17...Kd7!!. And incidentally, enjoy the Anderssen-Arnous de Rivière game which, despite the photo of the 22nd move, was won by Black!

Enjoy your meal. Adeus até à próxima. Zostańcie z Bogiem. Isten áldjon. Бог да ви благослови.