Swobodin v Brně

Central Misperception
Leon Trotsky, who spent much of his time during World War I playing chess in Vienna’s Cafe Central, was regarded by his acquiantances as simple, harmless, even slightly pathetic.
In March 1917, the Austrian foreign minister was notified by an excited subordinate that a revolution had broken out in Russia. “Russia is not a land […]

Here’s a nice match I played at the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) with an unknown player. Opening: Sicilian Defence, Dragon variant.
[Event “ICS Unrated Chess Match”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2006.01.23″]
[Round “?”]
[White “Swobodin”]
[Black “GuestJQVB”]
[TimeControl “180+15″]
[Result “1-0″]
 
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Be3 g6 7. f3 Bg7 8. […]

Searching some Wikipedia entertainment, I found out a strange variation called “French Kiss”.
It consists of an unexpected pawn move at the second move:
1.e4 e6 2.a3
Usually, black plays 1… e6 in order to prepare 2… d5 and making tension on the center. White can either take the pawn (exchange varitation), block the center by Dutch […]

A New Delhi cent joueurs d’échecs se sont réunis. Les meilleurs du monde… virtuellement! Il ne manquait que le ‘quarteron’ des “K” : Kramnik, Kasparov , Karpov et plus le plus brillant de tous, Kamsky. Parmi les cent il y avait les Russes Dreev, Khalifman, Morozevitch, Bezgodov, Galkin, Rustemov, Grischuk, Utnasunov; l’Espagnol Chirov, le […]

Life is a kind of chess.
Benjamin Franklin
Chess is the touchstone of intellect.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box
Italian Proverb
Chess is the game which reflects most honour on human wit.
Voltaire
The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, […]

In the 1930s Paul Keres (1916-1975) of Estonia emerged as one of the top chessplayers in the world. When Germany invaded Estonia in 1939, Keres was asked to participate in chess tournaments for Nazi propaganda.
Once Estonia was “liberated” and became a Soviet republic, the authorities accepted that he come back to the USSR, providing […]

When “Mr. Zugzwang” Aaron Nimzowitsch loses with his strategy, we get a situation similar to the hunter hunted … But when the hunter is the Great Aleksandr Alekhin, nothing is strange anymore!

Alekhin - NimzowitschSan Remo 1930
27. Ba4 Threat is b4-b5.
27. ..b5 Saving time
28.Bxb5 Ke8 29.Ba4 Kd8 30.h4!
Zugzwang! Black give up: any move would lead […]

Many sacrifices don’t require concrete calculation at all. It is sufficient to only glance at the arising position to convince us that the sacrifice is correct.
Thus used to think Mikhail Tal, the Magician from Riga: no calculation, only intuition!
Tal - Smyslov, Bled 1959
1.Qxf7!
Now if
1…Rxf7 2.Rxd8+ Rf8 3.Rxf8+ Ng8 4.Nf7#
1…Qa1+ White King can be hidden and […]

Fernando Arrabal, l’Express du 5 août 1999.
Un homme est assassiné. Il tient dans la main droite le Roi noir du jeu d’échecs et dans la main gauche un morceau de sucre. Il avait bu du café. Sur la table repose un échiquier : une partie est commencée (Frederich Glauser, Les Premières Affaires de l’inspecteur Studer, […]

 
En fouillant mes archives, j’ai trouvé un article paru dans L’Express du 27 mai 1999, écrit par Fernando Arrabal, écrivain et cinéaste franco-espagnol, et j’ai bien appréicé son interprétation de l’Histoire, qui, selon lui a été influencée par … une partie d’échecs !
Arrabal se déclare un anti-communiste farouche, et les circonstances lui avaient donné […]