French T-ch 2017: games and tactics (part I)
Not so quiet days in Clichy …
“A good meal, a good talk, a good fuck…what better way to pass the day?” (Henry Miller – Quiet days in Clichy) was once the norm for the perennial championship-winning Clichy chess team. Having won more national titles than any other club in the past 35 years or so, Clichy has not won only once in recent years (2015, when Bischwiller came in first).
This year Clichy seemed well on its way to sleepwalking another title when lightning struck today in round 9: Clichy went down in to outsider Saint Quentin, reducing its lead to just 1 match point with two rounds to go. There will be great excitement this weekend in Chartres as French chess might witness the end of a dynasty…
The Top-12 is France’s most prestigious team competition, and one of Europe’s strongest championships of any type. This 11-round robin event sees teams of 8 players, one of which must be a female. This year’s event sees more than 60 players higher rated than 2500, of which 28 are 2600 and above (there are 8 players rated higher than 2700). The top 50 players are all GMs. Each match is scored as 3-pts for winning; 2-pts for drawing; 1 pt for losing. The time control is the standard 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes to finish (+30′ per move).
Winning 5-second tactics!
(Download pgn here for entire game and notes)
From the film ‘Henry and June’ (1990) based on the real life relationship between Henry Miller and Anais Ninn in France.
