Chess In Europe 1 - France

By: Stephen Berry

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rance can be a country of extremes. It changes government by revolution and is rather proud of the fact. Americans have been happy with same old boring republic for more than 200 years whilst the French have enjoyed five republics in the same length of time. In chess too, the French seem to swing from one extreme to another.
    In the 18^th century and the first half of the 19^th France was arguably the centre of the chess-playing world. The nonagenarian M. de Kermur, Sire de Légal (1702-1792), the champion of the Café de la Régence and inventor of that old chestnut, Legal’s mate, was for a while the leading player in France.

	Légal
	Saint Brie

1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 d6 3 Nf3 Bg4 4 Nc3 g6?? 5 Nxe5 Bxd1? 6 Bxf7+ Ke7 7 Nd5 mate
    In those days this sort of thing must have seemed quite novel.
    Légal was also a chess tutor. In the 1740s he came across a teenager who, apart from having had motet performed at the Chapel Royal in Versailles at the age of eleven, was already a strong chess player. Initially Légal could give the boy the odds of a rook, but by 1750 the erstwhile pupil was beating his master in a match. François-André Danican Philidor, "The greatest chess-player amongst musicians and the greatest composer amongst chess-players," had arrived.
    As a chess-player Philidor was considerably superior to his contemporaries – but he was not just a player. He published the first modern chess book, Analyse du jeu des Échecs in which he expounded his idea that "pawns are the soul of chess". It was the first attempt to make a systematic study of the game and, along with his work on certain endgame positions, remains an enduring contribution. He divided his time between writing operas and playing chess, spending more and more time in England. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Philidor was in London. He was placed on the proscribed list of emigrés and not allowed to return to France. In 1795 he died and is buried in London.
    During the next 50 years France maintained its status as number one chess nation, producing a number of high quality players, Deschappelles, La Bourdonnais and Saint-Amant. In 1843 however, Saint-Amant lost a match to the English Shakesperian critic Howard Staunton, and with it the title of unoffical World Champion. The centre of world chess moved across the English Channel and this proved to be an almost mortal blow to the amour-propre of French chess.
    It is true that after 1850 France served as a refuge for great chess-players fleeing persecution, Janowski, Alekhine and Tartakower are three that immediately spring to mind, but emigrés do not necessarily produce a thriving indigenous chess culture. French chess remained utterly mediocre for almost 150 years with no player of the first rank being produced.
    Indeed, so barren was the French chess scene that discussion of those years often turns to Marcel Duchamps, the father of Dadaism and a pioneer of Surrealism. After the completion of his last major work, ‘The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors Even’ (1915-1923) he tossed away his crayons and concentrated on chess. Perhaps he was encouraged into his career change by the remark of his friend Man Ray: ‘Chess is a game where the most intense activity leaves no trace’ (which incidentally, is both quite witty and palpably untrue). In any case, art’s gain was not to be passed on to chess. Duchamps did compete on board four for France at the Hamburg Team Championship of 1930, but he could only score one win, eight losses and six draws.
    But nihilism is a philosophy without a future. The 1980s finally saw the beginnings of the French Renaissance with both league and tournament chess developing in leaps and bounds. The French chess league has rapidly developed into the second strongest in Europe. It is financed by local mayors who can put up enough money to attract strong foreign players; both Kasparov and Karpov have played for teams in the French League. I have attended a number of tournaments in France which have been well organised and where the hospitality has been up to the legendary French standards. France also possesses one of the very best produced chess magazines, Europe Échecs.
    The investment has begun to pay off. During the 1990s, Joel Lautier has established himself as a supergrandmaster (Elo 2625 in the latest list) who can take games from both Karpov and Kasparov. In Etienne Bacrot the French have the youngest Grandmaster in the world who dismissed the ex-world champion Smyslov 5-1 in a recent match. In the latest very strong French Championship Bacrot came second behind the emigré Josef Dorfman himself a one-time Soviet Champion. There are also a number of other home-grown young players who might easily ‘make it’. French chess is definitely a force to be reckoned with once more.
    Here is a representative game of the leading French player from Biel 1997.

Biel 1997
	Lautier
	Karpov
Caro-Kann

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 de 4 Nxe4 Nd7
    Karpov defends against 1 e4 with the Zaitsev variation of the Ruy Lopez or the super-solid Smyslov variation of the Caro-Kann. It is interesting that Lautier, normally a 1 d4 player, confronts Karpov on his favourite ground and inflicts on the ex-world champion his only defeat at Biel.
5 Ng5
    An increasingly popular move. One of the little tricks of this line is 6 … h6? 7 Ne6!
5 … Ngf6 6 Bd3 e6
    Again Black has to be careful. If 6 … h6? 7 Ne6! Qa5+ 8 Bd2 and White gains the two bishops.
7 N1f3 Bd6 8 Qe2 h6 9 Ne4 Nxe4 10 Qxe4 c5 11 O-O Nf6 12 Qh4 cd 13 Re1
    Black cannot castle on the kingside. This would be met by 14 Bxh6 gh 15 Qxh6 intending an eventual Ng5.
13 … Bd7 14 Nxd4 Qa5 15 Be3 Kf8
    With 15 … Qh5 Karpov could force the exchange of queens but after 16 Qxh5 Nxh5 17 Nb5 Bxb5 (17 … Bb8 18 Bc5) 18 Bxb5+ Ke7 Lautier has the two bishops and the queenside majority. 19 Be2 Nf6 20 Bf3 would be one way for White to maintain the initiative in this variation.
16 Bf4 Bxf4 17 Qxf4 Rc8 18 Nf3 Ke7 19 Qg3 Qb4 20 Ne5!
    Very strong. If:

20 … g5 21 c4 Rhd8 22 Qh3 h5 23 Qe3 g4 24 a3! Qxb2?
    Karpov misses the point of White,s move but his position is in any case unenviable. After 24 … Qb6 25 Qg5 (threatens 26 Qg7) 25 … Rhg8? 26 Qxf6+ wins nicely.
25 Rab1 Qxa3 26 Nxf7!
    If 26 … Kxf7? 27 Bg6+ wins. It’s as simple as that! More of a problem is that the black rook on d8 has no sensible square to move to. If 26 … Rf8 27 Ne5 threatens to fork on g6 and 26 … Re8 27 Rxb7 with the idea of 28 Qxe6+ is even worse. Karpov decides to give up the exchange in order to get queens off.
26 … Qc5 27 Nxd8 Qxe3 28 Rxe3 Kxd8 29 Rxb7 a5 30 Ra7 Rc5 31 f4 gf 32 Rxf3 Ne8
    Karpov has saved many a difficult position but this one is beyond his powers. His retreat to the back rank was necessary as 32 … Ke7 lost to 33 Rxf6 Kxf6 34 Rxd7.
33 Rf7 Nc7 34 Rh7 Be8 35 Kf2 Kc8 36 Rh8 Kd7 37 Ke3 e5 38 Be2 Bg6 39 Bxh5 Bf5 40 Be2 Be6 41 h4 Kd6 42 Rh6 Ke7 43 h5 Resigns
    If 43 … Kf7 44 Rxc7+ Rxc7 45 Rh7+ wins or 43 … Kf8 44 Rxc7   45 Rxe6.   Otherwise White marches the kings rook pawn home.

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© Stephen Berry 2000