Second at French companies championship
Chalon-sur-Saône, October 2003

[ Team | Results | Chess positions (diagrams) | Favourite players | Links | Solutions of the diagrams ]

That's us ! For more than 20 years, we have been playing in the same team. Once or twice a year, we go abroad for a chess week-end. Well, under pretext of chess, those trips are occasions to have good time, just like in Mes chers amis (Monicelli), la Grande bouffe (Ferreri), Un éléphant ça trompe énormément (Robert) or Le cœur des hommes (Esposito).

First of all, let me introduce our chess team to you :

• Jean Stranjakovitch. I have known Jean since 1984. He is the President of our club, and the captain of our team "Banque de France". We call him "Don Stranjako" (the Godfather), because of his natural authority and the wisdom of his advice. Jean has a knack for transforming almost lost positions into winning ones !
  ELO rating 2180 (fide).
• Thierry Coste. I have known Thierry since 1975. He never says anything... about himself, so neither will I.
  ELO rating 2202 (fide).
• Philippe Hartereau. I have known Philippe since 1980. He is a talented tactical and positional player.
  ELO rating 2254 (fide).
• Valéry Croizier. I have known Valéry since 1998. He plays endings like a god, specially rooks endings.
  ELO rating 2186 (fide).
• Me. I have known Marc since 1957. I'm no longer a real chess player, because I only play a score of games a year, but I'm always ready to raise the spirits of the team...
  ELO rating 2086 (fide).

Some of our results :

• 2006, second at the Eurochess 2006.
• 2005, winners of the Eurochess 2005.
• 2005, 2004, 1998, 1995, 1993, 1992 : winners of the Île-de-France Companies Championship.
• 1995, 1993 : French Companies Championship winners (2nd and 4th event).
• 2005, 1995 : winners of the European Central Banks Championship (Eurochess).
• 2002, second at the Eurochess 2002.

Some positions of mine :

I've played more than 800 games in competition since 1974. But only a very few contain "pretty" positions. Here there are :

1/ Goldstein,M-Birmingham,E (1979) - 19 ?	2/ Goldstein,M-Coste,T (1984) - 23 ?	3/ Goldstein,M-Bremond,E (1986) - 24 ?
4/ San Marco,B-Goldstein,M (1987) - 22... ?	5/ Hirt,J-Goldstein,M (1991) - 19... ?	6/ Goldstein,M-Riazuelo,G (1992) - 49 ?
7/ Goldstein,M-Delanoy,P (1992) - 15 ?	8/ Goldstein,M-Seves,Y (1995) - 44 ?	9/ Goldstein,M-Kempinski,A (1997) - 25 ?
10/ Bourbon,B-Goldstein,M (2008) - 21... ?

My favourite players :

• Alexander Alekhine
• Tigran Petrossian
•  Viswanathan Anand

Some chess links :

•  ChessLab, 2 million games online chess database for interactive search and analysis.
• Chess Mentor, your personal chess teacher...
• ChessBase Light, the special version of the database ChessBase 6.0 for free download.
• I play chess on line at Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone. My nickname is "_vincennes_".

"Solutions" of the diagrams above :

1. 19.Bc5! 1-0 (19...Qd1 20.Bxe7! Qxe1+ 21.Qxe1 wins)
2. 23.Rxd5! exd5 24.e6 fxe6 25.Qg6 Bf6 26.Ne5 Bxe5 27.Bxe5 Qg5 28.Qh7+ Kf7 29.h4 Qg4 30.f3 Qxh4 31.Qxg7 mat 1-0
3. 24.Ng4! Qxa1+ 25.Kh2?! (25.Re1! Qxe1+ 26.Nxe1) Bxd4 26.Qh6+ 1-0 (51 moves)
4. 22...Ba5! 23.Ng6+! (23.Rxe8? Qb1+ or 23.Qxf3 Qxf3 24.Rxe8 Qd1+ 25.Kh2 Kg8 is better for black) hxg6 24.Rxe8+ Kh7 25.Kh2 with avantage. The game continued 22...dxc4? 23.Qe3 Bc6 24.Qxe8! 1-0 (33 moves)
5. 19...Rxd3! 20.f6 g6 21.cxd3 Re2 22.Bf4 Rxg2! 23.Qxg2 Bxg2+ 24.Kxg2 Qc6+ 25.Kh3 Qxf6 26.Bh6 Qe6+ 27.Kg2 Qg4+ 28.Kh1 Qh5! 0-1
6. 49.e5! fxe5 50.Qg6+ Kh8 51.Rdf1! Rxf3 52.Qg8 mat 1-0
7. 15.Bb5! gxh2+ 16.Kh1 Ba6 17.Bxd7+? (17.gxf6! Bxb5 18.fxe7 Qc7 19.Nxf7 white is better) Nxd7 18.Nxf7 Bxf1! 19.Qg6?? (19.Nxh8=) Nf8 20.Qc2 Kxf7 0-1
8. 44.h4 Kd5 45.h5 Ke5 46.h6 Kf6 47.Kf4 Kg6 48.g4! e3 (48...fxg4 49.Kxg4) 49.gxf5+ wins. Instead of this, I offered a draw after 44.h4... 8-(.
9. 25.exf6 Rxe2 26.Qg3 1-0
10. 21...Txc2!! 22.Dxa5 Fg4+ 23.Fe2 (23.hxg4 Tcxd2+ 24.Re1 Cc2 mat) Tcxd2+ 24.Re1 Td1+ 0-1

E-mail : marc.goldstein@noos.fr Sign my Guestbook