François Philidor - the creator of the fundamentals of positional play

In the 6/2016 issue of the Molodezhnaya Tekhnika magazine, I wrote about the best chess player of the first half of the XNUMXth century, the Calabrian Gioacchino Greco, a master of the gambit-combination game filled with fantasy. This style, called the Italian school, also dominated at the beginning of the next century, until the French champion François-André Danican Philidor appeared in the chess world.

1. François-Andre Danican Philidor (1726-1795) - French scientist and composer.

Philidor's level was so much higher than that of all his contemporaries that from the age of 21 he played only with his opponents on the forums.

François Philidor (1) was the greatest chess player of the 2nd century. With his book "L'analyse des Echecs" ("Analysis of the game of chess"), which went through more than a hundred editions (XNUMX), he revolutionized the understanding of chess.

His most famous idea, emphasizing the importance of the correct movement of pieces in all stages of the game, is contained in the saying "pieces are the soul of the game." Philidor introduced concepts such as blockade and positional sacrifice.

His book has been published over a hundred times, including four in the year of its first publication. In Paris, he was a regular visitor to the Café de la Régence, where the most outstanding chess players met - his frequent partners at the chessboard were Voltaire and Jan Jakub Rousseau. Repeatedly demonstrated his skills in blind play, simultaneously with three opponents (3). Even during his lifetime, he was appreciated both as a musician and composer, he left behind thirty operas! In opening theory, the memory of Philidor is preserved in the name of one of the openings, the Philidor Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6.

2. François Philidor, L'analyse des Echecs (Analysis of the game of chess)

3. Philidor plays blind at the same time at the famous Parsloe Chess Club in London.

Philidor's Defense

It is already known in the 1st century and popularized by Philidor. It starts with the moves 4.e5 e2 3.Nf6 d4 (XNUMX diagram).

Philidor recommended 2…d6 instead of 2…Nc6, saying that then the knight would not interfere with the c-pawn's move. White most often plays 3.d4 in this defense, and now Black most often matches 3… e: d4 , 3… Nf6 and 3… Nd7. Filidor he usually played 3…f5 (Philidor's countergambit), but today's theory does not rank this last move among the best. The Philidor Defense is a solid opening, although he is not very popular in tournament games, somehow too passive.

4. Protection of Filidor

opera party

Philidor's Defense He appeared in one of the most famous games in the history of chess called the Opera Party (French: Partie de l'opéra). It was played by the famous American chess player Paul Morphy in 1858, in the box of the Opera House in Paris, during the interaction of Bellini's "Norma" with two opponents who consulted each other in their moves. These opponents were the German Duke of Brunswick Charles II and the French Count Isoire de Vauvenargues.

Readers interested in the life and chess work of Paul Morphy, one of the greatest geniuses in the history of chess, are referred to issue 6/2014 of the Young Technician magazine.

5. Paul Morphy vs. Duke Charles of Brunswick and Count Isoire de Vauvenargues, Paris, 1858

And here is the course of this famous game: Paul Morphy vs. Prince Charles II of Brunswick and Count Isoir de Vauvenargues, Paris, 1858 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Gg4 ?! (better 3…e:d4 or 3…Nf6) 4.d:e5 G:f3 5.H:f3 d:e5 6.Bc4 Nf6? (better 3…Qf6 or 3…Qd7) 7.Qb3! Q7 8.Cc3 (Morphy chooses a quick development, although he could get the b7-pawn, but 8.G:f7 is risky, since Black gets a dangerous attack for the rook) 8… c6 9.Bg5 b5? 10.C: b5! (the bishop will be needed for further attack) 10…c:b5 (leads to a loss, but after 10…Qb4+ White has a big advantage) 11.G:b5+Nbd7 12.0-0-0 Rd8 (diagram 5). 13.B: d7! (next defender dies) 13…W:d7 14.Qd1 He6 15.B:d7+S:d7 16.Qb8+!! (beautiful final queen sacrifice) 16… R: b8 17.Rd8 # 1-0

6. Philidor's position at the end of the tower

Philidor's position at the end of the tower

Philidor's position (6) a draw for black (or white, respectively, if they are the defending side). Black must place the king in the column of the adjacent opponent's piece, and the rook in the sixth rank and wait for the white piece to enter it. Then the rook comes to the front rank and checks the white king from behind: 1. e6 Wh1 2. Qd6 Rd1+ – the white king cannot protect itself from a perpetual check or the loss of a pawn.

7. Study of Philidor in a vertical ending

Study Philidora

In the position from diagram 7, White, despite having two pawns less, is equal by playing 1.Ke2! Kf6 2.Nf2 etc.

Hetman and King vs. Rook and King

Most often in such an endgame, the queen defeats the rook. With better play on both sides, starting from the worse queen position, it takes 31 moves for the stronger side to capture the rook or check the opponent's king. However, if the stronger side does not know how to play this endgame and is not able to force the rook and king to be separated, then the weaker side can achieve a draw after 50 moves without a capture, force the queen to be replaced by a rook, get a perpetual check or lead to a stalemate. The game plan for the stronger side has four stages:

Hetman and king versus rook and king - Philidor's position

1. Push the king to the edge of the board and then to the corner of the board and bring him to Philidor's position.
2. Separate the king and rook.
3. "Shah" boat.
4. Friend.

If White goes to position 8, then he shows the tempo, "playing the queen with a triangle", keeping the same position: 1.Qe5 + Ka7 2.Qa1 + Qb8 3.Qa5. Philidor's position took shape in 1777, in which the move fell on black. At the next stage, White forces the rook to separate from the black king and captures it after a few chess. Whichever way the rook goes, White easily wins with a fork (or mate).

9. Bust of Philidor on the facade of the Opera Garnier in Paris.

Composer Filidor

Filidor he came from a well-known musical family and, as we have already mentioned, was a composer, one of the main creators of the French comic opera. He wrote twenty-seven comic operas and three lyrical tragedies (a genre of French opera cultivated in the Baroque era and partly in Classicism), incl. the opera "Tom Jones", in which for the first time in the history of this genre appeared a vocal quartet a cappella (1765). Among Philidor's other operas, the following deserve attention: "The Magician", "Melida" and "Ernelinda".

At the age of 65, Philidor left France for the last time for England, never to return to his homeland. He was a supporter of the French Revolution, but his trip to England meant that the new French government put him on the list of enemies and invaders of France. So Philidor was forced to spend his last years in England. He died in London on 24 August 1795.