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11 Best Franks
Compiled by Littlejohn
--*--

by Robert Samuels

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* First of each ECO: Game Collection: First of Each ECO

"Life has, indeed, many ills, but the mind that views every object in its most cheering aspect, and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote. The gloomy soul aggravates misfortune, while a cheerful smile often dispels those mists that portend a storm." ― Lydia Sigourney

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." ― Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States, and former Colonel in the U.S. Army

"All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters either. Every single man in this Army play a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain." ― General George S. Patton, U.S. Army

"Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe." ― Indian Proverb

"In chess the most unbelievable thing for me is that it's a game for everybody: rich, poor, girl, boy, old, young. It's a fantastic game which can unite people and generations! It's a language which you'll find people "speak" in every country. If you reach a certain level you find a very rich world! Art, sport, logic, psychology, a battlefield, imagination, creativity not only in practical games but don't forget either how amazing a feeling it is to compose a study, for example (unfortunately that's not appreciated these days but it's a fantastic part of chess!)." ― Judit Polgar

"Nowadays tournaments are for nurseries. Look at those kiddies." ― Miguel Najdorf

"Young players calculate everything, a requirement of their relative inexperience." ― Samuel Reshevsky

"When I start to play a game I try to forget about previous games and try to concentrate on this game. This game is now the most important to me. But of course I am not a computer and you cannot simply press a button, delete, and everything you want to forget disappears automatically. But if you want to play well, it's important to concentrate on the now." ― Vassily Ivanchuk

"The pawns are the soul of chess." ― Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

"A pawn, when separated from his fellows, will seldom or never make a fortune." ― Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

"It so often happens that, after sacrificing a pawn, a player aims not to obtain the initiative for it, but to regain sacrificed material." ― Efim Geller

"If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure." ― Garry Kasparov

"He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Tom Wiswell (1910-1988) made a quote regarding playing checkers worth using in chess circles. After winning a good game, I always ask myself: "Where did I go right?"

"I was surprised by his ability to figure out complex variations. Then the way he sets out the game; he was not interested in the objectivity of the position, whether it's better or worse, he only needed room for his pieces. All you do then is figure out variations which are extremely difficult. He was tactically outplaying me and I made mistakes." ― Mikhail Botvinnik (on Tal)

"Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard." — Reuben Fine

"If your opponent cannot do anything active, then don't rush the position; instead, you should let him sit there, suffer, and beg you for a draw." ― IM Jeremy Silman

"One may know how to conquer without being able to do it." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

"I think Capablanca was one of the most important world champions for me. I studied his games, and a good book about Capablanca's games was written by International Master Vasily Panov, a Russian master. There was quite a strong influence of Capablanca's style." ― Anatoly Karpov

"I think that an opponent who relies only on the choice of a computer and does not start from his own 'natural' resources, will very quickly reach his chess-heights with no room for improvement." ― Jan Timmerman

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." ― John F. Kennedy

Daniel 12:2 "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Logical Chess: Game Collection: Logical Chess: Move By Move (Chernev) - COMPLETE

Logical Thinking: Game Collection: Logical Thinking (McDonald)

Art of Planning: Game Collection: The Art of Planning in Chess: Move by Move

Cheating: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

POTD: Game Collection: POTD French 2

US CC: https://www.uschess.org/index.php/P...

World CC: Wikipedia article: List of World Chess Championships

Best Tactics: https://thechessworld.com/articles/...

The Most Important Idea: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...

Go Forward: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...

Pawn Basics: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...

Know King & Pawn endings: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...

Two Ps vs None Endgames: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...

General chess advice from Joe Brooks: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comm...

"On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culmination in checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite." — Emanuel Lasker

* Good Historical Links: https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/in...

* NY 1880: Game Collection: New York 1880

* Informant Golden Games: Game Collection: Chess Informant Golden Games

* Best of 2019: Game Collection: Best Games of 2019

* 101 Greatest Moves: Game Collection: 101 greatest moves ever played(by krabbe)

* Petrov's Defense: Game Collection: The Cutthroat Petrov

* John Hall's Opening System: Game Collection: Opening Systems For Competive Chess Players

* Play the C-K: Game Collection: Play The Caro-Kann : Varnusz

* GM Lars Schandorff C-K Repertoire: Game Collection: Grandmaster Repertoire: The Caro-Kann

* GK vs Deep Blue: https://www.chess.com/article/view/...

* Miscellaneous: Game Collection: ! Miscellaneous games

* Internet tracking: https://www.studysmarter.us/magazin...

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

"I won't be lectured on gun control by an administration that armed the Taliban." ― voter

"Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul." ― General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur

Why is England the wettest country? Because the queen reigned there for decades.

All The World's A Stage
William Shakespeare

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

"Compassion: that's the one thing no machine ever had. Maybe it's the one thing that keeps men ahead of them." — Dr. McCoy

<This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name! ― Fort Minor>

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

<Lasker's Secret Principle:

"He (Emanuel Lasker) told me that this principle of controlling as many squares as possible was his guide at every stage of the game.

He said "In the majority of cases it is probably best to have Knight and Bishop on squares of the same color, because then they control squares of opposite colors."

― Edward Lasker, Chess Secrets I Learned from the Masters>

Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters and assorting them for the flames? For by the cart-load they are annually burned. Sometimes from out the folded paper the pale clerk takes a ring: - the finger it was meant for, perhaps, moulders in the grave; a bank-note sent in swiftest charity: - he whom it would relieve, nor eats nor hungers any more; pardon for those who died despairing; hope for those who died unhoping; good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities. On errands of life, these letters speed to death. Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity! — Herman Melville

"Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them." ― Dalai Lama

Lichess has all the same basic offerings as Chess.com: a large community, many game types, tutorials, puzzles, and livestreams. The site has a simple appearance, and it seems built to get you where you want to go in as few clicks as possible. You can create an account, but if you're not concerned with tracking your games and finding other players at your level, there's no need to log in. Just fire up a new game, try some puzzles, or watch a chess streamer play three-minute games while listening to techno and chatting with the comments section.

"In general, there is something puzzling about the fact that the most renowned figures in chess – Morphy, Pillsbury, Capablanca and Fischer – were born in America." ― Garry Kasparov

You know there's no official training for trash collectors? They just pick things up as they go along.

Dec-12-16 DrGridlock: Q: When is a pin not a pin? A: When the piece is:
(i) not pinned to the king
and
(ii) in moving the piece threatens either mate or greater material gain than what it was pinned to. (iii) in moving the piece now defends the unit it was pinned to, such as Nf3xd4 and protects the Be2 that was behind the knight.

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"Many have become chess masters, no one has become the master of chess." ― Siegbert Tarrasch

"In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." — Max De Pree

<Luke 8:16-18 New King James Version The Parable of the Revealed Light

Jesus said:
16 "No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. 18 Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.">

807 zem: move 21. zooter Frit z drip drip drip Kh4? partly sunny is mostly cloudy or Steinitz foot.

When you die, what part of the body dies last? The pupils… they dilate.

"Some endgames are more equal than others." — Antonio Radić a.k.a. agadmator Antonio Radić (born 16 June 1987), better known as agadmator ( Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: agad'mator̩ 2 ), is a Croatian YouTuber and chess player. He has one of the most popular chess channels on YouTube, and he previously had the most subscribers of any YouTube chess channel from 2018 until late 2021 when he was surpassed by GothamChess.

Solid win against closed French
Ljubojevic vs Panno, 1976
(A07) King's Indian Attack, 46 moves, 0-1

How to play the French without playing the French
Kosteniuk vs C Gouw, 2000 
(C00) French Defense, 18 moves, 1-0

How to dismantle the closed French
B Vujic vs S Polgar, 1981 
(C00) French Defense, 36 moves, 0-1

Steinitz and the overprotected e5
Steinitz vs M Weiss, 1882  
(C00) French Defense, 36 moves, 1-0

Brilliant opening combination
S Tatai vs Korchnoi, 1978 
(C01) French, Exchange, 14 moves, 0-1

Dancing knights soften up kingside in exchange variation
D Barua vs Gulko, 1993 
(C01) French, Exchange, 36 moves, 0-1

Alekhine's first win over Capablanca
Capablanca vs Alekhine, 1927 
(C01) French, Exchange, 43 moves, 0-1

Even more flexible play in the advance
Dubov vs S Martinovic, 2016
(C02) French, Advance, 42 moves, 1/2-1/2

Complex piece sacrifice in the advance
Movsesian vs M Gurevich, 2000 
(C02) French, Advance, 35 moves, 0-1

Impressive manoeuvring to get the pawn home
G Jones vs N Nguyen, 2014 
(C07) French, Tarrasch, 57 moves, 0-1

Astonishing Tal brilliancy
Tal vs Uhlmann, 1971 
(C07) French, Tarrasch, 19 moves, 1-0

French Defense: Rubinstein Variation (C10) 0-1 SF notes
J Narraway vs Marshall, 1894
(C10) French, 24 moves, 0-1

Clash of the French experts
Morozevich vs V Moskalenko, 1994 
(C11) French, 42 moves, 0-1

French Defense: Classical. Steinitz Variation (C11) 0-1 Exhibit
R F Whitehead vs Maroczy, 1923 
(C11) French, 18 moves, 0-1

How to resist the Alekhine attack in the French
Ragozin vs Yanofsky, 1948 
(C13) French, 43 moves, 0-1

Reti Resisting the Alekhine
Euwe vs Reti, 1923 
(C13) French, 33 moves, 0-1

Classic Lasker. 14...Bd7!! instead of ...e5?!
O Bernstein vs Lasker, 1934 
(C14) French, Classical, 44 moves, 0-1

French Classical. Steinitz Var (C14) 0-1 Greek gift K flight
Van der Wiel vs Korchnoi, 1991 
(C14) French, Classical, 34 moves, 0-1

French Classical. Steinitz Variation (C14) 0-1 0-0-0 Spearhead
Shirov vs Morozevich, 2000 
(C14) French, Classical, 31 moves, 0-1

Phenomenal endgame by Nimzowitsch
Lasker vs A Nimzowitsch, 1934 
(C17) French, Winawer, Advance, 65 moves, 0-1

Important Winawer game. 8...Kf8!? much payed since.
Fischer vs W Hook, 1970 
(C18) French, Winawer, 28 moves, 1-0

Music on the board
M Delage vs S Prokofiev, 1937 
(C18) French, Winawer, 25 moves, 0-1

Reti gambit with nice combination at end
Aronian vs Van Wely, 2006 
(B20) Sicilian, 33 moves, 1-0

Reti gambit, great control at end
Morozevich vs Elena Anikina, 2016 
(B20) Sicilian, 30 moves, 1-0

French Reti / Sicilian with a White sacfest
Blatny vs J L Watson, 1998 
(B40) Sicilian, 25 moves, 1-0

"Full Nelson" (game of the day Nov-09-2013)
Pillsbury vs Lasker, 1896 
(C11) French, 50 moves, 1-0

French Def Adv. Main Line (C02) 0-1 6. a3 c4 = Opening Explo
I A Zaitsev vs Petrosian, 1969 
(C02) French, Advance, 33 moves, 0-1

French Rubinstein. Blackburne Def (C10) 0-1 targets e7-square
Morozevich vs A Anastasian, 2003 
(C10) French, 31 moves, 0-1

French, Rubinstein. Blackburne Def (C10) 0-1 #Philidor's Legacy
B Koester vs R Gralla, 1971 
(C10) French, 24 moves, 0-1

"Grin and Bareev It" (game of the day Apr-25-2008)
Topalov vs Bareev, 1994 
(C11) French, 23 moves, 0-1

"The Immortal Correspondence Game" (game of the day Jun-22-2012
A Sundin vs Erik Andersson, 1964 
(C16) French, Winawer, 29 moves, 1-0

the white Q must not abandon the N on penalty of mate by blackQ
K Opocensky vs Alekhine, 1925 
(C01) French, Exchange, 25 moves, 0-1

French Def: Tarrasch. Pawn Center Variation (C05) 0-1 17...?
Savon vs Gleizerov, 1991 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 25 moves, 0-1

French Exchange 5.Bd3 c5 (C01) 0-1 Very agressive Black pawns
V Gunina vs A Gupta, 2018
(C01) French, Exchange, 37 moves, 0-1

W Bialas vs Uhlmann, 1951 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 23 moves, 0-1

H Tohirjonova vs V Rozic, 2010
(C09) French, Tarrasch, Open Variation, Main line, 70 moves, 0-1

W Kuppe vs H Heinicke, 1947 
(C07) French, Tarrasch, 48 moves, 0-1

A Nimzowitsch vs Alapin, 1914  
(C11) French, 18 moves, 1-0

R Grau vs A Nimzowitsch, 1930 
(C01) French, Exchange, 26 moves, 0-1

P Johner vs A Nimzowitsch, 1926 
(E47) Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3, 40 moves, 0-1

M Paragua vs D Cilia Vincenti, 2004 
(C00) French Defense, 20 moves, 1-0

K Daoudi vs K M Johnsen, 2012
(C02) French, Advance, 45 moves, 1-0

B Gross vs M Kastor, 2000 
(C01) French, Exchange, 23 moves, 0-1

E Ambrosi vs N Aginian, 2008
(C11) French, 41 moves, 0-1

N Speijer vs Couvee, 1955 
(C14) French, Classical, 15 moves, 1-0

J Klavins vs Tal, 1949 
(C10) French, 18 moves, 0-1

M Pestalozzi vs D Duhm, 1900 
(C13) French, 18 moves, 1-0

Steinitz vs Maroczy, 1898 
(C02) French, Advance, 48 moves, 1/2-1/2

Maroczy vs Tartakower, 1908 
(C02) French, Advance, 36 moves, 1-0

A Nimzowitsch vs Rubinstein, 1911 
(C02) French, Advance, 55 moves, 1/2-1/2

A Nimzowitsch vs Tarrasch, 1912  
(C02) French, Advance, 41 moves, 1-0

A Nimzowitsch vs Spielmann, 1920 
(C02) French, Advance, 61 moves, 1-0

Tal vs Petrosian, 1956 
(C02) French, Advance, 26 moves, 1/2-1/2

Ivanchuk vs Bareev, 2002 
(C02) French, Advance, 50 moves, 1/2-1/2

Morozevich vs Bareev, 2002
(C02) French, Advance, 49 moves, 1-0

Ivanchuk vs Bareev, 2003
(C02) French, Advance, 21 moves, 1/2-1/2

F Papakanellos vs Z Goutioudis, 2001 
(C02) French, Advance, 47 moves, 0-1

Shirov vs V Zhuravliov, 1983 
(C10) French, 25 moves, 1-0

A Nimzowitsch vs Salwe, 1911  
(C02) French, Advance, 39 moves, 1-0

Alekhine vs A Nimzowitsch, 1931 
(C15) French, Winawer, 19 moves, 1-0

Lasker vs Capablanca, 1935 
(C15) French, Winawer, 64 moves, 1-0

Pachman vs Eckert, 1940 
(C13) French, 24 moves, 1-0

Duras vs Spielmann, 1912 
(C11) French, 49 moves, 1-0

Anand vs Shirov, 2000 
(C11) French, 28 moves, 1-0

M Ortueta Esteban vs J Sanz Aguado, 1933 
(C00) French Defense, 35 moves, 0-1

Tarrasch vs E Thorold, 1890 
(C07) French, Tarrasch, 56 moves, 1-0

Botvinnik vs Boleslavsky, 1941 
(C07) French, Tarrasch, 65 moves, 1-0

Bogoljubov vs Reti, 1923 
(C11) French, 42 moves, 0-1

A Liang vs Justin Fink, 2022
(C18) French, Winawer, 23 moves, 1-0

Tal vs Taimanov, 1954 
(C16) French, Winawer, 53 moves, 0-1

V Kirillov vs A S Blankstein, 1938 
(C04) French, Tarrasch, Guimard Main line, 10 moves, 0-1

B Koch vs H Nowarra, 1938 
(C02) French, Advance, 24 moves, 1-0

Topalov vs Bareev, 2002 
(C11) French, 27 moves, 1-0

J Kaplan vs Bronstein, 1975 
(C11) French, 26 moves, 0-1

French Rubinstein. Blackburne Defense (C10) 0-1 Simul
Alekhine vs A Tsvetkov, 1936 
(C10) French, 49 moves, 0-1

Korchnoi vs M Udovcic, 1967 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 31 moves, 1-0

Grischuk vs Bareev, 2001
(C02) French, Advance, 55 moves, 0-1

Grischuk vs Radjabov, 2002 
(C02) French, Advance, 34 moves, 1-0

Lasker vs E Delmonte, 1906 
(C10) French, 24 moves, 1-0

Short vs A Kosten, 1989 
(C18) French, Winawer, 43 moves, 1-0

Yates vs Olland, 1913 
(C11) French, 44 moves, 1-0

Carlsen vs Short, 2010 
(C10) French, 40 moves, 1-0

Carlsen vs T Gulbrandsen, 2002 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 35 moves, 1-0

French, Alekhine-Chatard Attack. Albin-Chatard Gambit (C13) 1-0
Stockfish vs AlphaZero, 2018  
(C13) French, 22 moves, 1-0

M Tseitlin vs Vladimirov, 1981 
(C15) French, Winawer, 17 moves, 1-0

French Advance Milner-Barry Gambit (C02) 0-1 Discovery on Q
B Wall vs A Brown, 1972 
(C02) French, Advance, 9 moves, 1-0

French Def. vs Wing Gambit (C00) 1-0 Greek gift 1st of 3 sacs!
F Cirabisi vs V Cugini, 1992 
(C00) French Defense, 15 moves, 1-0

qk
A Nimzowitsch vs Capablanca, 1911 
(C00) French Defense, 33 moves, 0-1

qk
Bondarevsky vs Botvinnik, 1941 
(C02) French, Advance, 29 moves, 0-1

qk
Kasparov vs Ivanchuk, 1995  
(C16) French, Winawer, 31 moves, 0-1

qk Korchnoi positional power in Winawer
Spassky vs Korchnoi, 1977 
(C18) French, Winawer, 40 moves, 0-1

qj
I Blek vs Tal, 1955 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 38 moves, 0-1

qj
E Kengis vs R Djurhuus, 1991 
(C05) French, Tarrasch, 20 moves, 0-1

93 games

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