The premises of Lyon Olympique Échecs in the city of Lyon are steeped in history. In 1990, the World Chess Championship match was held there between the two legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. From 16 to 24 August 2025, this splendid venue hosted the 84th French Championship.
The playing and analysis rooms were very well arranged, but they had one major drawback during this period of extreme heat: there was no air conditioning. Needless to say, during the first days of the competition, from Saturday to Tuesday, participants’ bodies were put to a severe test, before the temperatures dropped significantly starting on Wednesday.
The game I am going to present to you is the one from the second round, between Jean D’Almeida (White) and myself, played precisely during this period of extreme heat.
Before I begin, I will first provide some context.
To start, I will say a few words about myself and the way I approach the championship.
I was the defending champion, and there is always a certain pressure on the shoulders of someone defending their title. There are strong players who can legitimately claim the title and who will try to take advantage of my weak moments. There are also less ambitious players who are solid, hard to beat, and will do everything they can to achieve a draw. In all my games, I try to create something in order to play for a win. That is my competitive side.
In addition, I am a true record-seeker: the number of national titles, the number of games won in the National series (NB: The top division of the championship), and so on. That is what motivates me, after all these years, to continue playing at a high level. The fact that I am not a professional player also contributes to this.
When I talk about the way I have organized my life, I often refer to the image of a stool with three legs: family, work, and leisure. These three legs must be balanced. If one leg is too short or too long compared to the others, the whole structure becomes unstable and everything eventually collapses. In my life, checkers remains in the category of leisure; I do not need to worry about the results beyond my own ego, and it therefore remains a source of pleasure.
Next, I will say a few words about my relationship with my opponent. Let’s just say that, before the start of the game, it was rather “cold.”
D’Almeida was elected president of the French Draughts Federation at the end of 2002, after several somewhat chaotic years. Not knowing him very well, I offered at the time to take on a few functions. In practice, I created the very first version of the FFJD website and held the position of chairman of the technical council, which was responsible for making decisions on technical matters inherent to the FFJD, such as the management of the national ranking.
A little over a year later, I resigned from my positions, handing over the management of the website at the time to former French champion Nicolas Guibert (who, by the way, significantly improved it) and the chairmanship of the technical council to another former French champion, Thierry Delmotte. The reason for my departure was the very unpleasant impression that the president neglected all matters that did not interest him while fully monopolizing those that did, to the point of no longer listening to advice from others, even when it was their role to give it. This impression only grew over the years, with a president who, in my opinion, showed unjustified authoritarianism and caused several players to quit the game entirely. I also felt that the president categorized anyone who did not think like him as foolish. Of course, all this is very subjective, but it forms the background of our polite yet tense relationship.
To balance this, I will add that D’Almeida was a good administrator: the FFJD’s finances were solid, administrative formalities were correctly handled, and so on. He was also a good tournament director, for instance in sending young players to various championships, especially since there was at that time no real tournament director; the last ones had resigned.
Next, let us look at the previous encounters between us.
I always prepare my openings before each game. Nothing overly elaborate, but I try to clearly identify my opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as his preferred style, in order to choose, whenever possible, something that will take him off his usual path, in any case outside of his comfort zone. My opponent tends to simplify a lot, often plays the same openings with the driest continuations (from my point of view), and frequently uses the same type of play. Because he knows these well, they require very little thinking time. It is therefore essentially up to me to “make the game,” so as not to allow a tasteless draw (or worse).
In the two previous encounters where I had the black pieces, in 2016 and 2024, I responded to his 32-28 with 20-25, and the game quickly turned in my favor. Unlike other responses to 32-28 (since my opponent will play this move, as surely as two plus two equals four), he does not continue with “boring” variations. For this reason, I decided to repeat this style…
Toernooibase: D'Almeida - Cordier