Éric Prié (), born 14 March 1962 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, is a French

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player,

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...

since 1996, currently playing for

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

Échecs. He won the title of French Champion in 1995 and of Paris Champion in 1982, 1983, 1992 and 1996. He was part of the French team in the 29th, 31st, and 32nd

Olympiads An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until Hippias that a cons ...

. On the March 2011 FIDE list, Prié has an Elo rating of 2508, ranking 737th in the world and 26th in France.

Chess Activities

In the French Chess Federation

Prié is an FFE trainer and teacher to trainers. He was the national technical director of the French federation from September 1998 to October 2001, then national trainer to the young players until July 2005. As such, he was one of the trainers of

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Laurent Fressinet Laurent Fressinet (; born 30 November 1981 in Dax) is a French chess grandmaster. He is a two-time French Chess Champion. Career He won the French Chess Championship in 2010 and 2014. In 2012 he finished second in the European Individual Ches ...

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster who is a former World Blitz Chess Championship, World Blitz Champion. With a peak Elo rating system, ra ...

and Marie Sebag.

Blindfold Play

Prié is considered France's top blindfold player. He gave many

simultaneous exhibition A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition (commonly chess or Go) in which one player (typically of high rank, such as a grandmaster or dan-level player) plays multiple games at a time with a number of other pl ...

s without seeing the board, against up to 16 opponents.

Verses

Prié wrote several texts in verses, some of which related to chess, such as those dedicated to the young French player Jules Moussard and the former president of the

French Chess Federation The French Chess Federation (French : ''Fédération Française des Echecs'' – ''FFE'') is the national organization for chess in France. The president is Éloi Relange, the vice-presidents are Laurie Delorme and Jean-Baptiste Mullon and the ...

, Jean-Claude Loubatière.

The Prié Attack

Prié gave his name to an

opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...

, the Prié Attack ( ECO D00,

Closed Game A Closed Game (or Double Queen's Pawn Opening) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. d4 d5 The move 1.d4 offers the same benefits to and as does 1.e4, but unlike with the king's pawn openings where the e4-pawn is undefended after ...

) : 1.d4 d5 2.a3 (diagram). He explained that this move prevents Black from playing the useful move Bb4 and, in some variations, prepares the b2-b4 pawn advance. The latter idea is akin to playing a

Slav Defense The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. d4 d5 :2. c4 c6 The Slav is one of the primary defenses to the Queen's Gambit. Although it was analyzed as early as 1590, it was not until the 1920s that it started to be ...

, Chebanenko Variation (also called Chameleon Variation), with reversed colors. Other move orders

transpose In linear algebra, the transpose of a Matrix (mathematics), matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal; that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other ...

into this system, e.g. 1.d4 e6 2.a3 d5. This opening addresses the problem of excessive theoretical preparation among high-level chess players by playing a sane but unusual system, which forces Black to think from the start of the game instead of reciting moves learnt by heart. Prié reached that goal by successfully playing his opening against amateurs, but also against titled players.

Notable Game

The following game was played by Éric Prié against British grandmaster Glenn Flear in 2005, in Lattes. 1.d4 d5 2.a3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nbd7 4.Bf4 g6 5.h3 Bg7 6.e3 0–0 7.Nbd2 b6 8.c3 Bb7 9.Qb3 Ne4 10.Rd1 Nxd2 11.Rxd2 e5 12.dxe5 Qe7 13.Be2 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Bxe5 15.Bxe5 Qxe5 16.0–0 Rfd8 17.Rfd1 Rd6 18.Bf3 Rad8 19.Qa4 a5 20.c4 c6 21.cxd5 cxd5 Black now has an isolated central pawn, but he cannot use the c and e columns. Moreover, White can efficiently blockade this pawn, which is thus a weakness for Black. 22.Rd4 Qe7 23.Rc1 Qd7 24.Qxd7 R8xd7 25.Rcd1 f5 26.g4 fxg4 27.hxg4 h6 28.Kg2 Kf7 29.Kg3 Rd8 (diagram) 30.e4!! In spite of appearance, it turns out that the d5-pawn is not sufficiently protected. 30...Ke6 31.exd5+ Bxd5 32.Bxd5+ Rxd5 33.Re1+ Kf6 34.Rf4 Kg5 35.Rf7 Rd3+ 36.f3 R8d5 37.Re6 h5 38.Rff6 hxg4 39.Rxg6+ Kf5 40.Kh4!! Threatening Rgf6 mate. 40...Kf4 41.Rgf6+ Rf5 42.fxg4 Rxf6 43.Rxf6+ Ke4 44.Rxb6 1–0 (Black resigns).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prie, Eric 1962 births Living people Chess Grandmasters French chess players Chess theoreticians Chess coaches Chess players from Paris Chess Olympiad competitors