Éric Prié born 14 March 1962 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player, International Grandmaster since 1996, currently playing for Montpellier

Montpellier

-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....

 Échecs. He won the title of French Champion

French Chess Championship

The French Chess Championship is the annual, national chess tournament of France. It was officially first played in 1923after the formation of the Fédération Française des Echecs in 1921. The first unofficial national tournament was played in 1880, in the Café de la Régence, where further edition...

 in 1995 and of Paris Champion

Paris City Chess Championship

The first Paris City Chess Championship was held in 1925....

 in 1982, 1983, 1992 and 1996. He was part of the French team in the 29th

29th Chess Olympiad

The 29th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 16 and December 4, 1990, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.-References:...

, 31st

31st Chess Olympiad

The 31st Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between November 30 and December 17, 1994, in Moscow, Russia.- Chess competition :...

, and 32nd

32nd Chess Olympiad

The 32nd Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, took place between September 15 and October 2, 1996, in Yerevan, Armenia.- Chess competition :...

 Olympiads

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

.

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

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 Étienne Bacrot

Étienne Bacrot

Étienne Bacrot is a French chess grandmaster and currently ranked number one in France.He started playing at 4; by 10 young Bacrot was already winning junior competitions and in 1996, at 13 years of age, he won against Vasily Smyslov...

, Laurent Fressinet

Laurent Fressinet

Laurent Fressinet is a French chess Grandmaster. He is married to Almira Skripchenko.In October 2011 he tied for 3rd-15th in the open section of the 15th Corsican Circuit.-External links:*...

, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a French chess Grandmaster and the 2009 World Junior Chess Champion.-Grandmaster norms:He completed his final grandmaster norm at age 14 years, 4 months, in 2005....

 and Marie Sebag

Marie Sebag

Marie Sebag is a French chess player, who won the French Chess Championship for women in 2000 and 2002.-Tournament results:...

.

Blindfold Play

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

Simultaneous exhibition

A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display is a board game exhibition in which one player plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a "simul".In a regular simul, no chess clocks are used...

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, Jean-Claude Loubatière.

The Prié Attack

Prié gave his name to an opening

Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as initiated by White or defenses, as created in reply by Black. There are many dozens of different openings, and hundreds of named variants. The Oxford Companion to...

, the Prié Attack (ECO

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings is a classification system for the opening moves in a game of chess. It is presented as a five volume book collection describing chess openings...

 D00, Closed Game

Closed Game

A Closed Game, also called a Double Queen Pawn Opening, is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The move 1.d4 offers the same benefits to development and center control as does 1.e4, but unlike with the King Pawn openings where the e4 pawn is undefended after the first move, the d4 pawn is...

) : 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

Slav Defense

The Slav Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves: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 explored extensively...

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

Transposition (chess)

A transposition in chess is a sequence of moves that results in a position which may also be reached by another, more common sequence of moves. Transpositions are particularly common in opening, where a given position may be reached by different sequences of moves...

 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 GM Glenn Flear

Glenn Flear

Glenn Curtis Flear is a British chess grandmaster now living in Montpellier, France. He is the author of several books, some on chess openings and some on the endgame....

 in 2005, in Lattes

Lattes, Hérault

Lattes is a commune in the Hérault département in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-References:...

.

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).