|
|
|
Endgame CornerKarsten Müller
Translate this page
|
Pawn Endgame Exercises II Pawn endings are deceptively simple. The road to mastery can be paved by knowing a few techniques. One of the most important is the opposition. It is the main weapon when the king fights to occupy one of three adjacent key squares. 130.01 Potkin, Vladimir (2682) – Grischuk, Alexander
(2746)
47...Kb6? Golubev showed the way in Chess Today #3957: 47...Kc7! 48.Kc3 (I add 48.b5 Kb6 49.Kb4 e3 50.Kc3 Kxb5 51.Kd3 Kb4 52.Kxe3 Kc3–+
Opposition. For the way to convert it, see the game continuation below.) 48...Kb6 49.Kc4 Kc6, and now 50.Kd4 Kb5 51.Kc3 e3 52.Kd3 Kxb4 53.Kxe3 Kc3–+ Opposition; 47...Kb7–+ wins as well. 48.Kb3? Too passive. The active 48.b5! saves the day: 48...Kc7 (48...Ka5 49.Kc5 e3 50.b6 e2 51.b7 e1Q 52.b8Q= (Golubev)) 49.Kd4 Kb7 50.Kc3! Kb6 51.Kc4 e3 52.Kd3 Kxb5 53.Kxe3 Kc4 54.Ke2=
Diagonal opposition is when all corners of the rectangle around the kings have the same color: in this case the light squares. The side not on move has the opposition: here White. 48...Kb5 49.Kc3 e3 50.Kd3 Kxb4 51.Kxe3 Kc3!
Normal Opposition. 52.Ke2 Kc2
Opposition on the main line, which goes through the middle of the three key squares e1, e2, and e3. 52...Kc4? is an error, as the opposition after 53.Kd2 Kd4 is not enough:
This cannot be improved to the opposition in the direction left to right: 54.Ke2 Ke4 55.Kf2 Kd3 56.Kf3!=
White has the all important opposition. 53.Ke3 53.Ke1 Kd3–+. 53...Kd1! The typical way to exploit the opposition. 54.Kf2 The counterattack 54.Kd4 Ke2 55.Ke5 Kf3 56.Kf6 Kxg3 57.Kxg6
runs into 57...Kg4!!–+. 54...Kd2 55.Kf3 55.Kf1 Ke3–+. 55...Ke1
Finally, the king has penetrated to a key square. This prooves that Black wins. 56.Ke3 After 56.Kg2 Ke2 57.Kg1 Kf3 58.Kh2 Kf2 59.Kh3 Kg1, White must throw himself onto his own sword:
60.g4 hxg4+ 61.Kg3 Kf1 62.Kh2 Kf2–+. 56...Kf1 57.Kf3 Kg1 0–1 Exercises (Solutions next month) E130.01 Carbone, Stefano (1911) – Naumkin, I (2486)
Why was 61.g3–g4 a blunder? E130.02 Langer, M (2180) – Panjwani, R (2420)
Where should White's king go? E130.03 Guerrero, Alv (2210) – Bassan, R (2356)
White to move and draw. E130.04 Garcia Sanchez Navarro, M (1573) – Perez
Ortego, A (1581)
How to assess the position with Black to move? E130.05 Banas, J (2320) – Petenyi, T (2398)
Black to move and win. E130.06 Kalmachevskikh, V (2293) – Kabanov, N (2520)
White to move and draw. E130.07 Kiewra, K (2351) – Khachiyan, M (2505)
White to move and win. E130.08 Rasulov, Vu (2523) – Javanbakht, N (2311)
Solutions to last month exercises E129.01 Howell, D (2625) – Ansell, S (2410)
Black has just played 32...Rb1. How to react? Howell reacted forcefully with 33.Rxa6! 33.Rxb1?? Rc6#. 33...Bxd3 33...Bb7 34.Rh2 Ke8 (34...Bxa6 35.Rh8#) 35.Rh8+ Kf7 36.Rxc8 Bxc8 37.Ra8 Bb7 38.Rb8+–; 33...Rd1 34.Rh2+–. 34.Rh2! Bxa6 35.Rh8# 1–0 E129.02 Girish, A Koushik (2309) – Grandelius, Nils
(2542)
Who comes first: White's attack or Black's pawns? (White to move) Girish uncorked 32.Re1!, which weaves a mating net. Black can neither escape nor bring in defenders. 32...g5 32...Kf6 33.g4 g5 (33...Rd7 34.g5+ Kf5 35.Re5#; 33...e5 34.Rxa7 e4+ 35.Ke3+–) 34.f5 e5 35.Rxa7 e4+ 36.Rxe4 Nxe4 37.Kxe4 c3 38.Kd3+–. 33.g4+ Kg6 33...Kf6 34.f5+-. 34.Reh1 gxf4 35.R1h6+ Kg5 36.Re6 1–0 E129.03 Mazi, L (2332) – Beliavsky, A (2613)
How did Beliavsky close the net? Black closed the escape road with 77...Kf4!, and White resigned because of 78.Ng1 (78.c6?! Rh1#) 78...d2–+. E129.04 Rombaldoni, Ax (2459) – Rombaldoni, D (2495)
Why was 66.c5-c6?? a blunder? It was a blunder because of 66...Rc3! 0–1 When Rh3 mate cannot be avoided in the long run. E129.05 Sokolov, Ivan (2672) – Collutiis, D (2468)
How did Sokolov win? Sokolov found a nice finish: 53.Nd6+ Kb8 54.c7+ 1–0 54.Rb7+ Ka8 55.c7 wins as well. Black resigned because of 54...Rxc7 55.Rd8+ Rc8 56.Rxc8#. E129.06 Rombaldoni, D (2495) – Braga, F (2447)
White to move and win. White wins in a direct attack: 51.Qc8+! The right way. Both 51.Qf8+? Kg4= and 51.Qb1+? e4= lead to nothing. 51...Ke4 51...Kf6? 52.Qf8#. 52.f3+! 1–0
Rombaldoni's tactical point. Black resigned because of 52...Kxf3 (52...Kxd5 53.Qg8++–) 53.Qh3+ Ke4 54.Qh1+ The queen uses the whole board. 54...Kf5 55.Qf3+ Qf4 56.Bxf4 exf4 57.Qh3++–. E129.07 Bu Xiangzhi (2675) – Gupta, Abhijeet (2627)
White won with a surprising shot. Can you find it? Bu uncorked the amazing shot 61.f4!! 1–0 Black resigned because of 61...Qxf4 (61...Bxf4 62.Bd1+ Kh6 63.Qh8+ Kg5 64.h4#) 62.Bd1+ Kh6 63.Qh8+ Kg5 64.h4+ Qxh4 65.Qd8++–, as given in Chess Today #3953. E129.08 Miezis, Normunds (2520) – Bauer, Christian
(2637)
Find the quickest win for Black! Bauer missed the shortest road to victory: 115...Ng4+?! 115...Ng5!? closes the net immediately: 116.h7 Ng4+ 117.Kh1 Ne4 118.h8Q Ng3#. 116.Kh3 Kf3 117.Kh4 Ngf6 118.Kh3 Ne4 119.Kh2 Kf2 120.Kh3 Nef6 ½–½ Most likely the draw was agreed because of the fifty-move rule. From a theoretical point of view, Black is still winning. The h-pawn has crossed the Troitzky line, but White's king is imprisoned in a losing zone. © 2012 ChessCafe.com. All Rights Reserved. A PDF file of this month's column, along with all previous columns, is available in the ChessCafe.com Archives. Comment on this month's column via our Contact Page! Pertinent responses will be posted below daily. |
Purchases from our
|
|
|
|
[ChessCafe
Home Page] [Book
Review] [Columnists] © 2012 BrainGamz, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
|
