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Cover Story / The Struggle OUTRO S cene: Gopal and I after 12 hours of chess,


three 90+30 games on a Saturday, exhausted, still willing to click through games from


the database, scrounging whatever late-night leftovers we can find after the finish of the third round. Outside, a dark calm has settled over Iowa City in the distance. The storms have stopped. Most of the city is asleep. Gopal takes his first cigarette break of the day


now, just after midnight. He is trying to quit, and going from 8 a.m. 15 hours to nearly 1 a.m. is a strong step in the right direction from his old three- to-four smokes per match regimen he used to engage in. I step into some sandals and take the elevator down with him past the remaining members of the wedding party, across the patterned marble floor, underneath the exquisite glass chandelier, through the revolving hotel doors and outside into the surprisingly warm night air. We stand beneath the facade of the Marriott and he pulls one out of the pack and lights it. A blonde with a Southern accent from the party inside approaches us and asks for one; he obliges. We stand quietly in a half circle, unspeaking, unwinding. When it’s over, he nods and the two of us head back to the room. In the elevator on the way up, Gopal sighs and puts his elbow against the cabin. He knows I am stressed about the morning game. I need a good event after all the summer’s work. “Tomorrow,” he says with a half-smile, “just


channel your inner Tiviakov, right?” “Right.”


Black’s life much harder—82. ... Rg6 Black’s king will shepherd the pawn home while the rook on the sixth rank keeps White’s passers (should he take on e5) under control 83. Rxe5 Ka2.


83. a6 Rg6?


the pawn under careful guard. Best is 83. ... Rg7 when Black keeps matters under control, but it’s still rather hairy: 84. Ke2 b3 85. Kd2 (85. Rxe5 b2) 85. ... Ra7 86. Rxe5 Rxa6 87. Kc1 White can get the king in front of the pawn but leaves his f3- pawn unguarded. 87. ... Rc6+ 88. Kb1 Rc3.


84. a7 Ra6 85. Ke2? Presented with an unexpected drawing chance,


Making life harder, better was to preserve the


connected passers with 79. ... Ra6. A weird Zugzwang would arise after this move. Either White can take on e5 and let Black’s active king gobble the queenside or he could move the rook away from the fifth rank which would in turn free Black’s rook to go and pester the king. 80. Rc8 (80. Rxe5 Kc3) 80. ... Rh6 (If White tries to keep the rook at bay) 81. Kg2 Ke3 The black king can’t be driven away and the white kingside pawns disappear one by one.


80. Rxa5 Kc3 81. Rd5 Kxb3 82. a5 Ka4? Again, with little time on the clock this makes


White lets it all go. After Black’s passer claims the life of the white rook, the black king and rook will be just in time to hamper the activity of the king and passed pawn(s).


85. ... Rxa7 86. Rxe5 b3 87. Kd2 Ka3 88. Rb5 b2 89. e5 Ka2 90. Kd3 b1=Q+ 91. Rxb1 Kxb1 92. Ke4 Ra4+ 93. Kf5 Kc2, White resigned.


And this spoils it. By letting White advance the


pawn to a7. Black’s rook is forced to take up babysitting duty. White will guard the a7-pawn from the seventh rank and stop Black from queening. The time Black will take to push the pawn forward and support it with the king allows White to approach with his own king and keep


The pawn is halted and a sigh of relief breathed


with both players utterly exhausted from this intense struggle. An example of how pure determi- nation to win can carry anyone through positions which seem “unwinnable” or, in many cases, outright dangerous. As Tartakower once famously stated “The mistakes are there, waiting to be made.”


www.uschess.org 27


(Clockwise from above): James Neal versus Petros Karagianis (right); Mark Capron, Iowa Open organizer; Valeriy Kosokin versus GM Alex Yermolinsky (right).


PHOTO CREDIT: BETHANY CARSON


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