The Practical Endgame / Instruction
Instead of Resigning …
Each month GM Naroditsky will present two problems taken from actual games that illustrate the theme of this month’s column. Your task is to find the best line of play. Problem I should be solveable by a player at roughly a 1500 rating and Problem II by a player roughly at a 2000 rating.
See the solutions on page 71. BLACK TO MOVE BLACK TO MOVE
PROBLEM I: 1500 LEVEL GM Magnus Carlsen (FIDE 2690) GM Veselin Topalov (FIDE 2783) Morelia/Linares, 02.22.2007
PROBLEM II: 2000 LEVEL GM Wang Hao (FIDE 2727) GM Boris Gelfand (FIDE 2739) Moscow, 11.12.2010
on a terribly convincing optical illusion: the f6- pawn does not actually prevent Black’s king from defending c7. To be sure, the king cannot go past the d-file, but it does have access to three squares from where it simultaneously defends the c7- pawn and restrains White’s passer. Concretely, after 52. ... Ke6 53. Kf3 Kf7 54. Ke4 Ke6 55. Kd4 Kd6 56. Kc4 Ke6 57. Kc5 Kd7 58. Kd5 Ke8 White has no way to make progress.
WHITE TO MOVE Black is two steps away from reestablishing
material equality and obtaining a life-saving outside passer. But Shirov thwarts his plan in the nick of time:
49. g5!, Black resigned. After considering the situation, Timman saw
which way the wind was blowing and promptly extended his hand. After 49. ... Kd6 50. h4 Kxc6 51. f5 Kd6 (51. ... gxf5 52. h5 Kd6 and White promotes with the typical breakthrough 53. g6 hxg6 54. h6!) 52. f6 (Diagram), White establishes a monstrous (usually winning) protected passer.
Both 59. Kc6 Kd8 and 59. Ke6 Kf8 lead
nowhere: White, not Black, is the one in Zugzwang! He can try 60. f7 (in the line 59. Kc6 Kd8) but after 60. ... Ke7 61. Kxc7 Kxf7 62. Kd7 Kf8 63. Ke6 Ke8 it is time to sign the scoresheets. Triangulation is similarly useless: Black’s king stays between f7 and f8, meeting Kd5 or Kc5 with … Ke8. But that is not all: White can set a devilish trap with 54. Kg4!? Ke6 55. h5.
The point is that 63. ... Ke7 64. Kxc7 Kxf7 65.
Kd7 is no longer a draw, since Black will lose the g6-pawn (and the game) sooner or later. Thus, 56. ... Kxg6! 57. Kf4 Kf7 58. Ke5 c5 59. Kd5 h6! is the only path to a draw. For once, the moral of the story can be
expressed in three words: never say never! There are times when resigning is the morally and ethically correct thing to do, but it is your prerogative—and your obligation—to continue fighting until every defensive try has been exhausted. Savielly Tartakower said it best: No game was ever won by resigning!
ANALYSIS DIAGRAM There seems to be nothing to calculate: with
Black’s king eternally handcuffed to the f6-pawn, White’s own monarch will eliminate Black’s defenseless passer, and then finish the job on the kingside. This is probably the line of reasoning that led Timman to flick over his king. In fact, it is based
ANALYSIS DIAGRAM There are two pitfalls that Black must avoid.
Did you know you could read archival copies of “The Practical Endgame” (and all columns and features)? Go to
uschess.org and click on the “Archives” link below the “CHESS LIFE MAGAZINE” header and you will be taken to an archives page that dates to 2006. You can also download full-issue PDFs by clicking on the “Downloadable Files” link below the “Archives” link.
www.uschess.org 49
The first is 55. ... gxh5+?, which enables White to reach a theoretically winning queen endgame with 56. Kxh5 c5 (56. ... Kf7 57. Kh6 Kg8 58. f7+! is even worse, since White promotes first) 57. Kh6 c4 58. Kg7 c3 59. f7 c2 60. f8=Q c1=Q 61. Qf6+ Kd5 62. Kxh7. The only move is therefore 55. ... Kf7, but 56. hxg6+ confronts him with yet another dilemma. The most tempting recapture is 56. ... hxg6??, but the absence of the h-pawns corrupts Black’s drawing mechanism: following 57. Kf4 Ke6 58. Ke4 Kd6 59. Kd4 Ke6 60. Kc5 Kd7 61. Kd5 Ke8 62. Kc6 Kd8, the aforementioned 63. f7 comes with far greater effect.
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