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James Tarjan vs Bent Larsen
Riga Interzonal (1979), Riga URS, rd 15, Sep-26
Queen's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation. General (E15)  ·  1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jul-10-08  4tmac: WHITE saves the draw with 71.K-e3 (then again with 74.K-e3) WHITE must prevent the premature advancement of blacks king or playing the white pawn to h3.
Feb-07-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  woldsmandriffield: An interesting ending. Larsen went for the highly questionable exchange 63..Nf3+? (63..g5 should win) 64 Nxf3+ Rxf3.

These positions (R + NP & BP vs R + RP) are not easy for the defender and here Tarjan's pieces are poorly placed. So he should have done something about this with 65 Ke1! and if 66..Kh6 67 Ra2 Kh5 68 Ke2 Rf5 69 Ra7 g6 70 Ra4 and White should draw with careful defense.

Tarjan went instead 65 Rg2? which is not a good square for the Rook. Now a winning plan is 65..Kh6 66 Ke2 Ra3! Cutting off the 3rd rank and threatening Ra2+ is a killer. What else can White try here? If 66 Ke1 g5 67 Ra2 f5 68 Ra8 Kh5 69 Ke2 Kg4 70 Ra1 Rb3 again winning.

Larsen surrendered his control of the 3rd rank with 66..Rf4? and Tarjan said "thank you very much" and got out of jail with 66 Ke3.

Unfortunately for Larsen, the K + P ending after 68..Rh4 was drawn. There is nice use of the opposition: 71 Ke3! & 74 Ke3!

Dec-11-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  Plaskett: woldsmandriffield´s comments about the missed (really, trivial win) after 65 Rg2? are correct. Indeed 65...Ra3 immediately did the trick.
But Larsen also missed a very easy win with TWO extra pawns Vs Torre in the 1973 Interzonal, also in the USSR, in Leningrad. His 68...Rh4? entered a drawn pawn ending.
He should have played 68...Kf5 when it is by no means clear to me that Tarjan, with his king cut off, may yet hold. Would you believe that in the other 1979 Interzonal, in Rio de Janeiro, that same pawn ending arose? And Vaganian, soon to attain a ranking of World Number Three, lost it with white! His opponent, Sunye, used a little known trick which had, they say, been found in the mid 1950s. Sunye´s second was the almost peerless endgame expert GM Pal Benko, who doubtless demonstrated it to him during the adjournment. Vaganian vs J Sunye Neto, 1979 Vaganian could have held with 61 Ke2!
The correct co-ordinate square was discussed by someone else who was there, seconding a Soviet woman player, the late Mark Dvoretsky in his Dvoretsky´s Endings Manual. I actually wrote an article for CHESS magazine in the fall of 2019 which I completed just a few days before Benko, at age 91, passed away, in which I mentioned the very ending.

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