| Nov-21-08 | | cinek: After 106. Ke4 is a draw. Only 106. Kd5 wins. |
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Nov-21-08
 | | Gilmoy: <22..Nf5 23.Bf2 31.g3> hobbles Black's N. White has the patient plan of <32.h3 44.g4> to force a painful retreat, with a crushing space advantage. As White owns d4 twice, and the c5-diagonal, Black can't contest d for an Nd4. <34..Ra8> seeks counterplay against b3, or an R-Q invasion on 1 -- White promptly snuffs it with a Q trade. <47.g5> creates a <benzene ring>! 106.Kd6 wins by seizing the 6th. Black must have resigned immediately after <105..Kf7>, and the spurious <106.Ke4> is a mediator's move, centralizing the Kings after the game is already over. |
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| Mar-07-10 | | asianwarrior: This is good material for ebdgame study.Even Blacks 229 Elo point adbantage can not save him in this kind of position. |
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| Sep-25-10 | | DaveyL: <Gilmoy: <47.g5> creates a <benzene ring>!? Half black and half white. Maybe one of the bonding orbitals :-) |
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Sep-25-10
 | | al wazir: 101...Ba1 doesn't save black: 102. Ra5 Bb2 103. Kb3 Bg7 104. Ra8+, etc. The white  can still seize the opposition. |
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Sep-25-10
 | | whiteshark: Bazar was utterly devastated when his  left him. |
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| Sep-25-10 | | goodevans: <al wazir: 101...Ba1 doesn't save black: 102. Ra5 Bb2 103. Kb3 Bg7 104. Ra8+, etc. The white can still seize the opposition.> Yes, after this line white still wins. The battleground is the 4-square formed by d5+d6+e6+e5. Whichever king reaches this first will win. Even though in the above line the white king is a move further away he still reaches it first. However ...
I have to admit that endgames have never been my forte and sometimes the obvious passes me by, but what's wrong with <103 ... Bd4>? |
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| Sep-25-10 | | TheRavenPK: <goodevans> 103..Bd4 is obviously wrong, because it is not possible. It allows White to choose which piece to take on his 104th move - bishop or king. |
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| Sep-25-10 | | goodevans: <TheRavenPK: <goodevans> 103..Bd4 is obviously wrong, because it is not possible. It allows White to choose which piece to take on his 104th move - bishop or king.> Please read the whole of my post. I was of course referring to the line I had been discussing in the previous paragraphs. After <101 ... Ba1 102 Ra5 Bb2 103 Kb3 Bd4> none of black's pieces are en prise. Whenever I come across something that is <obviously wrong> I tend to check first that I haven't misunderstood the situation rather than immediately assume someone else's stupidity. |
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Sep-25-10
 | | Phony Benoni: <goodevans> is correct. No, I'm not an endgame wizard, but I have no compunction about looking these things up at the six-piece Nalimov tablebase available at http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=... The key idea for Black is to keep his bishop on the long diagonal (a1-h8). Then the White king cannot approach the g-pawn, and the White rook cannot perform both tasks of attacking the g-pawn and keeping Black's king back. As it turns out, White can never dominate all of the bishop's safe squares along the diagonal. The bishop simply has to avoid the fatal squares g7 and h8 whenever White will be able to engineer a trade and win with his better king/pawn position. Besides 101...Ba1, Black can also draw with 101...Bf4 according to the tablebase, but that looks unnecessarily tricky when the drawing plan is so simple. You can watch the drawing plan in action after 92.Kxe6. Black seems to have the right idea; I suppose the blunder was due more to fatigue or the clock rather than lack of knowledge. |
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Sep-25-10
 | | thegoodanarchist: Nice work! Always keep in mind the King and pawn endgame, since some of those are elementary wins. |
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Sep-25-10
 | | Peligroso Patzer: I am really astonished by Miton’s 101. Bg7?, which obviously loses, since it allows White to force a pawn ending in which his King can reach d6. (Since White’s pawn is on the 5th rank, the pawn ending is a win if the White King reaches the 6th rank within 3 files of the file on which the pawns stand, so d6 is a winning square.) As the tablebase referenced by <Phony Benoni> verifies, 101. Ba1 would have held. |
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Sep-25-10
| | Peligroso Patzer: BTW, since Miton’s losing error (<101. … Bg7?>) was presumably due to fatigue after 100+ moves, he might have chosen to play on a little longer to see if Hatanbaatar might return the favor. The point is that with the pawns on a Knight file (b-file or g-file), there is a drawing trap in the pawn ending, viz., if the game had continued <106. Kd6 Kf8 107. Ke6 Kg8 108. Kf6 Kh7 109. Kf7 Kh8 110. Kxg6 Kg8>, the following position would have arisen: 
click for larger view
White now should continue <111. Kh6>, but if tired or careless, he might play <111. Kf6?!>, which does not throw away the win, but does give Black the chance to try for a trap with <111. … Kh7!?>. If White now plays <112. g6+?> (instead of <112. Kf7!>, which allows White to return to the position in the diagram where moving his King to the edge of the board, <Kh6>, still wins), then <112. … Kh8> draws due to the fact that now <113. Kf7> is stalemate, as is <113. g7+ Kg8 114. Kg6>. I suppose the technique of winning from the diagrammed position is too basic to insult a player rated 2375 by requiring him to prove it, but I would have thought that the technique to know to avoid <101. ... Bg7?> was too basic for even a very tired GM to fall into it. In any case, the technique of correctly playing from the diagrammed position is one every club player should know, but in some cases do not. |
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| Sep-25-10 | | Nova: Just a thought here, instead of 90...Bb2 would e5 be a better move? White would not be able to harass the black bishop anymore and there would be chances for a passed pawn. If white tried to create mating threats, black could push the pawn and create some counter chances. Any thoughts on this? |
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Sep-25-10
| | Peligroso Patzer: <Nova> It seems to me that <90. ... e5> would not have been good because after <91. Kf6> in reply, White is winning the Black g-pawn. The resulting passed pawn on g5 would give White a theoretical win (as can be verified by the tablebase available at http://www.k4it.de/index.php?topic=...) in a position such as would have resulted after the further <91. Kf6 Kh7 (91. ... e4+? 92. Rxd4  ) 92. Rh3+ Kg8 93. Kxg6>: 
click for larger view In contrast, Black was still holding after <90. … Bb2> until he blundered with <101. … Bg7?>. (See comments above.) |
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| Sep-25-10 | | rapidcitychess: I love how blacks piece play melts up as soon as the quuen's are traded off. Look at the position after blacks 36th move.
Then look at it after white's 45th.
A very striking difference, not quite the spittin image. |
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Sep-27-10
 | | kevin86: Funny,when white was the exchange ahead,he could not win-but with just kings and pawns,he could muscle his opponent's king away and win. |
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sac: 104.Rxg7+