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Boris Gelfand vs Alexey Shirov
Bazna Tournament (2009), Bazna ROM, rd 9, Jun-24
English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. King's Indian Formation (A15)  ·  1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Jun-25-09  percyblakeney: Gelfand missed a nice winning line in the endgame:

<58.f5!! White gives up all (!) his kingside pawns, wins the bishop and then it does not allow the opponent's king to come to a8: 58...exf5 (58...gxf5 59.h5) 59.e6 Bxe6 (59...fxe6 60.Kxg6) 60.h5 gxh5 61.g6 fxg6 62.Kxe6 Both opponents saw this idea, but they both thought it's a draw because the a8 is "wrong" coloured corner>

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Jun-25-09  hedgeh0g: Yeah. It's a pity, because it would have made for quite a brilliant finish!
Jun-25-09  maxfrank: 64 Kg7 Bc2 65 Kh6 Bd3 66 h5 gxh5 Then after 67g6 when ...Bxg6? loses to 68 Kxg6 h4 69Kg7 h3 70Kf6 h2 71Bxh2 wins; however, 67...Bc4 defends. After instead 67 Kxh5 Bc4 68e7 variations have a similar theme, e.g. ...Bf7+ 69 g6 Bg8 70Kh6 Kd7 71 Bb4 Ke8 72 Kg7 Bd5 73 Kh8 Bc4 74 g7 Bd5 75 g8/Q Bxg8 76Kxg8 and wins. Of course this is tablebase territory. In the above and similar lines 70...Be6 draws instead of 70...Kd7? Interesting ending!
Jun-29-09  luzhin: The key is what would follow AFTER the moves given by percyblakeney. After 58.f5!! exf5 59.e6 Bxe6 60.h5 gxh5 61.g6 fxg6 62.Kxe6 it looks as though 62...Kd8 would draw; but white plays 63.Kd5!!, with the idea 63...Kc8 64.Kc6 and the Black King can't get reach a8. So Shirov would have had to try 63...g5, but there would then follow 64.a4 f4 65.a5 f3 66.a6 f2 67.a7 f1=Q 68.a8=Q+ Kd7 69.Qa7+ Kd8 70.Qe7+ Kc8 71.Qc7 mate. So this is in fact one long forcing variation of 14 moves!
Jun-29-09  dhotts: Can somone explain why this is a draw. I don't see any way for Black to draw.
Jun-29-09  sheaf: <dhotts> this is a draw because white can not checkmate black..to elaborate a little bit : it is clear that white can not force a checkmate without promoting one of the pawns.., it appears that there is no way to promote the pawns without being captured...

To elaborate a little bit more.. suppose white plays Kh6, then the follwing holds a draw..Kh6 Ba2 Kg7 (g7 Bg8 and this is a light square fortress for instance if Kg6 then..Kd7 and white can't make progress)Bb1 Kh6 Ba2 Kg7 Ba2 ..and white can't push the pawn for 50 moves, which according to fide rules is a draw ;-)..

Jun-29-09  sheaf: and yes if Kh7 then keep the bishop on b1 h7 diagonal pinning the pawn so white king will have to go to h6 or g7 again..then repeat the algorithm to achieve the draw..

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