Krishnan Sasikiran vs Yifan Hou (2011)

Krishnan Sasikiran vs Yifan Hou
Airports Authority of India (2011) · Catalan, Open, Classical line (E05) · 1-0

To move:

Last move:

explore this opening	find similar games	5 more Sasikiran/Yifan Hou games
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Jun-25-11		Ragh: zugzwang in the end!!

Jun-25-11		shivasuri4: 36...Nc5 was the losing blunder here.36...Ke8 would have drawn comfortably.Possibly a result of time pressure. 28...Rxd4 would have given black excellent winning chances due to the resulting bind after 29.Qxb4(if 29.Qxd4 Rxd4 30.Rxd4 Nxb3 wins due to the queen side pawn cluster.) 29...axb4 30.Rxd4 Rxd4 31.Na5(almost forced due to the threat of Nxb3 and Rxc4,winning a key pawn.)(If 31.Nb2,Nxe4 is decisive.) 31...e5.

Jun-25-11		moodini: I am not convinced that it is zugzwang. With white to move in the final position Nd7+ followed by e7 looks like a win to me. Zugzwang would mean that if black could 'pass' then she would be ok.

Jun-26-11		kdogphs: Black is in zugzwang...

Jun-26-11		kellmano: I agree with <moodini>

Jun-27-11		TheChessGuy: The final position is a zugzwang for Black. She loses in all variations and this is why: her king on f8 lost the opposition and can't impede the progress of White's passed pawn. The only legal move for the king is to go to g7, to which Sasi would reply 67.e7, forcing the loss of Black's knight for the pawn. Back to the initial position, Black to move after 66.Kd8!, the only other piece she can move is the knight (the g5 pawn is blocked by its opposite number on g4). If Hou's knight goes to f4, h4, e5, or h8, White queens by force. On 66...Ne7, Sasikiran would play 67.Nd7+ and her knight would again drop. The best line for Hou leaves her defending a lost pawn against pawn and piece endgame with 66...Kg7 67.e7 Nxe7 68.Kxe7 Kh6. The computer rules this a forced checkmate in 13, but human technique can bring home the full point as well.

Mar-14-12		moodini: <TheChessGuy> I happened to revisit the game. Zugzwang does not mean "winning in all variations". That is what "winning" means. Check out the definition of Zugzwang on Wikipedia. Zugzwang means that it is the compulsion to move that means that the player loses. In this case, even if black could 'pass', white still has a winning continuation.

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This game is type: CLASSICAL (Disagree? Please submit a correction slip.)