Walter Browne vs Joel Benjamin (1985)

Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players ·

Kibitzing

Walter Browne vs Joel Benjamin
United States Championship (1985), Estes Park, CO USA, rd 13, Nov-??
Queen's Indian Defense: Petrosian Variation (E12) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

explore this opening	find similar games	20 more Browne/Benjamin games
	PGN: download \| view \| print	Help: general \| java-troubleshooting

TIP: You can step through the moves by clicking the < and > buttons, but it's much easier to simply use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.

For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.

PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

Oct-11-16		Howard: Browne lost on time, though in the final position it hardly mattered.

Jul-24-19		Howard: Benjamin came in clear second in this tournament, by the way, plus he also made a GM norm.

Jul-24-19		Fusilli: Nice job by GM Joel. In the final position: click for larger view I think Black's plan is to bring the king all the way to c3-d2-c1 (assuming the white bishop is anchored on b1). The white bishop is stuck stopping the promotion and the white king is stuck defending the g3. But once the black king gets to c3, White will have to play Ke2 to stop it. Then Black captures the g3-pawn and at that point the position looks like this: click for larger view Black will produce a passer on the h-file and there is nothing White can do. When the king goes to stop the passer, the black king will overpower the bishop. To avoid an earlier annoying g5 from White (which wouldn't really work anyway since Black would play f6 and produce the h-passer anyway, but it would slow things down), Black can always play an early f6. This situation is particularly bad for White because his pawn structure is a disaster that makes his bishop horrible, but opposite-color bishop endings with passers on opposite sides of the board are normally won anyway. The problem for the defending side is that the king is too slow to travel from stopping one pawn to stopping the other one. Consider for example this bare bones position: click for larger view White wins here in many ways, but to illustrate the point, let's go with: 1.Ke6 (White threatens to go bully the bishop and force its sacrifice, so Black needs to send the king to help) Ke8 2.Kd6 Kd8 click for larger view 3.g6 click for larger view Black is in an impossible predicament. If he sends the king to stop the g-pawn, the white king overpowers the bishop. So, Black sends the bishop to stop the g-pawn: 3...Be4 4.g7 Bh7 click for larger view 5.b7 and it's over. Notice that in the last diagram, if it were Black's turn, White wins anyway after 1...Kc8 2.Ke7. The exception to the rule is a position like this: click for larger view ... where Black can say "sure, white king, go overpower my bishop. I'll trade it for your pawn and it's a theoretical draw." Coincidentally, I lost to GM Joel at the recent US Senior Open and it was an opposite-color bishop ending with passers on both sides of the board. (That game will be uploaded in the near future.)

Jul-26-19		Howard: Benjamin is still playing? Thought he'd retired by now. Met him once about ten years ago at a World Open. I've followed his career since 1975, which was the first time his name was mentioned in CL&R !

Jul-26-19		Fusilli: <Howard> Yes, he played the US Senior Open (age 50+) in June, won by Dimitri Borisovich Gurevich, and just last week he played in the US Senior championship at the St Louis Chess Club, won by Alexander Shabalov.

Aug-08-19		Howard: How do you keep up with these things, Fusilli ? Thanks much for the update!

Aug-08-19		Fusilli: <Howard> Because I played the senior open too! (Lost a game to him, actually.) As for the Senior championship, I follow the St Louis Chess Club on Twitter. There is an explanation for everything! ;)

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
Nothing in violation of United States law.
No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
No trolling.
The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.

NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.