Nadezhda Kosintseva vs Yifan Hou (2006)

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Nadezhda Kosintseva vs Yifan Hou
Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2006), Ekaterinburg RUS, rd 1, Mar-12
Sicilian Defense: Richter-Rauzer. Classical Variation Kantscher Line (B66) · 1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

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Mar-14-06		notyetagm: Funny: 15 ... ♕c5 Let's trade queens. 16 ♕d3 No, I have to win this game. 16 ... ♕c4 Let's trade queens. 17 ♕d2 No, I have to win this game.

Mar-14-06		notyetagm: Magnificent defense by 11-year old Yifan Hou.

Mar-18-06		Raskolnikov: 52.♖d8! (with intention b7-b8♕ ) ♖b4 53.♖b8 followed by ♙b7,♙h6. Thus the black king on h7 cannot move (♔:h6?? ♖h8 ) and White has all the time to move his King to e.g. e7:f7:f6.

Jun-10-21		nummerzwei: <notyetagm: Magnificent defense by 11-year old Yifan Hou.> Magnanimous comment. In fact, there were quite a few missed opportunities in this endgame. Let me say first of all that this is not unexpected, given that they were playing 90+30 back then in FIDE events, so the players would certainly have been in time trouble by move 60. Moreover, the stakes were quite high - Black needed precisely this draw to advance, whereas White was in a must-win situation. 62.Kd2?? was indeed a blunder - the line 62.Rd8 etc. given by <Raskolnikov> would have won quickly and conclusively. Instead, the position after 62...Rxf5! 63.Kc3 Rxh5 64.Kc4 click for larger view is drawn, nor does there seem to be that much room to go wrong for Black. Black is banking on her f-pawn to secure the draw after giving up the rook for White's pawn. If possible, the king approaches via the e-file to keep White's king out. This program could have been put into action via 64...f5! (64...Rh8 also draws), for example: a) 65.b7 Rh8 66.Rb6 Rb8 67.Kd5 click for larger view White seems to be doing well, but it turns out that the b7-pawn is also quite vulnerable: 67...f4! 68.Kd6 (68.Ke4 Kf8 69.Kxf4 Ke7 = ) ...f3 69.Kc7 f2 70. Rb1 Rxb7+ 71. Kxb7 click for larger view 71...Kf6! 72.Kc6 Ke5 73.Rf1 f5 74.Rxf2 f4 with a draw. b) 65. Rd8 Rh1! 66.b7 Rc1+ 67.Kb5 Rb1+ 68.Kc6 Rc1+ 69.Kb6 Rb1+ 70.Kc7 Rc1+ 71.Kb8 Kf6 72.Rd6+ Ke5 73.Ka7 click for larger view 73...Rc7!? 74.Rd8 f4 75.Kb6 Rxb7+ 76.Kxb7 Ke4 = Instead, to my great surprise, Hou's 64...Rh1? is already losing. It also seems to be based on entirely the wrong plan insofar as Black stubbornly avoids pushing the f-pawn and sticks to awkward passive defense.

Jun-11-21		nummerzwei: Basically, if Black is going to stop the pawn from the back rank, then 64...Rh1 is just a loss of time. It turns out that Black cannot effectively stop the pawn from behind, either, had White played 65.Kb5! Rb1+ 66.Ka6!!: click for larger view For example, 66...f5 67.b7 Ra1+ 68.Kb6 Rb1+ 69.Ka7 Ra1+ 70.Ra6 Rb1 71.b8=Q Rxb8 72.Kxb8, click for larger view when Black is too slow: 72...f4 73.Ra4 Kg6 74.Rxf4 f5 75.Kc7 +- In his notes in Rochade 5/2006, Thomas Paehtz Sr gave only 66.Kc6? which obstructs White's rook and allows Black to draw by a whisker - of course, he did not have 7-piece tablebases at his disposal. It has become clear that the white rook is very well placed on d6, so 65.Rd3? was doubly unfortunate. After 65...Rh8, Black has now won a tempo rather than lost. Indeed, after 67.Kc6 click for larger view Hou would draw comfortably under her own power if she just went ahead with her counterplay: 67...Kf6! 68.Kc7 f4 69. b7 (After 69.Rd8?! Black queens first) ...Re8! 70.Rd8 Re7+ 71.Kc8 (or repetition) ...Rxb7 72.Kxb7 Ke5 =

Jun-12-21		nummerzwei: After the strange 67…Rc8+?! and 68…Rc1?, Kosintseva had another opportunity to force the win: click for larger view Instead of 73.Kxf5?, White should go straight for the rook with 73.b7! Rb8 74.Kd6 Kf6, and now comes the point: click for larger view 75.Rb6!! (pushing Black’s king to the wrong side of the pawn) …Kg5 (forced) 76.Kc7 Txb7+ 77.Txb7! f4 78.Kd6 f3 79.Txf7 Kg4 80.Ke5 Kg3 81.Ke4 f2 82.Ke3, and White wins by a single tempo. After 73.Kxf5?, Hou had a chance to play the strong defensive move 73…Kf8!, keeping White out of d6 and safely steering the game to a draw. Passing up on more active options like 76…f5!? and 79…Kb8!? 80.Rxf7 Rg8 = (80…Rh1 =) ultimately made no difference. Overall, this was rather more interesting than I had expected. Throughout the endgame, there is a striking balance of White's winning and Black's drawing chances.

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