Mar-02-19
 | | manselton: 
click for larger view Position after 40...Nd4 <White is a pawn up with the two Bishops but Bc3 must be exchanged for the Nd4 giving Black a passed pawn supported by his Rook. An interesting struggle is in prospect.> Shereshevsky |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 42.b4! 
click for larger view <Allowing the invasion of the Black Rook since> 2.Be4 Rb8 43.Ra3 <achieves nothing.> |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 44.Kg4! 
click for larger view <A move requiring exact calculation. White wins a piece after 44.Kg2 but Black is able to set up an unusual fortress.> 44.Kg2 Rc3 45.Ba4 Rxc4 46.b6 Rb4 47.Bc6 d3 48.Kf3 Kg7 49.b7 Nd8 50.Ra4! (forcing the Black Rook to the 3rd rank to prevent ...Rd4 and now) 50...Rb3 51.Ra8 Nxb7 52.Ra7 d2+ 53.Ke2 Kf6 54.Bxb7 Re3+! 55.Kxd2 Re7 <and the advance of the h-pawn will cost White his Bishop.> 
click for larger view The Black Rook pins the Bishop and cuts off the White King therefore only the White Rook can prevent the h-pawn from queening. White had to see this position 11 moves earlier! |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 45.b6 <This move would not have been possible with the King on g2.> 
click for larger view |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 49...Nh6+ 
click for larger view <White has won the exchange but it is far from over. With the check Hartoch plans to set up an interesting fortress.> Once again White overcomes this counter-play by sheer calculation. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 50.Kg5!! <The more natural 50.Kf3 only leads to a draw> 
click for larger view Viz: 50.Kf3 Nf5 51.Ke4 h5 52.Rb7+ Kg8! <But not 52...Kf6? 57.Rh7 Zugzwang.> 
click for larger view Actually, I cannot agree with Shereshevsky here. 53.Rc7 (or Rb5) and 54.c5 still looks winning to me. 53.Rc7 Kf8 54.c5 dxc5 55.Rxc5 Ke7 56.Rc6 Nd6+ 57.Kxd4 Nf5+ 58.Ke4 Nd6+ 59.Kf3 Kd7 60.Kg2 Ke7 61.Kh3 Kd7 62.Kh4 
click for larger view And the White King breaks in. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 53.Kg3 
click for larger view <If instead 53.Rxh7?? Black wins with 53...d3> 54.Ra7 d2 55.Ra1 Nf5+ 56.Kg4 d1=Q+ 57.Rxd1 Ne3+ 
click for larger view |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 55.Ke4 
click for larger view So the whole point of the Kg5 manouevre was to lure Black's King to f6 where the Zugzwang arises. At move 52 ...Kf6 was forced in order to keep White out of that square. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 62.Rf5!! going into Q+P vs Q 
click for larger view <White is on the alert. Again he prevents the positional draw which was possible after 62.Ke4?!> 62...g3+ 63.Kd3 Nf5 64.c6 Ne7 65.c7 Kg3 66.Rf7 h2 67.Rxe7 h1=Q 68.c8=Q Qd1+ And Black wins the Rook. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 67.Qxd6 <This is a theoretical win.> 
click for larger view In the Tablebase the longest route to checkmate is 47 moves beginning with either ...Qa1+ or ...Kg5. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 68.Kc5 Ivkov plays this Q+P vs Q flawlessly even by Tablebase standards. Clearly he had studied the ending.
click for larger view The White King is walking around the front of the pawn to reach the g and h-files. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 69.Qe6 White improves the position of his Queen and keeps the Black King on the K-side. 
click for larger view The longest mate is 33 moves. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 80.Qf5+ Before advancing the pawn, the Queen is placed on the same diagonal as the White King to reduce Blacks options. 
click for larger view |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 81...Qd6 
click for larger view A minor slip losing another 3 moves. 13 moves to the longest mate. |
|
Mar-02-19
| | manselton: 82.Qa5+ Ke2 83.d8=Q Qh2+ 84.Kg6 Qg2+ 85.Kf6 Qf3+ 86.Qf5 Blocking the check only once the Kings are on adjacent files. 
click for larger view No matter whether Black plays to c3 or c6 his check is blocked with a fork of King and Queen. |
|
| Jan-10-25 | | goodevans: Thanks to <manselton>, Shereshevsky's notes make this an excellent game to play through regardless of what you might think of the pun. |
|
| Jan-10-25 | | Teyss: Thanks to User: manselton for the analysis on the main points. This game has three different endgames: R + minor vs same, R vs minor, Q+P vs Q. The key moment is probably 42.b4 instead of 42.Be4 blocking the BR. Both are OK but give completely different continuations. The pun is a reference to a John Woo movie with Van Damme and... that's it. Couldn't find a Boris or Rob or a King or Austria in the film. |
|
Jan-10-25
| | DaltriDiluvi: <The pun is a reference to a John Woo movie with Van Damme and... that's it.> There's also the similarity between the word "hard" and the name "Hartoch", plus the fact that winning the endgame was no easy task. Anyway, all a-pun-logies. I did my best, even if I failed. |
|
Jan-10-25
 | | OhioChessFan: Nice game, pun is serviceable enough for a great game. |
|
| Jan-11-25 | | Cassandro: <OCF: Nice game, pun is serviceable enough for a great game.> Damned by faint praise.. |
|
| Jan-11-25 | | Teyss: Hi DaltriDiluvi,
No need to a-pun-logise ;) it's a good game, almost an endgame theory book in itself. I saw the link between hard and the game but missed hard/hart, it does make the pun better. |
|
Kibitzing
sac: 45.b6