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Rauf Mamedov vs Sergei Movsesian
IMSA Elite Mind Games (Blitz) (2016) (blitz), Huai'an CHN, rd 23, Mar-01
Sicilian Defense: Canal Attack (B51)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Kibitzer's Corner
May-25-16  Smothered Mate: Ah, the trickiness of queen endgames! ​
One-Third of the 27 ply from black's 61 to
black's 74 inclusive were half-point blunders.



According to the Lomonosov tablebases,

The position after ​ 58. Kxg7 ​ is a draw. ​ ​ ​ and
The draw remained until after moving to a 6-piece ending.



According to the 6-piece tablebases:


61. ... Kg3 ​ loses; Qh4+ was the only drawing move. (If Kg7 then Qxh3.)

62. Qf5 ​ just draws; g5 was the only winning move.

63. ... Qd8 ​ loses; Qxh3 was the only drawing move. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ (The mates after ​ Qd8 / Qh8 ​ are in 52, but in either case, black deviating from ​ ​ ​ 64. g5 Qg8+ ​ 65. Kh6 Qh8+ ​ 66. Qh7 Qe5 ​ 67. Qd7 Qh8+ ​ 68. Kg6 Qg8+ ​ 69. Qg7 Qa8 ​ 70. Qf6 Kxh3 ​ ​ ​ would speed the mate up by at least 2 moves, so the 50-move rule doesn't save black.)

64. g5 ​ (played) was the only winning move.

70. Kg7 ​ just draws; Kh7 was the only winning move. ​ ​ ​ ​ Since Kh7 lets black repeat, ​ 69. Kh8 ​ made no progress.

70. ... Qb7+ ​ loses; Kg4! was the only drawing move.

71. Qf7? ​ just draws; Qe7 (immediately dropping the queen) is the only other move that does _not_ win. ​ ​ ​ ​ Kh6 was unique-best.

71. ... Qb2+ ​ loses; Qe4 was the only drawing move.

73. Kh7 ​ (played) was the only winning move.

74. Kg7 ​ just draws; Qf4 was unique-best among the four winning moves.

74. ... Qc3+ ​ loses. ​ ​ ​ ​ Qe4 was the only drawing move, but Qb2+ would've repeated the position from 6 ply ago.

86. Kg8 ​ was the unique-worst of the moves that still win; Qf6+ was unique-best. ​ ​ ​ ​ (36 vs 18)

87. ... Qc7 ​ (played) repeats the position from 4 ply ago, which probably makes it black's best try, even though it gets mated in only 18. ​ ​ ​ ​ Qh4+ is black's unique theoretical-optimum, and gets mated in 34.



I was quite surprised by (the missed) ​ 70. ... Kg4 ​ being an only-drawing-move. ​ ​ ​ ​ A very brief search of nearby positions suggests the "explanation" is it clears the h-file for checks from h1, while taking g5 and f5 from white's queen.

Without bothering looking through any other positions in the tablebase, my guess is that both times Qe4 was the only drawing move, the explanation was queen centralization.

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