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Sergey Karjakin vs Samuel Sevian
Isle of Man Masters (2018), Douglas IMN, rd 5, Oct-24
Spanish Game: Closed Variations (C84)  ·  1-0

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a
1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
White to move.
ANALYSIS [x]
1-0

rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
FEN COPIED

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Kibitzer's Corner
Oct-26-18  wordfunph: When two knights can win an endgame...
Oct-26-18  leroquentin: Perfect technique!
Oct-27-18  AKMoss: 81. ... Kf6 a massive blunder that lost the game for black. Ke8 was the correct move to preserve the draw
Oct-27-18
Premium Chessgames Member
  Knightf7mate: AK is correct, but I didn't think so. So I ran the move with the CG 'pewter. It gives a draw as follows

1) =0.00 (39 ply) 82.Ke6 Kd8 83.Kd6 Kc8 84.Nd3 Kd8 85.Nf4 Ke8 86.Ke6 Kd8 87.Nd5 Ke8 88.Nf6+ Kf8 89.Nfe4 Ke8 90.Kd6 Kd8 91.Nf6 Kc8 92.Nd5 Kb8 93.Kc6 Kc8 94.Nc7 Kd8 95.Kd6 Kc8 96.Ne6 Kb7 97.Kc5 Ka7 98.Kc6 Ka6 99.Nc7+ Ka5 100.Kc5 Ka4 101.Nd5 Ka3 102.Kc4 Ka4 103.Nf6 Ka5

Oct-28-18  AKMoss: There is simply no progress to be made if the king goes away from the knights. One of the knights will have to either stop blockading or capture the pawn, and from there it's an easy draw.
Oct-30-18  John Abraham: an inspired endgame technique
Nov-05-18  Saniyat24: Karjakin's Spanish Knights imprisons Samuels' king by building a wall/trench around him...!
Nov-05-18  Saniyat24: very nice video by agadmator on this game, titled, "Chess is funny like that"...https://youtu.be/ZjucI_dWkQg
Nov-05-18  Saniyat24: King Knight Knight Good Night by Karjakin :D
Nov-05-18  Saniyat24: think it will stay in the top 10 best games played in 2018...! I know Magnus and Caruana are yet to play, but in WCC there are a lot of draws, albeit draws can be interesting too...
Nov-05-18  Saniyat24: mate in 2 even if Samuel Sevian puts the g-pawn to g1 and Queens...
Jan-05-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  tpstar: Great technique by Karjakin in the NN vs P ending to close it out. Much harder than it looks.
Jul-23-19  doash: So, K+ lone N cannot force K into a corner?
Sep-16-19
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: The best pawn for the defender is a knight pawn, as Sevian had. If the defender's pawn has advanced to the fourth rank or further, he should be able to hold a draw with best play. This is shown by examining the Troitsky line, discovered by the great Russian/Soviet composer A.A. Troitsky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_k...

Sevian's pawn on g4 was actually two squares too advanced for White to be able to force a win. Black should head for the corner farthest away from the knight on g3, namely a8, but Sevian apparently did not realize that. At 16:42, ...Kd8! would been the thematic way to hold the draw, heading for a8. Sevian's ...Kf7?! was a step toward disaster, though not yet losing. After Karjakin's Kd6, Sevian's ...Kf6? was the fatal blunder. He still could have drawn with ...Ke8! This can be verified using the Nalimov tablebases. http://www.k4it.de/?topic=egtb&lang...

Jun-13-21  AlvaroFrota: The defensive rule is: go with your king as far as possible from your pawn.
Apr-30-24
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: Attaching move orders to my comment from five years ago, 80...Kd8! would been the thematic way to hold the draw, heading for a8, the corner farthest away from White's blockading knight on g3. Sevian's 80...Kf7?! was a step toward disaster, though not yet losing. After Karjakin's 81.Kd6, Sevian's 81...Kf6? was the fatal blunder. He still could have drawn with 81...Ke8! https://syzygy-tables.info/?fen=8/5...

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