Anton Korobov vs Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (2023)

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Anton Korobov vs Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis
European Championship (2023), Vrnjacka Banja SRB, rd 7, Mar-09
Queen's Gambit Declined: General (D30) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

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Mar-10-23		Jamboree: Hot Ko-Ko. An exciting Board 1 game that determined the first-place tournament leader. And both players' names start with "Ko"! Black sacs a piece for three pawns and what looks like an attack, but white quickly neutralizes it with expert defense. Black then cleverly wins back an exchange, and for a brief moment the game is again materially balanced -- but white then wins the pawn race as black missteps and walks his king in the wrong direction. But the excitement continues: Black has to sac his rook for white's last pawn, but then white's knight races back and by a single tempo manages to set up a unique fortress, preserving the white bishop and knight. Black was forced to resign in the face of a long white king march to rescue the paralyzed B+N battery, followed (presumably, if white remembers how) a methodical B+N mate. It might take 40+ more moves for the game to end, but black realized it was inevitable.

Mar-10-23		goodevans: <... white then wins the pawn race as black missteps and walks his king in the wrong direction.> I came upon this game shortly after the time control and by the time I caught up with it, White had just played 50.Bb1. click for larger view This was the moment that Black needed to decide which direction to send his K. White's plan, signalled by his previous move, 49.Nf6, is to push 51.d5 and then after 51...cxd5 52.Nxd5 it's difficult to see how the e-pawn can be stopped. Black has two possible plans: (A) Send his K towards the e-pawn to help stop its progress. (B) Plan to give up the R for the e-pawn and see if he can force White to give up one of his minors for the Black a-pawn. As I caught up with the game live it wasn't clear which of these plans he'd adopt. Plan (A) may well have worked but plan (B) is subtler and when he went for it I was intrigued see whether it would work. As the game progressed it fairly soon became clear that it wouldn't. 57...Kd4 took me by surprise but the expected 57...Kb4 wouldn't have worked either. After 58.Nd6 Ka3 59.Bd5 Kb2 White can just march his K over to take the pawn. Black can push the pawn one more square (e.g. 60.Kg3 a3) but if he does then White will reposition (61.Nc4+ Kb3 62.Kb2 Na4+ 63.Kb1) and the pawn can go no further because Nc3+ will pick it up. I imagine Black saw all this (I certainly didn't at the time!) but his chosen alternative lost even quicker.

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