Endgame of the Week

I haven't been playing much chess, or studying much chess recently for one reason or another. So when I do look at things, they tend to be about things I enjoy. And I must admit that as I get older, I become more interested in endgames. Downloading TWIC each week and then sorting the file according to number of moves lets one see which endgames are being played.

This week's longer games included a pawnless rook vs bishop ending which finished in a draw. The defender knew the technique of heading the king to the corner not controlled by the bishop. There was a knight and bishop checkmate, and some interesting queen and pawn and rook and pawn endings, including R + e and f pawns vs R which ended in a draw. I must admit, I don't know the theory of these endings, but roughly know that f and h pawns are mostly draws, and a and h pawns are mostly draws. It is something worth looking at to build my technique.

I was most interested in the following position, not least because a GM was getting bashed by someone 300 rating points lower.

I would imagine time was a factor here as white is about to play his 61st move. White will definitely lose their a-pawn, but can win material on the king side, which should be enough for victory. The best first move is 61.Ng7, when black's f-pawn falls. However, white played 61.Nd4+ and black traded on d4 going into a lost king and pawn endgame. 61..Bxd4 62.exd4 (to be fair, keeping the minor pieces on didn't hold out much hope either).

However, this game ended in a draw after both sides promoted.  From the diagram the game continued 62..Kb5 63.Ke2 Kxa5 64.Ke3 Kb5 65.Kf4 Kc6 when we get to the key position.

White now played the natural 66.Kxf5? missing the finesse 66.Ke5! when black's king will be forced away from d5 meaning that white will be able to capture both f and e pawns (and g and h if he wants). After the text move black promotes  the b-pawn in 8 while white promotes  the g-pawn in 7, but it is black to move so they promote at the same time. This leaves a dreaded queen and pawn ending which are notoriously difficult to win.

So once again, a natural looking move, a capture, turns out to be not the best move. A simple finesse of the king would have led to victory for white against a player 300 points higher rated. Still, a draw was not a bad result for the white player.

Pawn Breaks

I've introduced this concept to some of my students recently. The good old pawn thrust into the breach has a number of functions. Firstly, and most importantly, it engages the enemy, and so brings the position into critical mode. Pawns breaks, especially unexpected ones in the centre, can be a great psychological blow as well, and it takes a very steady nerve to answer one that comes as a surprise. Secondly, it can open lines for pieces to come into play and attacks some space in the sector of the board where it occurs. Finally, the pawn break may undermine an enemy pawn structure or even initiate an attack.

Going back to my look at Informator 26, I've seen a number of interesting pawn advances in games. Here's my favourites from Informator 26:

Ok, for starters white has a promising position in the game Marjanovic-Forintos Kirovakan 1978 with 2 tempting pawn advances in the middle of the board. 18.e5! This pawn break comes with a big tactical threat: 19.Nxh7 with g6 a big weakness. The point of the move was both to engage the enemy and open lines for an attack on the b1-h7 diagonal. Black's position is critical and he felt he had to give an exchange by 18..Rf5 to stop the oncoming attack, but white just took it, regrouped, exchanged and won in technical fashion.

Here we have the great Victor Korchnoi playing black at the 1978 Olympiad against J. Diez del Corral from Spain. Always a fighter, Korchnoi advanced in the centre with 16..d5! Black feels that any opening of the centre will be good for him as that's where white's king is. He also had to calculate the line 17.exd5 Qxd5 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.0-0 exd4 20.cxd4 Rfd8 when white is struggling to defend his d-pawn and other weaknesses around the board. So as well as threatening the opening of the centre, black equalises in the centre and protects his knight.

Here white was the famous attacking Grand Master, Velimirovic against GM Janosevic. It was black who first got a pawn break in. 16..d5. This is a typical move, trying to break the Maroczy style fortress that white has set up in the middle of the board. I'm not sure black was ready for the pawn break back again that came. 17.f5!. This move engages black's king side initiating attacking prospects, it challenges the pawn chain f7-e6-d5, attacks a knight, opens the c1-h6 diagonal and threatens to open the f-file. Black took 17..exf5 [17..d4 18.fxg6 dxe3 19.gxf7 gives white a massive attack] 18.Nxd5 fxe4 19.Nxe7+ Nxe7 20.Bf4 when white's pieces are incredibly active in compensation for his pawn deficit. Black managed to salvage his king side only to be overrun by white pawn's majority on the queen side.

And finally, the best till last. This was the deciding game in the 1978 World Championship match, with Karpov white against Korchnoi. It is a Modern/Pirc type position and Karpov won in fine style after the pawn break 25.e5! Like before, this engages black's structure, it challenges the pawn chain e7-d6-c5, attacks the knight on f6, opens the b1-h7 diagonal which is important in the line 25..Nfxd5 26.Nf5+!! gxf5 27.Qg5+ Kh8 28.Qxf5 when mate will happen on h7. The game continued 25..dxe5 26.Qxe5 Nxd5 27.Bxb5 Ra7

Karpov here played 28.Nh4! a fantastic move, which draws black's pieces to the king side as it appears as if a direct threat by white is not far away, starting with a knight sacrifice on f5. In fact while black's pieces were drawn to the king side, white won black's c-pawn and eventually advanced his connected passed pawns on the queen side to win, not unlike the strategic play in the previous example.

The moral of the story is keep on the lookout for pawn advances around the middle of the board. Funnily enough, even if they're not fully sound, they are unnerving moves which tend to take the initiative, which may be worth the investment of a pawn anyway (like in Velimirovic-Janosevic).

A Practical Repertoire

So I was just looking through my Twitter feed when I saw a chess book that sounded interesting: "A Practical White Repertoire with 1.d4 and 2.c4". There's always a snag when it comes to learning openings and this one is the addition of the words "Volume 3" after the main title. I mean, it may be a great book but why try to sell something as practical that takes 3 volumes (at least) to present the material. I wonder how much of it the average reader is supposed to remember, and over how long a period of time? I seem to remember when I was a teenager that someone said that a decent white repertoire takes 5 years to develop, with both theory and practice, while you are developing the rest of your game.

Who really gives a cat's arse about serious chess books?

Personally, I've never been one for a lot of opening theory. I mean, I do know bits and pieces, and some positions I think I have a decent understanding of, but generally my work has been on the later stages of the game. And seeing I have had to invest in a new laptop as the old one decided it had had enough, I have installed my database program without an analysis engine so I now have to analyse using my own brain. I'll see how long I can do without one. Quite a while I would imagine, as I get thoroughly annoyed by people commenting on games using computer assistance. In fact, this annoys me so much that I tend to watch games on non interactive sites like TWIC.

Yesterday I said I was working through an old Informator, and I had a look at some more today. I just randomly opened a page and looked at a diagram. The position I saw was this one:

This comes from the game Sigurjonsson-Ogaard Esbjerg 1978, a tournament that was won by the great Danish player, Larsen. However, the Icelandic Grand Master Gudmunder Sigurjonsson came second and showed great tactical flare during the event. In the above position as white, Sigurjonsson came up with the line closing 28.d6! [Threatening 29.Qf5 with a mating attack] 28..Rxd6 [There are 2 other nice variations from this position. a) 28..Bxd6 29.Qf5 g6 30.Rxg6+! winning; b) 28..Qg5 29.Rxf7! Rxf7 {29..Qxg5 30.Rxf8#; 29..Bxd6 Qe6!} 30.Qc8+ winning] 29.Qf5 Qxd3 [29..g6 30.Qxg6+!! fxg6 31.Rxf8+ Kg7 32.R1f7#] 30.Qxd3 Rxf6 31.Rxf6 gxf6 [Black has rook, bishop and pawn for the queen, but his position is hopeless and Sigurjonsson quickly makes use of black's poorly placed pieces]

32.Qg3+ Kh8 33.Qc7 1-0 Black's bishop is trapped and the continuation 33..Re8 34.g4 Re5 will just end up with white's queen taking lots of black's pawns.

Sigurjonsson was a fairly regular competitor in the late 1970's and early 80's, and played a number of times in UK, though I never met him. I shall ask my Icelandic friend Smari Teitsson about him. Smari is a strong player and chess teacher who came to Australia last year, and hopefully will come back. Check out his website, Restless Knights :)