Friday 2 July 2010

Pushing the right pawn


I witnessed two outrageous escapes at the Belconnen Chess Club yesterday evening. One was in my own game, but I'll leave that for another time.
The other was in a game between two junior players and demonstrates the importance of technique in King and Pawn endings. Black had just allowed the exchange of rooks, leaving White with a winning pawn ending. However the pawn on g5 slightly complicates matters, although White still is in a winning position.
As actually played, White became fixated on using the b pawn to break through and Black managed to save the game after 1.b4 Ke5 2.Kf3 Kd4 3.b5? Instead White needed to play 3.c5 here as the drawing attempt 3. ... Kd5 4.Kg4 a5 fails to 5.bxa5 Kxc5 6.c4! and Black is in zugzwang. Instead Black had just enough time to hold the draw. 3. ... Kc5 4.bxa6 Kb6 5.Kg4 Kxa6 6.Kxg5 Kb6 7.Kf4 Kc5 8.Ke3 Kxc4 9.Kd2Ke4= After a few more moves White was convinced that Black knew how to hold the position and a draw was agreed.

5 comments:

TrueFiendish said...

Hey Shaun how about the solution to that knight ending? :)

Shaun Press said...

It's been there for a couple of days :) (in the comments section)

TrueFiendish said...

Doh! Yes of course. :)

OzChess.com said...

Yes, it is a very nice line.

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