Tuesday 23 October 2018

Trying Too Hard As Black

HAVING tried for too much in yesterday's Guernsey Open game as White, I promptly did the very same today as Black.
White has just offered a draw as he played 41.Kd3-e3 in the round-three game Antoine Canonne (1902) - Spanton (1923)
41...Kd7
There is no justification for playing on here (my main analysis engines Komodo9 and Stockfish9 rate the position as dead-equal), but then again there should be no harm in trying a few more moves - I do hate it when a game finishes!
42.Bf8 Bb6 43.Kf3 Ke8?
Partly caused by trying for more than is justified by the position, and partly by allowing myself to be distracted by a rook-sacrifice on an adjacent board.
I only give the move one question-mark as, amazingly, it seems Black still has the draw in hand.
44.Bd6 Kf7 45.Bxe5
The engines agree, hardly surprisingly, that White is much better, but neither thinks White's advantage is worth a full pawn.
45...Ke6 46.Bb8 Bd8
The engines prefer 46...Ba5 or 46...Kf6, but it is not clear the text is inferior.
One problem with analysing this ending is that the engines tend to overestimate White's chances, as will be graphically illustrated at move 49.
47.Kf4 Bf6 48.e5!?
AC was doubtful about this in the post-mortem, but without pushing the e pawn it is hard to see how White makes progress. The engines reckon White is winning.
48...Be7
Can you find a win for White?
****
****
****
****
****
49.Ke4
White cannot improve his position after this.
Critical was 49.Bd6! which the engines reckon is winning after the forcing 49...Bxd6 50.exd6 Kxd6 51.Kg5 (51.g4? hxg4 52.Kxg4 Ke6 is a trivial draw) Ke5 52.Kxg6 Kd4 53.Kxh5 Kxc4.
Both engines have White winning with 54.g4 or 54.Kg6! but the Nalimov endgame tablebase shows the position to be drawn. However, I have given 49.Bd6! an exclamation-mark as it would have given practical winning chances, especially after 54.Kg6!, which leaves White with a g pawn rather than an h pawn after both players have promoted.
AC had not seen much of this, thinking that giving up the e pawn to get the bishops off was an easy draw. He was right in the sense that it was a draw, but it would have been very possible for Black to go wrong.
The game finished:
49...Bf8 50.Bc7 Kd7 51.Ba5 Ke6 52.Bd2 Bg7 53.Bc3 Bf8 54.Ba5 Bg7 55.Bc7 Bf8 56.Bd8 Kd7 57.Bf6 Ke6 58.Kf3 Kf5 59.Bh8 Bh6 60.Bf6 Bf8 61.Bh8 Bh6 62.Bf6 ½-½
A lucky, and undeserved, escape.

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