Sunday, 7 April 2019

Missed Draw?

MY analysis engines disagree, but I seem to have missed a draw in round two of the Jersey Open today.
Black to make his 43rd move in Brendan-Budok Durand-Le Ludec (2168) - Spanton (1914)
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
43...d5?
This made it easy.
Critical was 43...Kd7, which Stockfish10 and Komdo9 reckon also loses after 44.Kf4 Kc6 45.Ke4 b5! 46.Kd4 (the immediate 46.cxb5+ transposes) Kb6 47.cxb5 Kxb5 48.Kd5 Kxb4 49.Ke6! (49.Kxd6 Kc4 is a relatively simple draw) d5 50.Kf7 (50.Kxd5 Kc3 is another simple draw) d4 51.Kxg7. Both engines have had White as winning all the way through this sequence, but the Nalimov six-piece endgame tablebase now shows the position is drawn after any Black move except 51...Ka3 or 51...Kc5.
After the move actually played, 43...d5?, the game continued:
44.cxd5 Kd6 45.f6 gxf6 46.Kf5 Kxd5 47.Kxf6 b5 48.Kg6 Kc4 49.Kxh6 Kxb4 50.Kg5 Ka3 51.h6 b4 52.h7 b3 53.h8=Q 
White wins this ending by the standard technique of checking Black's king until the king is forced to block its own pawn, at which point White's king edges closer, and so on (1-0, 58 moves)

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