The main difference is that this time I was fighting for a draw rather than trying to win. The ending started in the following position:
White has just captured on d4 in Michael Bohnstorff (2044) - Spanton (1880), Bad Wiessee Senioren-Cup round four |
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White is clearly better thanks to his superior pawn-structure. The question is: how much better? My main analysis engines, Komodo9 and Stockfish10, reckon White's advantage is worth about half a pawn.
22...f5
White was threatening 23.e4 as 23...dxe4?? loses instantly to 24.Rxd7.
23.h4 h5?!
The engines are not very keen on this. My idea was to prevent White from distracting my f pawn with g4, and to stop White gaining space on the kingside with h5. But it seems neither move is much of a threat, so the main effect of 23...h5?! is to weaken my kingside. Sensible was 23...Kf7.
24.Kg2 Kf7 25.Kf3 Kf6
The problem with 25...Ke6?! is that 26.Kf4 threatens 27.Kg5.
26.Rc6+ Rd6!?
This looks like a blunder, but 26...Ke5 is no bed of roses either as Black is very passive after 27.Rg6. The engines' mainline runs 27...Re8 28.Rf4 Rf7 29.Rg5 Rh8 30.e4! dxe4+ 31.Rxe4+ Kf6 32.Rc4.
Analysis position after 32.Rc4 |
27.Rxd5 Rxc6 28.Rxd8 Rc2 29.Rd7 Rxb2 30.Rxa7 g6 31.a4 Ra2 32.Ra6 Kf7 33.e4
This seems to be the only way for White to make progress.
33...fxe4+ 34.Kxe4 Rxf2 35.Rxb6 Ra2 36.Ra6 Ra3 37.Kf4 Kg7 38.Ra7+ Kf6 39.Ra6+ Kf7 40.g4 hxg4 41.Kxg4
What would you play as Black? |
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41...Ra1!?
The engines strongly dislike this, much preferring 41...Rc3 or 41...Rd3 (but not 41...Rb3?! as Black cannot check when White's king goes to g5). However, I am fairly sure the engines are wrong about the text.
42.Ra5
The engines give 42.a5 Rg1+ 43.Kf3 Rh1 44.Kg3 Rg1+ 45.Kh2 Ra1 46.Ra8, but this is not dangerous for Black, as they come to see after the continuation 46...Kf6 47.a6 Kf5. Black has three main tries here, but none works:
a) 48.a7 Kg4 49.Kg2 Ra3 (not 49...Kxh4?? 50.Rh8+) 50.Kf2 Rf3+ 51.Ke2 Rf7 52.Ke3 Rh7 etc.
b) 48.Kg3 Ra3+ 49.Kf2 Kg4 50.a7 Rf3+, transposing to the previous line.
c) 48.h5 Ra2+ (48...gxh5?? 49.a7 wins for White) 49.Kg3 Ra3+ 50.Kf2 Ra2+ 51.Ke3 Ra3+ 52.Kd4 Ra4+ 53.Kc5. Now it is safe for Black to take the pawn: 53...gxh5 54.a7 h4 55.Rf8+ Kg4 56.a8=Q Rxa8 57.Rxa8 h3 etc.
42...Rg1+ 43.Kf4 Rh1 44.Kg5 Rg1+ 45.Kh6 Rg4 46.h5 gxh5 47.Kxh1 Rg1
The remaining moves were:
48.Rc5 Ra1 49.a5 Ke7 50.Kg5 Kd6 51.Rf5 Rg1+ 52.Kf6 Ra1 53.Kf7 Kc7 ½–½
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