The game is from a primary-schools championship held in Norway and, not surprisingly, did not make it into ChessBase's Mega database.
We are told the player of the black pieces was 12 years old and had a national elo of 708 (that converts to an ECF of 1).
He still plays chess today and has a Fide of 1926. His Finnish opponent is also registered with Fide, but does not have an international rating.
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| Black to make his 51st move in Mikko Salama - Hakon* Astrup |
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51...Nxb4??
In the Chess Life article this move gets an exclamation mark. The annotation is credited to "International Master Bjarke Kristenson." I suspect the surname should be Kristensen, as a Bjarke Kristensen was the lead author of Learn Chess From The World Champions: Kasparov-Anand 1995. He seems to have ceased being an active player in 2003, but there is a Fide-registered player called Bjarke Hautop Kristensen, born in 2000 and with a rating of 2223 - maybe his son?
Anyway, Kristensen, as I shall call the Chess Life annotator, commented: "51...Nb4! Sometimes it takes a child to see it! As White's knight is fully employed blocking a pawn, Black can afford to enter a 'king-and-pawn ending' - and still win!"
Kristensen says Astrup rejected 51...Nxe5 because "he wasn't sure how to stop White's pawn in time after 52.b5." Komodo9 and Stockfish10 show Black wins with 52...Nd3 (other moves, including 52...Ke7 and 52...Nd7, also win) 53.c6 (or 53.b6 Nxc5+ 54.Kb5 axb6) Ke7 54.Ka5 Nc5 55.b6 axb6+ 56.Kxb6 Ne6 etc. I am not claiming this was easy to see from the diagram (especially for a player with the equivalent of an ECF grade of 1), but I do not doubt Kristensen could work it out. Incidentally, 51...Ke7 also wins.
In any event, it is clear the move played does not deserve an exclamation mark. Indeed, as the following analysis shows, it should have turned a win into a loss.
52.Kxb4 Ke7 53.Kb5 Kd7 54.Nf3 Kc7 55.c6 a6+
Kristensen also gave this an exclamation mark, but it does not change the assessment of the position as winning for White.
56.Kxa6?
Kristensen does not comment on this move, but now the result should be a draw. White's correct plan was to force the queening of his c pawn, viz 56.Kc5 a5 57.Nd4! h2 58.Nb5+ Kd8! (58...Kc8 loses more quickly, ie 59.Kb6 h1=Q 60.Na7+ Kd8 61.c7+ Ke7 62.c8=Q and, according to the engines, White mates in 11 moves) 59.Kd6 h1=Q 60.c7+ Kc8 61.Na7+ Kb7 62.c8=Q+ Kxa7 63.Qc7+ Ka6 64.Qxf7. White's more-advanced passed pawn means he is winning this queen-and-pawn ending.
56...Kxc6 57.Ka5?
Again Kristensen does not comment, but this loses a tempo and changes a draw into a loss. Correct was 57.Nh2 as 57...Kd5 58.Kb5 Kxe5 59.Kc5 Kf5 60.Kd4 Kxg5 is a Nalimov endgame tablebase draw.
57...Kd5 58.Kb4 Ke4
Kristensen: "Another example of just how poorly a knight can guard a passed h (or a) pawn."
59.Nh2 Kxe5
This draws. Winning was 59...Kf5! (or 59...Kf4!), eg 60.Kc4 Kxg5 61.Kd3 (or 61.Kd4 Kf4) Kf4 62.Ke2 Kg3 (but not 62...Kxe5?? - another tablebase draw) etc.
60.Kc3 Kf4
This is given as 60...Kf5 in Chess Life, but Kristensen's next annotation suggests the text is correct.
61.Kd2 Kxg5
Kristensen gave this an exclamation mark, commenting: "Astrup was (not) fooled by 61...Kg3? 62.Ke3 Kxh2 63.Kf2 Kh1 64.Kf1! with a draw."
Kristensen added this final comment: "In the resulting endgame, Black's three passed pawns slowly but surely outplay White's single knight." Actually, the ending is drawn, although clearly much more fun for Black to play as he is the only one who can hope to win.
62.Ke3 Kh4 63.Kf4 g5+ 64.Kf3 f5 65.Kf2?
White is now losing. The only drawing move was 65.Nf1, when Black cannot make progress, eg 65...g4+ 66.Kf4 h2 67.Nxh2 g3 68.Nf3+ etc.
65...g4 66.Kf1 g3 67.Nf3+ Kg4 68.Ne5+ Kf4 69.Ng6+ Kf3 70.Nh4+ Kg4 71.Ng6 f4 (0-1, 90 moves)
As should go without saying, but I will state it anyway, Kristensen is a much stronger player than I am ever likely to be, but his annotations show how easy it is to get even simple-looking positions drastically wrong without the help of engines (admittedly they were not as strong in 2000 as they are today, but even so …)
*Chess Life has the spelling Haakon, but Fide uses Hakon. This is presumably due to a matter of taste when transliterating from the 29-letter Norwegian alphabet that uses accents.
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