Saturday, 24 August 2019

Last Chance

MY round-two game this morning in the Northumbria Challengers was an up-and-down encounter both players could have won - or, to put it another way, both deserved to have lost.
The last chance came in a rook-and-pawn ending.
Black to make his 41st move in David G Hall (1683/154) - Spanton (1881/168)
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41...Ke7?
White is fine after this defensive move. Almost certainly winning was 41...Kd5, followed by advancing the c pawn. The point is White has not got time to go after the a pawn, eg 42.Rf7 c4 43.Rxa7 c3 44.Rc7 Kd4, etc.
The game finished:
42.Kh4 Rd6 43.Kg4 Re6
A better try was 43...Ke6, but White seems to be fine. The main line given by Komodo10 and Stockfish10 runs 44.Rf8 Kd5 45.f4 Kc4 46.Rc8 Kb3 47.Rc6 Rd8 48.f5 Kxa4 49.f6 Kxb5 50.Rc7 a5 51.f7 a4 52.Kh5 a3 53.Kxh6 Kc4 54.Ra7 Kb3 55.Rb7 Kc2 56.Rxb6 a2 57.Ra6 Kb2 58.Rb6+ Kc2 59.Ra6 etc. There are alternatives for both sides, especially early on, but none seems to alter the outcome.
44.Kh4 Rf6 45.Kg4 h5+!? 46.Kg5
Not 46.Kxh5?? Rxf4 47.gxf4 c4.
46...Rxf4 47.Kxf4 Kf6 48.Ke4 Kg5 49.Kd5 h4 50.gxh4+ Kxh4 51.f4 Kg4 52.Ke5 c4 53.Kd4 Kxf4 54.Kxc4 Ke5 55.Kc3 Kd5 ½–½

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