Lessons From Kenilworth II

THE following position was reached in my round-two game at the English 65+ championship.

Black has just played 29...Rf8-e8

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Opposite-coloured bishops are well-known to be drawish in endings, but the presence of rooks ameliorates that effect, and rival pawn-majorities further reduces the drawing tendency.

Even so, Stockfish16 calls the position completely equal, while Komodo14.1 reckons 30.Kh3, trying to activate the white majority, gives White a slight edge.

Instead the game saw 30.g4?, after which Komodo14.1 reckons Black has the upper hand, and Stockfish16 goes so far as to give Black a positionally won game.

My opponent explained in the postmortem he was worried about me playing ...g4, but there are much better ways of countering it, including 30.Kh3, 30.gxh4 and 30.Rd1.

The move chosen should have raised multiple alarm bells: it makes White's task of creating a passed pawn much harder, it leaves a weak hole at f4 and it makes the f pawn backward.

LESSON: when a move has obvious positional defects, it is imperative to consider alternatives, even if these do not prevent the move (here ...g4) that worries you.