Calculation is of paramount importance in pawn endings. When both players have chances to promote (in backgammon they call this a ‘race’, and the term is appropriate in chess too), we can count the separate moves, for White and for Black, and then assess the result of the race.
Here, Black will queen in seven moves: the king takes on a3, then b4, and the a-pawn goes a5, a4, a3, a2, a1. What should White do?
49.Kg5!
49.Kxf5 was played in the game: 49…Kxa3 50.f4 Kxb4 51.Kg6 a5 52.f5 a4 53.f6 a3 54.f7 a2 55.f8Q a1Q 56.Kxh5 Qd1+ ½-½.
The text move is winning because while White will also need seven moves to queen (king to g5, take on h5, back to g5, and h5-h6-h7-h8 = queen), the newly-born queen will be able to control the promotion square of the opponent just in time.
49…Kxa3 50.Kxh5 Kxb4 51.Kg5 a5 52.h5 a4 53.h6 a3 54.h7 a2 55.h8Q
1-0
Is there a threat?
Nielsen,Peter
Heine Volokitin,Andrey
Rogaska Slatina tt 2011 (7.1)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 c5 6.dxc5 Qa5
7.Rc1 dxc4 8.Bxc4 0-0 9.Nf3 Qxc5 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.0-0 Qa5 12.h3 Qa6 13.e4 Rd8 14.Qe1 Nb4 15.Ng5 e6 16.Rd1 Rxd1 17.Qxd1
White is better, with an advantage in space and better coordination. Nevertheless, Black is quite solid here, and beginning a regrouping with 17…Nc6 or 17…Qa5 will allow him to keep fighting.
He decided to attack instead:
17…Nd3
Black’s last move is a calculation mistake. Why?
18.Bc2!
Winning. After 18…Nxf4 19.Qd8+ Bf8 20.Qxf6 White will give checkmate on f7. Thus the threat of 18…Nxf4 after 17…Nd3 was not a real one, and after 18.Be2 Black loses a piece.
Changing the move order
When you are calculating variations and you are not satisfied with the resulting position, it makes sense to try to change the order of your moves.
Cebalo,Miso
Campora,Daniel
Bern 1988 (1)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0-0 0-0 9.Nh4 Nbd7 10.f3 Bg6 11.Nxg6 hxg6 12.e4 e5 13.Be3 Qb6 14.Kh1 a5 15.f4 exd4 16.Bxd4 Bc5 17.Bxf6 Nxf6 18.e5 Qxb2 19.Rc1 Rad8 20.Qf3 Nd5 21.Nxd5 cxd5 22.Bxd5 Qd4 23.Rcd1 Qe3 24.Qxe3 Bxe3
Here White would like to play e5-e6, and if Black takes, Bxe6+, with mate threats. The problem with this variation is that after Bxe6 White has no rook lift, because he is himself threatened with a back-rank mate. Hence the idea of preparing the mate by a preliminary rook lift:
25.Rf3! Bc5 26.e6
And in order to survive, Black has to give up material.
26…Rxd5
26…g5!? was another defensive try. After 27.exf7+ Kh7 28.Rh3+ (28.f5 g4!) 28…Kg6 29.Rg3 White has a winning advantage.
3.Rxd5
And White duly won.
Zugzwang
Zugwang is a classical case where we have to change the ‘normal’ move order.
Ilyin-Zhenevsky,Alexander
Botvinnik,Mikhail
Leningrad ch-city 1938
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.d3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.Nbd2 Re8 12.Nf1 Bf8 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bh4 Nc6 15.Ne3 Be7 16.d4 cxd4 17.cxd4 Nh7 18.Bg3 Ng5 19.dxe5 Nxf3+ 20.Qxf3 dxe5 21.Bb3 Be6 22.Bxe6 fxe6 23.Red1 Qb6 24.Qh5 Bg5 25.Ng4 Qc7 26.Rd3 Kh7 27.Rad1 Red8 28.Nxe5 Nxe5 29.Bxe5 Qb7 30.Qg4 Rxd3 31.Rxd3 Rd8 32.Rxd8 Bxd8 33.h4 Qf7 34.f4 Bf6 35.Bxf6 Qxf6 36.e5 Qd8 37.Kh2 Qd5 38.a3 Kg8 39.h5 a5 40.Kh3 Qb3+ 41.Kh4 Kf8 42.Qe2 b4 43.axb4 Qxb4 44.Kg4 Qb3 45.Qd2 Qb7 46.Kg3 Qb3+ 47.Kh2 Qc4 48.Kg3 Qb3+ 49.Kh2 Qc4 50.Kh3 Qb3+ 51.Kh2 Qc4 52.Kg1 Ke8 53.Kh2 a4 54.Qf2 Qd 55.Qd4 Qc2 56.Kg3 Qb3+ 57.Kh2 a3 58.bxa3 Qxa3 59.Qc4 Qe7 60.Kh3 Qd7 61.f5 Ke7 62.Qg4 Qd3+ 63.Kh2 Qxf5 64.Qxf5 exf5 65.Kg3 Kf7
The best square for the king is f4, where it attacks the f5-pawn and defends its own pawn on e5. But before moving to the ‘right’ square, we have to calculate and find the opponent’s next move.
66.Kf4
This was played in the game. 66.Kf3! was the winning move, in order to come to f4 just when Black’s king goes to e6 or g6, so that he will be in zugzwang: 66…g5 (or 66…Ke7 67.Kf4 Ke6:
For Black, the good square is e6, from where the king fulfills the same duties as White’s king on f4 – attacking and defending, which is why f4 and e6 are called ‘mined’ squares. But here White has the key waiting move 68.g3!) 67.hxg6+ Kxg6 68.Kf4 h5 69.g3+−(69.e6+− is also winning).
66…g6!
½-½
If 67.hxg6+Kxg6=.
Leko,Peter
Kasparov,Garry
Bledol 2002 (9.1)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Be3 Nbd7 9.g4 b5 10.g5 b4 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.exd5 Bf5 13.Bd3 Bxd3 14.Qxd3 Be7 15.h4 0-0 16.0-0-0 a5 17.Nd2 a4 18.Kb1 f5 19.f4 Qc7 20.Nc4 exf4 21.Bd4 Nc5 22.Bxc5 Qxc5 23.Rhf1 Rfe8 24.Rxf4 g6 25.Qd4 Qxd4 26.Rfxd4 h6 27.Rg1 a3 28.bxa3 bxa3 29.c3 hxg5 30.hxg5 Bf8 31.Kc2 Bg7 32.Rd3 Re4 33.Nxd6 Re2+ 34.Rd2 Rxd2+ 35.Kxd2 Rd8 36.Nc4 Rxd5+ 37.Kc2 Rc5 38.Kd3 Rd5+ 39.Kc2 Bf8 40.Re1 f4 41.Re5 Rd7 42.Re4 Rf7 43.Ne5 Rf5 44.Nf3 Rb5 45.Kd3 Rb2 46.Re2 Bg7 47.c4 Kf7? 48.c5 Rxe2 49.Kxe2 Ke6 50.Nh4 Bf8? 51.c6 Be7 52.Nxg6 Bxg5
In this position, we must notice that Black is very close to drawing: he just needs to take the c6-pawn. There are two motifs here that are based on unprotected pieces:
- the bishop is unprotected on g5, and can be attacked from e6 or f7;
- the king has to stop the c-pawn at some point, and is a possible subject to a double attack if it goes to d6 (fork on f7) or c7 (fork on e6).
How do you exploit this situation?
53.c7
is the first obvious try.
53…Kd7 54.Nf8+
54…Kxc7 55.Ne6+
1-0
This is the obvious calculation, but now we have to check the moves, in order to see if each of them is really forced. And now we see that on the knight check on f8, Black can draw with 54… Kc8!.
Second try
Leko saw this, and in order to threaten 54.c7, he played
53.Ne5
Now 53…Kd6 is impossible because of the fork on f7, and taking the knight is out of the question because of c6-c7. White’s control of the d7-square keeps the black king from catching the passed pawn.
Alas for White, Black has another resource:
53…Bd8!
And this enabled him to achieve a draw in the game.
The right move order
53.Nf8+!Kd6
Forced. Now White has control of the d7-square, so that on
54.c7 Kxc7
is forced, but it allows a decisive fork:
55.Ne6+
And after collecting the bishop, and the black pawns, White wins easily.
Don’t stop calculating too soon!
This tip is explained in various works by Mark Dvoretsky (see Bibliography on page 223).
When we are calculating a variation, we must continue to calculate – even if the verdict seems obvious – as far as there is still an active possibility for either player. Only when there are no more active moves can we stop, and assess the result of our calculation. Most of the time, this will force us to go half a move deeper than we originally intended to calculate – but this half-move can save us many full points!
Hou Qiang
Yang Kaiqi
Pattaya 2011 (6.7)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.c4 d6 8.0-0 Nf6 9.Nc3 Nbd7 10.Be3 0-0 11.a4 Qc7 12.a5 Re8 13.Na4 Nc5 14.e5 Nxa4 15.exf6 Nxb2 16.Bxh7+ Kxh7 17.Qh5+ Kg8 18.fxg7 Kxg7 19.Bh6+ Kh7 20.Bc1+ Kg7 21.Qh6+ Kg8 22.Bxb2 e5 23.f4 Bf8 24.Qg5+ Bg7 25.f5 f6 26.Qg4 Bd7 27.Rf3 Rac8 28.Rg3 Re7 29.Rc1 b6 30.h4 bxa5 31.h5 a4 32.h6 axb3 33.Qh4 Bc6 34.Qxf6 Rf8 35.Qg6 Kh8 36.hxg7+ Rxg7 37.Qh6+ Kg8 38.Rcc3 Rxf5 39.Qe6+ Qf7 40.Rxg7+ Kxg7 41.Rg3+ Kh7 42.Qxd6
42…Rf1+
This was rejected by Black because of the variation given below. The game went 42…Bxg2 43.Qd3 e4 44.Qd2 (44.Qd4+−) 44…Bf3 45.Qd8 Qf8 46.Qd7+ Rf7 47.Qh3+? (47.Rh3+!+−) 47…Qh6−+ 48.Qxh6+ Kxh6 49.Kf2 Rc7 50.Ke3 Rxc4 51.Kf4 Rc6 52.Kf5 Rc5+ 53.Kf6 Kh5 54.Bd4 Rb5 55.Bf2 Bg4 56.R
g2 Rf5+ 57.Kg7 Bh3 58.Rh2 Kg4 59.Bd4 Rd5 60.Bc3 Rc5 61.Bd4 Rd5 62.Bc3 Rd3 63.Be1 e3 64.Kf6 Rd1 65.BC3 Bf1 66.Rb2 Bc4 0-1.
43.Kh2 Qh5+44.Rh3
Winning the queen – or so it seems. Here Black has to calculate one move deeper, because he has an active possibility: a check! Even when they look fancy, you have to check all the checks.
44…Rh1+! 45.Kxh1
Or 45.Kg3 Rxh3+ 46.gxh3 Qf3+ 47.Kh4 (47.Kh2 Qg2#) 47…Qf4+ 48.Kh5 Be8+.
45…Qxh3+ 46.Kg1 Qxg2#
0-1
Romanko,Marina
Dworakowska,Joanna
Gaziantep Ech 2012 (11)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nc6 8.Nc3 Nxd4 9.Qxd4 d6 10.Qd3 Rb8 11.e4 Ng4 12.Bd2 Bd7 13.Rab1 a6 14.a4 f5 15.b3 Ne5 16.Qe2 e6 17.exf5 gxf5 18.Bf4 Ng6
Black attacks the c3-knight. The first move that we should calculate here is:
19.Bxd6
Black replies
19…Bxc3
and after
20.Bxb8 Qxb8
she has won some material (bishop and knight against rook and pawn).
Do we stop the calculation here? White has neither checks (except for 21.Qxe6+, which we don’t have to consider for long) nor captures. Does she have active moves?
If we are able to visualize the position – that means that we see where the pieces actually are after the two moves that we played since our diagram – we will be able to spot that White has a very active move, one that wins a piece by simultaneously attacking the two unprotected bishops:
21.Qd3!+−
and White won the bishop back, and later on the game.
Chapter 18
Test: Is There A Combination?
This test will challenge your intuition and your ability to calculate. You are given six positions to solve. In some of them, there is a possible combination. In others, there is no combination to be found. There are 12 points to be gained, the time allowed is one hour.
First you look at the diagrams for a maximum time of two minutes each, and you have to decide which of them allow a combinative solution, every diagram is worth one point (6 points maximum). Then (for 6 points) you have to find the best moves, and every solution is also worth one point if there is a combination, or a best move. When there is nothing special to be found, you get one point if you play a ‘normal’ (i.e. correct) move.
ITAC 1
NN
NN
1949
(Solution on page 175)
ITAC 2
Nunn,John
Csom,Istvan
Moscow Ech-tt 1977 (3)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 Qb6 7.Nb3 e6 8.0-0 a6 9.a4 Be7 10.a5 Qc7 11.Be2 Bd7 12.Be3 Nb4 13.f4 0-0 14.Bf3 e5 15.Rf2 exf4 16.Bxf4 Rad8 17.Rd2 Bc8 18.g4 Be6 19.g5 Nd7 20.Ra4 Nc6 21.Nd5 Bxd5 22.exd5 Nce5 23.Be4 Rfe8
(Solution on page 175)
ITAC 3
Wang Hao
Manik,Mikulas
Sarajevo 2010 (4)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 d5 11.d4 dxe4 12.Nxe5 c5 13.Bf4 cxd4 14.cxd4 Bb7 15.Nc3 Rc8 16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Bxe4 Bxe4 18.Rxe4 Qd5 19.Qf3 Rc2
(Solution on page 176)
ITAC 4
Andreev
Dolukhanov
Leningrad 193S
(Solution on page 178)
ITAC 5
Sokolov,Andrey
Karpov,Anatoly
Linares (m/11) 1987
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nxd5 6.Nf3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 g6 8.h4 Bg7 9.h5 Nc6 10.Rb1 Qc7 11.Ba3 Bf5 12.Rb5 a613.Rc5
(Solution on page 179)
ITAC 6
Matlakov,Maxim
Khismatullin,Denis
Sochi tt 2012 (4)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Qe7 5.g3 Nc6 6.Nc3 Bxc3 7.Bxc3 Ne4 8.Rc1 0-0 9.Bg2 d6 10.d5 Nxc3 11.Rxc3 Nd8 12.0-0 e5 13.Nd2 b6 14.f4 exf4 15.gxf4 Nb7 16.f5 Nc5 17.f6 gxf6 18.b4 Nd7 19.Ne4 f5 20.Rxf5 f6 21.Qf1 a5 22.c5 axb4 23.cxd6 cxd6 24.Re3 Kg7 25.Qf4 Ne5 26.Rg3+Ng6 27.Rh5 Kg8
(Solution on page 179)
Solutions ITAC
Solution 1 (page 173)
A half-move earlier, White had faced the following choice.
What is the best way to achieve a win? White can exchange queens, with a rook ending two pawns up, or play the rook to c7, in order to win the queen or give a quick checkmate beginning with Rxg7+. What is your choice?
1.Rc7?
This move was played in the game, in which Black, not White, achieved a win!
1.Qxd7 Rxd7 2.Kf1 was an easy win, there are neither tricks nor drawing chances here.
The two weaknesses in White’s position are the alignment between the white queen and the white rook, and the possibility of a back-rank mate. So yes, there is a forced win, if the second player uses the elegant theme of a cross-pin:
1…RC5!!
If White takes the rook, he is mated or loses his queen; if he does not, he loses the rook.
Back
Solution 2 (page 173)
Here Nunn, a renowned attacking player, delivered what he thought was a crushing blow:
24.Bxh7+
There was no combination, so a cool regrouping move like 24.Qf1 should have been preferred, when the position is unclear. Mark one point if you have chosen a quiet (and not losing!) move here. White’s more active piece position is compensated for by the weaknesses of the pawn structure and his ‘airy’ king.
24…Kxh7 25.Qh5+ Kg8 26.Bxe5
‘I was all ready to finish my brilliancy with such lines as 26…dxe5 27.Rh4 Bc5+ 28.Nxc5 Qxc5+ 29.Kf1 Kf8 30.d6 f5 31.Qg6 Kg8 32.Qh7+ Kf7 33.Qxf5+ Kg8 34.Qh7+ Kf7 35.Rf2+ Ke6 36.Qg6+ Kd5 37.Rd2+ Kc6 38.Qe4+ Kb5 39.Qa4#’, Nunn writes in his Chess Puzzle Book, ‘but…’
26…Nxe5 27.Rh4
27…Nf3+
This spoils the whole concept. We call such moves ‘spoilers’; they are very difficult to detect, especially if you are an optimistic player. This kind of move is also a useful tool for trainers, in order to force young and gifted talents to check their calculation, before claiming after 15 seconds’ thought ‘Oh yes, of course, Bxh7 is completely winning! ’.
On 27…f6, 28.g6 wins for White.
28.Qxf3 Bxg5
‘Black wins the exchange for nothing’ – Nunn.
29.Rg4 Bxd2 30.Qf6 Bh6 31.Qxh6 Re1+
0-1
32.Kf2 Qxc2+! and now 33.Kxe1 Re8+ 34.Kf1 Qe2+ or 33.Nd2 Qf5+.
Back
Solution 3 (page 173)
Black’s last move, 19…Rc2?!, is a clear mistake, exposing the rook without necessity. Black has no chance to build an attack with this lone rook. White is better in any case, thanks to his nice piece concentration in the centre, but 19…Bd6 or 19…f6 was more cautious and would have allowed Black some hopes of holding the game.
Many weaknesses are visible in Black’s position:
- the c2-rook is unprotected, and deeply penetrated in the white camp on a sensitive square.
-two alignments look interesting for White: the rook on e4 virtually attacks the e7-bishop through the white knight on e5. And the same e4-rook, the pivotal piece in the position, is the only defence for the unprotected black queen against White’s queen on f3.
Obviously White is much better and all these ‘hints’ give him so many chances that a winning move is available.
This is a significant example of a little-known principle: there’s no correlation between the fact that a position is ‘completely winning’ and the degree of difficulty to solve it. True, the position is completely winning for White, and the reader can quite easily see why. White’s forces are more active, more secure, more harmonious, and Black has several weaknesses. Nevertheless the winning combination is quite hard to spot, in spite of the numerous existing motifs.
White won in style with
20.Bh6!!
A slow but very purposeful move that prepares a discovered attack. The threat is 21.Bxg7, and if 21…Kxg7, then 22.Rg4+ wins the queen. There are many tries, but there is no defe
nce.
On 20.Ng4, 20…f5! more or less holds.
20…Rd8
This move was played in the game, with the simple idea of protecting the queen. This is not enough to stop White’s fury.
A) On 20…gxh6? 21.Rg4+ wins immediately;
B) 20…Qd8 fails to the wild 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.Rg4+ Kh8 (22…Kh6 23.h4! (the best move, threatening Qf4 and mate. 23.Nxf7+ Rxf7 24.Qxf7 also wins, of course) 23…Bxh4 24.Qh3 winning the bishop, the queen and the game) and now:
23.Qxf7! Rg8 24.Qf6+!;
C) 20…Qe6 is strongly met by 21.Ng4 and now:
C1) 21…Qc6!? with the clever idea 22.Rxe7 Qxf3 23.gxf3 gxh6; instead 22.d5! is a winner: 22…Qxd5 23.Ne3! or 22…Qd7 23.Bxg7 Kxg7 24.Ne3+−;
C2) After 21…Qd7 simplest is 22.Bxg7 (22.Rae 1 is completely crushing, of course, and even superior) 22…Kxg7 23.Ne3! (this in-between move replaces the knight with tempo, in the direction of f5) 23…Rc6 (or 23…f5 24.Rxe7+ Qxe7 25.Nxc2+−) 24.Rxe7! Qxe7 25.Nf5+.
21.Bxg7! Kxg7 22.Rg4+ Kf8
Not 22…Kh8 because of 23.Qxd5 Rxd5 24.Nxf7#.
Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna Page 14