B. 74.Rd8 Compared with the winning line A (74.Rb4), given by Kopayev, this move of Gelfand seems at first appearance more accurate, because the rook immediately occupies the 8th rank and restricts the mobility of the king. The only drawback of 74.Rd8 is that the rook on d-file is too close to enemy king.
74…Re1+ 75.Kf3 Rf1+ 76.Ke3 Re1+ 77.Kf2 Re4 78.Kf3 Re1 D. 9
Gelfand suggests here 79.Rd7 (a) which undoubtedly wins, but the way to it is much more difficult. It was not too late to play the rook to 79.Ra8 (b) (or 79.Rb8 or 79.Rc8) in order to keep due distance to the enemy king.
a) 79.Rd7 Rf1+ 80.Ke4 Ra1 81.f5 Kf8 D. 10
Here we have the key difference between this line and the line of Kopayev (74.Rb4 … 77...Ra1 78.f5 Kf8, D. 8). In the Kopayev’s line with the rook on b7 White easily wins by 79.Rb8+ Ke7 80.f6+. Here 82.Rd8+?! is useless because after 82…Ke7 the rook is under attack. The rook must retreat to d4 (or d3 or d2), after which the win is much more complicated.
82.f6 We have now reached a very important set-up for this type of endgame. I will deal with it in the second part of this thread. Here I simply follow the precise analysis of Gelfand.
82…Re1+ 83.Kd5 Rd1+ 84.Kc6 Rc1+ 85.Kb5 Rb1+ 85...Ke8 86.Re7+ Kf8 87.Ra7! Ke8 88.Ra8+ Kd7 89.Rf8 Ke6 90.Re8+ Kd5 91.e6+–.
86.Kc4 Rc1+ 87.Kb4!! 87.Kb3? Rc8 88.Kb4 Re8 89.Rd5 Kg8!=.
87...Rc8 87...Rb1+ 88.Kc3 Rc1+ 89.Kd2 Rc8 90.Kd3 Kg8 91.Kd4 Rf8 92.e6! fxe6 93.Ke5 Ra8 94.Kxe6+–.
88.Kb5 Re8 89.Kc6! Kg8 89...Rxe5 90.Rd8+ Re8 91.Kd7+–.
90.Kd5 Ra8 91.Ke4 Ra4+ 92.Kf5 Ra1 93.Rd8+ Kh7 94.Rf8+–.
b) 79.Ra8 D. 11
70…Rf1+ 71.Ke3 Re1+ 72.Kf2 Re4 73.Kf3 Re1 74.Ra7+–.
We have transposed to the winning line of Kopayev in D. 5.
Back to D. 1 after 61.Rb6?! II. 61…Re3 This move of Yates is weaker than 61...Ra4, because White can easily displace the Black rook from the e-file. The rest of the game was masterfully analysed by Kopayev in 1956 and almost completely included in the 1st and 2nd editions of
‘Chess Endings’, edited by Yu. Averbakh (1. Russian edition, 1958, p., 2. Russian edition, 1984, p. 319-320,
“Comprehensive Chess Endings, Vol. 5 Rook Endings”, Pergamon Press 1987, p. 304-305). Kopayev made only one analytical error on the 64th move, when he considered Capablanca's move Rb7 inaccurate and proposed a move that missed the win.
62.Rb4 Rc3 63.Kf2? 63.Rb8! Re3 64.Re8+–.
63...Ra3? 63...h5! 64.g5 h4 65.Rb7 Kg6 66.Rb6+ Kh5! 67.Rf6 h3 68.Rxf7 h2! 69.Kg2 Rc2+ 70.Kh1 Kg4 71.Ra7 Kg3 72.Ra3+ Kxf4=
D. 11
64.Rb7 This is the best move, but Kopayev mistakenly regarded it as an inaccuracy and suggested 64.Rb8 instead. This analytical error is quite instructive. Kopayev seemingly overlooked the simple fact that the Black rook was on the third rank, and proceeded in a manner similar to the position of D. 6, where the Black rook occupies the first rank. In D. 6, the optimal move is Ra8, while Ra7 is inaccurate. In the current position, however, 64.Rb8 is a critical mistake, as after
64...h5!, the White king is effectively cut off along the third rank (similar to the situation above after 63.Kf2? h5!):
65.g5 h4! 66.f5 h3 67.e6 fxe6 68.f6+ Kg6! 69.Rg8+ Kf7! 70.Rg7+ Kf8! 71.g6 Ra2+ 72.Kg3 Ra3+ 73.Kg4 Ra4+! 74.Kxh3 Rf4!=.
This error of Kopayev still appears in the Russian edition of Dvoretsky's textbook (p. 246), but was corrected in the 5th English edition, where the move 64.Rb8 is no longer mentioned.
64...Kg8 65.Rb8+ Kg7 66.f5 Ra2+ 67.Ke3 67.Kg3 is better: 67…Ra3+ 68.Kh4 Re3 69.Re8 Re1 70.Kg3 Re4 71.f6+ Kh7 72.Kf3 Re1 73.Kf4 Rf1+ 74.Ke4+–.
67...Ra3+ 68.Ke4 Ra4+ 69.Kd5 Ra5+ 70.Kd6 Ra6+ 71.Kc7 Kh7 72.Kd7 Ra7+ 73.Kd6 Kg7 74.Rd8 Ra5 75.f6+ Kh7 76.Rf8 Ra7 77.Kc6 Kg6 78.Rg8+ Kh7 79.Rg7+ Kh8 80.Kb6 Rd7 81.Kc5 Rc7+ 82.Kd6 Ra7 83.e6 Ra6+ 84.Ke7 Rxe6+ 85.Kxf7 Re4 86.g5 hxg5 87.Kg6. Yates resigned.