Hi all!
I'm sorry that my free time is about to be reduced to zero due to the start of school.
YAY! HOORAY! (I guess you can tell I'm a teacher and not one of the prisoners. I mean students. Well, you know what I mean
So, I have decided to give an endgame for the first two weeks of August rather than just one. This comes from the European Team Championship, and superficially it appears to be yet another endgame crush by one of the World's elite players against another (yawn) 2500+ rated player.
However, I was going through the game and noticed that White seemed to be refusing a tacit draw offer. Now, presuming that the match circumstances had no bearing on the outcome (a big presumption, I know), can anyone find the win for Black in the following position?
It's move 40 and R. Zelcic is in check.
White: Kc2 Rd8 Ng4
Pawns: b2 c3 f2 g3 h3
Black: Ke6 Re2(+) Bc5
Pawns: a6 a4 c4 f6 g5What would have happened if White had played 40.Rd2 ???
I give the game with a few of my notes about the resulting position tossed in.
Zelcic,R (2522) - Bareev,E (2688) [C13]
15th ETC Gothenburg SWE (1), 30.07.2005
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Nf3 0-0 8.Bc4 Nd7 9.Qe2 a6 10.0-0-0 b5 11.Bb3 Bb7 12.d5 exd5 13.Bxd5 c6 14.Bb3 Qc7 15.Rhe1 c5 16.Bd5 Bxd5 17.Rxd5 Be7 18.Kb1 Rae8 19.Rd3 Bd8 20.Re3 Qc6 21.Qd3 Bc7 22.Nc3 Rxe3 23.Qxe3 Ba5 24.Re2 c4 25.Qe4 Qxe4 26.Nxe4 Re8 27.c3 Bb6 28.Rd2 Rxe4 29.Rxd7 h6 30.Rd2 g5 31.Kc2 Rf4 32.h3 f6 33.a4 bxa4 34.Nd4 Kf7 35.g3 Re4 36.Nf5 Bc5 37.Nxh6+ Ke6 38.Ng4 Re1 39.Rd8 Re2+ 40.Kb1 [40.Rd2 Rxd2+ 41.Kxd2 f5 42.Ne3 Bxe3+ 43.Kxe3 and WHITE wins!] 40...f5 (40...Bf2?? Re8 aslo wins for White) 41.Re8+ Be7 42.Ne3 Rxf2 43.g4 Kd7 44.Ra8 f4 45.Ra7+ Ke8 46.Nf5 Re2 47.Nd4 Re3 48.Nf5 Re1+ 49.Kc2 f3 0-1