Naturally, I failed. Gelfand anticipated my failure in his annotations, which I should have studied with greater attention.
Black to move
Stockfish 11 64 POPCNT -- Stripes,J
Blitz 15m+10s, 04.06.2020
44...a5
Gelfand gave this move an explanation mark, as it is the only move with winning chances.
45.Kf3 24 a4 46.Kg4
Gelfand played 46.Ke2, and after 46...a3, sacrificed a pawn. 47.b6 cxb6 48.Nc1 Kc5 49.Kd3 Bf4 and the game was drawn ten moves later, but my chess engine says that Black has a decisive advantage. Many years of using chess engines should have taught me however, that -+ with a score in the neighborhood of -2.50 is not yet a won game.
White to move
 |
| After 49...Bf4 |
46...a3 47.Nc1 Kc5 48.Kf5
Black to move
48...Bb2
Gelfand's annotations offer 48...Kd4 here as unclear, but it is probably a draw.
49.Na2 Kd6 50.Nb4 Kc5 51.Na2 Kxb5 52.e5 Kc5 53.d6
Black to move
53...Kc6
There were a couple of ways to lose here.
a) 53...cxd6 54.e6 Kc6 55.Kg6+-
b) 53...Bxe5 54.d7+-
54.Nb4+ Kd7 55.dxc7 Kxc7 56.Ke4 Bxe5 57.Kxe5 a2 58.Nxa2 ½–½
I tried a second time against Stockfish. This time play began with Gelfand's suggested alternative to Topalov's choice.
Black to move
Stockfish 11 64 POPCNT -- Stripes,J.
Blitz 15m+10s, 04.06.2020
49...b5
Topalov played 49...Bf4, as noted in my note above.
50.Kc2 Kc4 51.d6 Bxd6 52.Nb3 Be5 53.Na5+ Kc5 54.Kb1 Kb6 55.Nb3 b4 56.Ka2
Black to move
White has a fortress very much like the one that Gelfand constructed in the actual game, whci was played at Wijk aan Zee in 1996 and published as Informant 65/588.
56...Kb5 57.Nc1 Kc4 58.Nb3 Bb2 59.Nd2+ Kd3 60.Nb3 Kxe4 61.Na5 Kd4
White to move
62.Kb3 Kc5 63.Kc2 Kb5 64.Nb3 Be5 65.Kb1 Kc4 66.Ka2 Bf4 67.Na5+ Kc3 68.Nb3 Bc7 69.Nc5 Kc2 70.Nb3 Bb6
White to move
I had worked hard to reach the position, and then just before Stockfish moved, I saw why it was not winning.
71.Nd4+!
71...Bxd4 is stalemate.
71...Kc1 72.Nc6 Bc5 73.Na5 Kc2 74.Nb3 Bb6 75.Na1+ Kc3 76.Nb3 Kc2 ½–½
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