22 March 2025

Fighting Spirit

As noted in a couple of recent posts,* I prefer to play on in seemingly equal positions. Yesterday, a player rated above 2000 was not having a good game against me and I won a piece through a fork. Later in the game, my own error allowed a fork that returned the material. Then the exchange of queens gave us an ending with two rooks each after only 28 moves. The game went on another 50 moves.

White to move

Stripes,J (1802) -- Internet Opponent (2011) [D09]
Live Chess Chess.com, 21.03.2025

29.Rxe3 Rf2 30.Rd7 Rxa2 31.Ree7

At this point, I knew that I could not lose and considered forcing a draw.

31...a5 32.Rg7+ Kf8 33.Rgf7+ Ke8 34.Rde7+ Kd8 35.Rd7+ Ke8 36.Rfe7+ Kf8

It may have been here that the first draw offer was made by my opponent. He made two.

White to move

37.Rxh7 Kg8 38.Rdg7+ Kf8

Here, I spent 90 seconds in a ten minute game considering whether I wanted to play on or force the draw, concluding that best play will result in a draw. Nonetheless, with better pawn structure, I risked very little playing on. Moreover, I could force the exchange of one set of rooks.

39.Rxg6 Rd8

Black threatens checkmate in one.

40.Rh8+ Kf7 41.Rxd8 Kxg6 42.Rd5

Black to move

42...Kh5??

Either Ra3 or Rb2 holds things equal.

43.h3?

My failure returns the game to equal. 43.h4 was the winning move.

43...a4?? 44.bxa4+- Rxa4 45.Rxc5 Ra1+ 46.Kg2 Ra2+ 47.Kf3 Ra3+

White to move
At this point, I was fairly certain that my position was winning, but spent another full minute finding the way to proceed.

48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Ke1 Rg2


White to move

On the second opportunity to take advantage of the pin, I saw it.

50.h4! Kg4

50...Rxg3 51.Rxg5+ Rxg5 52.hxg5 Kxg5 leads to a position where White must move to the left of the pawn to successfully gain control of the key squares. An example appears on the first page of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual (2003).

51.Rxg5+

Two connected passed pawns with a rook leading them down the board are nearly always decisive.

51...Kf3 52.c5 Ke3 53.Kf1 Rf2+ 54.Kg1 Rc2 55.Rf5 Rc1+ 56.Kg2 Rc2+ 57.Kh3 Ke4

White to move

58.Rg5

Sensible would be 58.Rf8 Rxc5 59.Kg4 cutting Black's king off from the activity on the g- and h-files. The c-pawn is not important.

58...Kf3 59.Rd5 Rc1 60.Rd3+ Ke4 61.Rd8 Rxc5 62.Rf8 Rc7 63.h5 Rh7 64.Kh4 Ke5 65.g4 Ke6 66.g5 Ke7 67.Rf4

Black to move

67...Rf7

67...Ke6 at least forces me to show that I know what I'm doing. Offering the trade of rooks makes for a simple pawn ending, which the computer finds that I played perfectly. My opponent took the game all the way to checkmate.

68.Rxf7+ Kxf7 69.Kg4 Kg7 70.Kf5 Kh8 71.Kf6 Kg8 72.g6 Kh8 73.g7+ Kg8 74.h6 Kh7 75.Kf7 Kxh6 76.g8Q Kh5 77.Qg3 Kh6 78.Qh4# 1-0

*"Playing Drawn Endgames" and "Equal is not yet Drawn".

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