Kenilworth Kibitzer

A blog for members of the Kenilworth Chess Club.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

 

Endgame Humor

One last before we consign Zurich 1953 back to history...

20. Kotov-Najdorf  (click here to view on chessgames.com)

White to move....any predictable course of moves would have Black win the d5-pawn, arrange to push his own pawn to d4, and start making dinner plans.  

22.  axb4!?

When a loss appears inevitable, reject the assumption!  Black must recalibrate to a new 
position and new strategy.

22. ....   Rxa1
23. bxc5  dxc5
24. Bxc5  Rd8       (Black may be hanging on to his dark-squared bishop too long - now ...Bxc3 and ... Qxd5 may be enough to bring it home)
25. d6     Ne8
26. Kg2  Bf8
27. N1e2  Nxd6
28. Qd5   Nb7
29. Qxf7+   Kxf7
30. Bxf8    Rxf8
31. Ng3    Nd6
32. Rd2   Ke6
33. Rd5   Rb8

All foreshadowing aside, all seems to be going to plan... soon the b-pawn will fall and Black will roll up White's position.

Bronstein:  ...but as the Eastern proverb has it: "If it weren't for the wolves, our goat could make it to Mecca."  But now to howling wolves appear, in the form of a pair of white knights...

34. Rxd6+!
Again, reject the assumption!   A second exchange tossed to the fire.

34. ......    Kxd6
35. Nxf5+  Kc6
36. Nxe4   Rxb2+
37. Kf3     Rb4
38. Nfg3   Raa4
39. h5       
Black is fortunate that he realizes in time that he can only, and must play for a draw.
39. .....    Ra3+
40. Kg4    Kd7
41. g6       hxg6
42. hxg6   Ke7
43. Nf5+   Ke6
44. Ng7+  Ke7
45. Nf5+   Ke6
46. g7       Ra8
47. Neg3  Rg8
48. Nh5   Rxf4+!
49. Kxf4   Rxg7!
50. Nhxg7+
1/2-1/2  (!)

Bronstein: This game might better belong in an adventure magazine than a tournament book.

And a possibly anachronistic story, consume with caution:

'As we can see, instead of simply offering a draw Najdorf decided to end the game with the joke moves given above, and after Kotov took the second rook he said "draw".

Kotov then looked up at Najdorf with a puzzled expression: "why?"

"Because it's a book draw." 

"Ah yes," responded Kotov "that used to be true". He then went on to explain to a horrified Najdorf about the old man in Tbilisi who had recently solved the problem about how to to mate the lone king with two knights. It took a few seconds before it dawned on Najdorf that Russians know how to tell jokes too.'



Nimzovich:  And so I close my book and bid a friendly, I hope, farewell to you, my readers.



Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

Archives

February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   October 2010   November 2010   December 2010   January 2011   February 2011   March 2011   April 2011   May 2011   June 2011   January 2012   February 2012   March 2012   May 2012   July 2012   December 2012   January 2013   February 2013   July 2013   October 2013   March 2014  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]