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.
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