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60... Kf7
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Continuing the theme of making White's task as difficult as possible. |
 
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61. Rg5 Kf6 62. Rh5
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Now this move is correct. |
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62... Rg8+ 63. Kf3 Rf8
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The discovered check is powerless except to delay things a little. |
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64. Rxh4
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According to the Nalimov tablebase, White mates in 40. |
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64... Kg5+ 65. Kg3 Re8 66. Rh7 Re3+ 67. Kh2 Kg6 68. Ra7 Kh5 69. Ra5+
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Both sides are playing good moves, Black trying to delay the advance of the pawns, White trying to regroup his pieces so he can start advancing them. |
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69... Kh4
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A terrible blunder. |
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70. Ra4+
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White misses the easy win: 70. g3 ! Rxg3 71. Ra4 . But the move played is still winning. |
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70... Kh5 71. h4 Rc3 72. g3
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This will be White's main strategy: advance the h-pawn, advance the g-pawn, advance the king, advance the rook to prepare for the h-pawn to advance again. |
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72... Rc2+ 73. Kh3 Rc3 74. Ra5+ Kh6 75. h5 Rc4
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Note that it makes no difference whether or not Black unpins the pawn: after for example 75... Rb3, White would just play Kh4 and then g4. |
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76. g4 Rc3+ 77. Kh4 Rc4 78. Ra6+ Kh7 79. h6 Rc5
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79... Rc1, threatening some spite checks, would delay the win a little longer, but White can still advance: 80. Kh5 Rh1 81. Kg5 Rc1 82. Ra7 Kh8 83. Kh5 etc. |
1 comment
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80. g5 Rc4+ 81. Kh5 Rc5 82. Ra7+ Kg8
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White's next move threw away the win. Before reading on, can you do better? |
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83. h7+
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83. Rd7!! mates in 21. In a sort of sideways Lucena position, White can shelter from Black's checks by Kg4-f5-f6-e5 and Rd5. After this move, it's a draw. |
2 comments
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83... Kh8 84. Kh6 Rc6+
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Black has two drawing strategies: the one played, or 84... Ra5, and Black's rook will just mimic the movements of White's, being immune to capture because of stalemate. |
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85. g6
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After 85. Kh5, Black just moves the rook along the sixth rank and White can never make progress. Ra8 loses the h-pawn, while g6 allows Rxg6. |
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85... Rxg6+
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The clincher. |
1 comment
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86. Kxg6
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Stalemate. A fitting, if bizarre, end to an encounter in which both sides missed winning chances. White went on to win the group, partly helped by me resigning in a balanced position after my loss to the player of Black in this game meant I couldn't progress from the group. |
2 comments
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