Kimiec-Kernighan, KCC v West Orange Match

Position after 47...gxh5

White to Play and Win? (I think -- but he missed it)

The Match between the Kenilworth Chess Club and West Orange Chess Club went very well and we look forward to hosting them in September. We lost the match 4-5, but it was close on every board with some very interesting fighting games. One of the most tense was that played between our Mr. Houdini, Mark Kernighan, and Richard Kimiec on board two. It was a very tight game throughout. For one of the first times in recent memory, Mark emerged from the opening with the slightly better game. But the middlegame and endgame struggle went back and forth. As usual for Mark, it came down to the final seconds of the time control and he won on time.

Playing over the game, I thought the most interesting moment was the one diagrammed above. Is it White to play and win? I'm not certain on review--it is more complicated maybe than I thought when I looked at it last night with Fritz (see PGN below). If it is a win, it's lucky for Mark that Mr. Kimiec missed it.

Below is the game in PGN format. To play it over in Fritz, for example, simply copy it to the clipboard and then use Edit->Paste Game.

[Event "Kenilworth CC Team at West Orange CC"]
[Site "West Orange, NJ USA"]
[Date "2005.06.28"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Kimiec, Richard"]
[Black "Kernighan, Mark"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "2147"]
[BlackElo "2213"]
[Annotator "Goeller,Michael"]
[PlyCount "108"]
[TimeControl "G60"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nge2 Nf6 4. g3 d5 5. exd5 Nxd5 6. Bg2 Nxc3 7. bxc3 Bf5 8. Rb1 Qd7 9. O-O Be6 $6 10. Ba3 Bxa2 11. Rb2 Bd5 12. Bxd5 Qxd5 13. Nf4 Qd7 (13... Qc4 14. Qf3) 14. Bxc5 b6 15. Be3 Rd8 (15... e5 16. Ng2 Bd6 $15) 16. Qe2 g6 $6 (16... e5) 17. Rb5 $5 (17. d4 $14) 17... Bg7 18. Rd5 Qb7 19. Rxd8+ Nxd8 20. Qb5+ (20. Bd4) 20... Qd7 21. Nd5 $6 Qxb5 22. Nc7+ Kd7 23. Nxb5 a6 24. Na7 $2 Kc7 25. Rb1 b5 26. c4 bxc4 27. Rb6 Nb7 (27... a5) 28. Rxa6 Nd6 29. Rc6+ Kd7 30. Rc5 Ra8 31. Nc6 Ra2 $15 32. Nb4 Rb2 33. c3 e5 34. Ra5 Ne4 35. Ra2 $6 Rxa2 36. Nxa2 Bf8 37. Kf1 Kc6 38. f3 Nf6 39. Nc1 Ba3 40. Ne2 Kd5 41. h3 Ne8 42. f4 exf4 $6 43. Nxf4+ $11 Ke4 44. Ke2 Bb2 45. Bc5 Nf6 46. Be7 Nh5 47. Nxh5 gxh5 48. Bg5 $2 (48. Kd1 $1 Kd3 49. h4 $16 { and Black will soon be in zugzwang.}) 48... Ba3 $15 49. Bf4 Be7 $2 (49... h4 $1 $19) 50. Bc7 Bc5 51. Bf4 Be7 52. Bb8 h4 53. Bf4 $2 hxg3 54. Bxg3 f5 $19 { and Black soon won on time in a winning position.} 0-1