Black to play after White's Ra2?
The position above occurred in the final game of our Thematic Tournament last night at the Kenilworth Chess Club between club president Joe Demetrick and newcomer Henry Charry. Joe was down to less than a minute on the clock at the time. It was a great lesson, if a painful one for Joe who had a draw until he offered the natural Rook trade. You are on your own for this one--even if you use Fritz, since the computer will likely be no help because the solution is beyond its horizon.
3 comments:
Okay, I've about given up on this. I keep finding ways for White to get his King to the Black pawns in the most obvious line:
1 ... Rxa2
2 Kxa2 Ke6
3 Kxa3 Kd5
4 Kb3
(4 f3 losing to Kc4 seemed fairly straightforward)
and now
4 ... g5
is what I've been playing around with, but it seems to come up short. 4 ... Ke4 seems to allow the WK too much activity with 5 Kc5.
I'm hoping you post a solution, because I hate not knowing!
Icepick -- my apologies -- you are correct! I went by our post-mortem without checking closely. Even Fritz sees it should be a draw with best play:
[Event "Analysis"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "????.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "New game"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/5kpp/5p2/8/8/pK2P1P1/R4P1P/r7 b - - 0 44"]
[PlyCount "30"]
{White could have drawn by keeping the Rooks on. Instead he offered the exchange of Rooks, after which he must play very precisely in the ending to draw. He did not, and our brief post-mortem suggested the game was a win for Black after the exchange. But now it is obvious that with best play White can still draw.} 44... Rxa2 45. Kxa2 Ke6 46. Kxa3 Kd5 (46... g5 47. Kb4 Kd5 48. f3 g4 49. fxg4 Ke4 $11) 47. Kb4 $1 {White has to go after the enemy pawns to draw.
} ({In the actual game, White played} 47. f3 $2 Kc4 48. Kb2 Kd3 49. e4 Ke3 $19 50. Kc3 Kxf3 51. Kd4 Kg2) ({Also losing is} 47. Kb3 $2 Ke4 48. Kc4 h5 $3 {gaining a critical tempo:} 49. Kc5 Kf3 50. Kd6 Kxf2 51. Ke7 Kg2 52. Kf7 Kxh2
53. Kxg7 (53. Kg6 Kxg3 54. Kxh5 g5 $19) 53... Kxg3 54. Kxf6 h4 55. e4 h3 56. e5 h2 57. e6 h1=Q 58. e7 Qh5 $19) 47... Ke4 48. Kc5 $1 (48. Kc3 $2 Kf3 (48... h5 $5 49. Kd2 Kf3 50. Ke1 Kg2 51. Ke2 Kxh2 52. e4 g5 53. f4 Kxg3 54. e5 gxf4 55.
exf6 Kg2 56. f7 f3+ 57. Ke3 f2 58. f8=Q f1=Q 59. Qxf1+ Kxf1 60. Kf3 $11) 49. Kd4 Kxf2 50. Ke4 Kg2 51. Kf5 Kxh2 52. g4 Kg3 53. g5 fxg5 54. e4 g4 55. e5 g6+ $3 56. Kf6 $8 Kh2 $1 57. e6 g3 58. e7 g2 59. e8=Q g1=Q $19) 48... Kf3 49. Kd6
Kxf2 (49... h5 50. Ke6 Kxf2 51. Kf7 Kg2 52. Kxg7 Kxh2 53. Kg6 $11) 50. Ke6 Kxe3 (50... Kg2 51. e4) 51. Kf7 f5 (51... Ke4 52. Kxg7 f5 53. Kxh7 f4 54. gxf4 Kxf4 $11) 52. Kxg7 Kf3 53. Kxh7 Kg2 54. h4 Kxg3 55. h5 f4 56. h6 f3 57. Kg7 f2 58.
h7 f1=Q 59. h8=Q $11 1/2-1/2
I'm sorry Michael, I thought I posted a thank you a couple of days ago. Sorry about that, and thanks for the result.
I feel better about the ending now. I felt certain I was missing something obvious.
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