April 2009
April 2009 April 2009
Page 26 Northwest Chess April 2009
And In The End by Dana Muller This month we look at another rook and pawn endgame. As in the March column, White has a huge, likely winning, advantage. As an aside, I’ll give a short plug for playing matches as a complement to tournament play. Being a player who entered tournaments infrequently, I found each of the three matches I played with Paul Eggers useful in shaking off the rust (computer chess was a joke in the 1980s). These short, hard-fought matches served as excellent preparation for future tournaments. Dana Muller – Paul Eggers Match July 1980 From Black’s perspective, there is an immediate decision whether to play actively or passively. Since immediate active play seems to result in the loss of the h6-pawn, I think Black made the right choice. The other headache Black has to deal with is the where to place the queenside pawns. They are potential targets for a rook on the seventh rank, but advancing any one of them has drawbacks. Moving the c-pawn to c5 soon requires b6 as support; this allows the white king an easy road to the queenside. Moving a pawn to a6 or a5 leaves a hole at b6, and it may be possible for white to fix the weakness with c3-c4-c5. 32. h4 Kf6 33. Rd4 Re7 Beginning to maneuver the white rook and king; Black can’t allow the exchange of rooks 34. Rd6+ Kg7 Black needs to defend the h-pawn. 35. Kf4 37. Rh7! (a useful finesse) 37. ...Kg6 38. Rxb7 Rf2+ (forcing a temporary retreat) 39. Kg3 Rxc2 40. h5+ Kf6 (40. ...Kg5 41. Rg7+ Kf6 42. Rg6+ gives White an extra tempo) White’s edge is clear: a pawn ahead and more active rook. That there are pawns on both sides of board is what gives White a probable win. If you removed all six queenside pawns, the position would be a draw. With that in mind, White should try to limit pawn exchanges as much as possible. Looking at the big picture, white plans to first fix the kingside with h3-h4-h5, and if allowed, to fix the queenside with moves such as a2-a4, c3-c4-c5. Complementing the pawn moves will be rook and king maneuvers looking to infiltrate the black position. The initial part of this grand strategy will be fixing the black pawn as a weakness on h6. Black will need to defend the h6-pawn: if the pawn falls White will have connected passed pawns which should be decisive. 35. ...a6 Black decides to defend passively (at least for the time being). The active 35. ...Re2 deserves consideration. This move is Black’s best chance to making active play work, since White is less advanced at this point (i.e. white hasn’t fixed the pawn structure). 35. ...Re2 36. Rd7+ Kf6 (on 36. ...Kg8 [or Kf8, Kh8] 37. Kf5 idea 38. Kg6 with both mate threats and attacking the h-pawn looks very bad for black.) 41. Rh7 (h-pawn!) 41. ...Rxc3+ 42. Kh4 Rc2 43. Rxh6+ Kg7 44. Rd6. April 2009 Northwest Chess Page 27
- Page 1 and 2: Northwest Chess April 2009 $3.95
- Page 3 and 4: Letters. The mail I receive rarely
- Page 5 and 6: 7 Bothell 15 8-10 Lynden 14.5 8-10
- Page 7 and 8: Curt Collyer - John Donaldson Dave
- Page 9 and 10: Going to State Washington State Ele
- Page 11 and 12: 19. axb3. Awkward for White, howeve
- Page 13 and 14: Transitions by Pete Prochaska Strat
- Page 15 and 16: Third Annual Clark Harmon Memorial
- Page 17 and 18: can’t be right. 22. Qb1 suggests
- Page 19 and 20: Oregon State Championship by Neil D
- Page 21 and 22: 25. Qe5+ Qc7 26. Qxh8+ Kb7 27. Qe5
- Page 23 and 24: {The black f-pawn is looking like a
- Page 25: 29. ...bxc2 30. Nf7+ Kg8 23. e5 Kh8
- Page 29 and 30: If 48. ...Rxc5 then 49. Rg7+ Kh8 (4
- Page 31 and 32: Seattle Chess Club Tournaments Addr
Page 26 Northwest Chess <strong>April</strong> <strong>2009</strong>
Change language