White to move and it is move 36. White is Ivanchuk and Black is Aronian. How should White proceed? Ivanchuk missed the win and the game ended in a draw. Once you are able to find the right solution, I will show you an almost identical position also on move 36 between 2 other super GMs shortly after when White lost.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
how does white not win this?
37. Re5 Rxc7
38. RxR and White is a going to win with a Bish and a Rook against a Rook. Black’s passer’s not going to survive.
37. Re5 RxR
38. BxR Re7
39. Bd7 wins [38..Rc5 breaks my dreams]
1. Kd4 b2
No See situation
The idea is to get rid of the pawn on b3 so my candidate move is 37. Kc3
After Black’s passer is capput by the King, the best post for the king is d4 and there should he be heading.
Then comes the Re5 idea I posted earlier.
I found the game on chessgames (after I posted). It was played on a rapid tournament. I won’t reveal more, not to spoil for others. And I won’t tell whether I got it right for the same reason.
The initial plan for white is to eat the b3 pawn and then walk with the king to b6. But unfortunately that won’t work since 1.Kb3 is met by 1….Re5! 2.Rxe5 Rxc7+ and the bischop will fall. Therefore 1.Ba6, which also defends e2.
The plan for black is to get the king earlier to the pawn on c7 and to move it from the last row. So there could follow 1…Kg7 2.Kc3 Kf6 and now 3.f4! (the black king can’t move to the e-line because of 4.Re5+) 3…Rf8 4.Kxb3 Ke6 5.Kc4 Kd6 now the pawn on c7 ties the black rook and king and the white king can move to the centre to attack the pawns on the kingside: 6.Bxc8 Rxc8 7.Kd4 and after for example 7…f6 white answers with 8.f5 gxf5 9.Rxf5 and soon one of the other black pawns will fall too and white has a winning position.
This is a difficult one. Can’t wait to see how this game turned out, and how the similar one differed.
I think mayadi’s suggestion is the best so far. It seems that both of black’s rooks are pinned. If he moves either one of them, then the pawn queens and is protected twice, and thus wins a rook. So black can only move his king, or push paws.
Hence, white can either move the king to c3 to munch the pawn, or move Ba6, which continues to protect the queening square, as well as prevent the tempo-gaining rook check on e2. Looks like a reasonable move on the grounds that white can move a piece to a better square, while black can’t do much of anything, except move his King to g7 or f8.
But I don’t see the follow-through. As mayadi said, f4 seems to be reasonable. Then again, 1 f4 is also yet another possible starting move, as it’s probably going to be played at some point anyway, so maybe starting with it is the way to go.
Any of those moves (f4, Ba6, Kc3) seem reasonable to me, and none seems decisive. Bxc8 seems to be the weakest of reasonable moves, again because both rooks are pinned, so winning the exchange only frees up black, and I think it would be better to keep his pieces tied up and then exchange off the bish at a later time of white’s choosing.
I think I have found the right idea. White can not take the rook immediately as black’s king easily makes it over to liquidate the pawn. White first plays Kc3 to win the black b pawn, and then in reply to kf8 2Ba6! is the right idea. The idea is the threat is greater than the execution. Black can not move either rook, and if Ke7 then Re5 wins as Kd7 can be answered by Bb5. White then has time to improve his king position as Black can make no progress.
-Justin Daniel
Mayadi has it right. I missed the Re5 tactic to start with. 1Ba6! is the correct move order.
-Justin Daniel
Yes, the later threat of Rd5+ in conjunction with Bb5+ will keep the black king away from the c-pawn, and that will allow white to capture the b-pawn with king and then move the king into a better position. Black will have to play f6 at some point to prevent Re5:
1 Ba6 Kf8
2 Kc3 f6
3 Kxb3 Ke7
4 BxR RxB
5 Rc6 and the rook will be able to pick off king side pawns if black plays Kd7; otherwise white moves his king up to snag the black kingside pawns.
That other (white losing) could be something like 1. Kc3 Re5 2. Rc4 b2 winning! 🙂
I do not think that it is already over here..
5. Rc6, g5 and what now? Black tries to exchange as many pawns as possible to get the chance for a theoretical draw (if I remember correctly KR vs KR f-pawn h-pawn gives good drawing chances though two pawns less).
So white should center his king for an easy win but not exchange the c vs the black king pawns.
6. Kc4, gxh4 7.gxh4, Kd7 8. Kd5! (probably Kc5/b5 also wins but only in a KPP vs KPP endgame and only because of the “free moves” of f2; I do not think 8. Rxf6 wins because of Kxc7 (of course not Rxc7 9. Rf7+ with exchange of the rooks)), Ke7 and now K-c5-b6-b7 simply wins by zugzwang (black’s king can’t stay on d7).
Greetings
Jochen
37. Ba6 Re5 loses (finally I understood)
38. RxR Rxc7 and 39. Re2
For White is a Bish up and Black’s passer will fall
After 1.Ba3 then Black plays Kg7! to circumvent the Bb5+ idea. Now:
2.Kc3 Kf6
3.Kxb3 Ke6
4.Kc4 Kd6
5.Bxc8 Rxc8
6.Kd4 f6! and White cannot make progress.
1.Ba3 Kg7!
2.Kc3 Kf6
3.Kxb3(*) Ke6
4.Kc4 Kd6
5.Bxc8 Rxc8
6.Kd4 f6!
(*) or
3.f4!? Re3+!
4.Kb2 Rxc7!
5.Rxc7 Rxg3
and it seems to me Black can get a drawn R+B vs. R situation.
Yes I agree, I cannot find win for White after 1.Ba6 Kg7!! What do the grandmasters evaluate for this possibility?
(I should have read your posts better – I thought you hadn’t seen Mayadi’s post and wouldn’t have found 3. f4 – so the whole first part which is talking about winning that end game after 8. f5! probably isn’t so interesting for you – but it was a lot of work so I won’t delete it.)
Mayadi gave the right moves against 1. -, Kg7, I think.
You’re right he didn’t show how that end position is won… I try…
The clew is:
1. Ba6, Kg7
2. Kc3, Kf6
3. f4! now black can’t play Ke6 at once (4. Re5+) but can play something like Rf8 (Rg8/Rh8) – white hasn’t won a tempo to approach his king but he has made an important move that prepares shattering the black’s pawn structure later.
3. -, Rf8
4. Kxb3, Ke6
5. Kc4, Kd6
6. Bxc8, Rxc8
7. Kd4, f6
and now the disturbing move 8. f5! as pointed out by Mayadi.
There are two variations:
1) 8. -, gxf5 isn’t very hard to play
9. Rxf5
Again two variations:
1.1) 9. -, Ke6 to defend that pawn but then 10. Rc5 is a simple win because now white’s king can enter the kingside and win the h pawn if black plays
10. -, Kd6
11. Rc1, Rxc7
12. Rxc7, Kxc7
13. Ke4, Kd6
14. Kf5, Ke7
15. Kg6 and so on
1.2)
9. -, Rxc7
10. Rxf6, Ke7 (forced!)
11. Rf5 and black can’t defend h5
A bit more complicated may look
2) 8. -, g5!? but in fact that is just a thing of counting.
9. hxg5, fxg5
10. f6 and now for example
10. -, h4
11. gxh4, gxh4
12. f7, Ke7 (forced – h3 is too slow – count yourselves)
13. Kd5, h3 (what else)
14. Kc6 and 1:0
or 10. -, Ke6
11. Rc6+ and 14. Kd5 with a similar ending.
So now I have read better and see what is your problem.
After 3. f4 Re3+
4. Kb2, Rxc7
5. Rxc7, Rxg3 white plays
6. Bc4!.
With the mate threat white can hold the f pawn but I am not sure if that is enough because white’s king is so far away and black’s pawns are mobile to. Hmmmm…
3. -, Re3+ is an interesting try, I am interested in what the others say to it.
Greetings
Jochen