Black to move. Is this a draw or loss for Black? How should Black proceed?
8/5k2/8/3R2P1/4PK2/8/8/1r6 b – – 0 2
This was an actual game between GM Cramling and GM Stefanova. I saw the excellent analysis on Chess Today (www.ChessToday.net). It is the best daily chess newspaper out there. If you are not already a subscriber, check it out.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Up 2 pawns, should be easy win for white.
One can only assume black can draw this, otherwise, why ask? I am not going to do an in depth analysis of this one anyway- simply too long to do thoroughly. As a six man endgame, a Nalimov tablebase is the best place to study this. What I will do is analyze the very beginning:
I can really only think of one starting move in this position- Rf1+. Why this move? To cut the white king off from one of the pawns-.
1. …..Rf1
White has 4 moves- Ke3, Kg3/g4, and Ke5. Let’s take them in order:
Line 1 with 2.Ke3:
2. Ke3 Kg6
This move by black more or less plays itself. What black wants to do is to liquidate one of the pawns, and with the white king at e3, now, if the g-pawn falls, it is very, very likely the resulting rook ending with a single pawn will be drawn. With Kg6, black has pinned the rook to the 5th rank, and also prevented e5 for the moment. From here on, white will find it very, very difficult to actually hold both pawns while trying to advance the e-pawn.
Back at move 2, white could try:
2. Kg4 Rg1
This move also plays itself. A particular feature of this position is that the black king from f7 guards g6-g8 and g6-e6 preventing the white king from escaping these rook checks by dashing up the h-file, or reaching g6 or e6. If, now, white plays Kf3, black plays Kg6 again and doubly attacking the g-pawn, which white can either guard with Kf4, or he can try to liquidate down to a king + pawn endgame by allowing the capture and exchanging rooks. However, the resulting king + pawn ending is drawn. So, on Kf4, black just continues the check assualt from the 1st rank.
Or, at move 2:
2. Ke5 Kg6
3. Ke6
I don’t think Kd6 is very different in the end. The idea of Ke6 is to allow the rook to shield from d6. Continuing:
3. …..Ra1
To harass the white king if necessary from the a-file. Again, white has trouble advancing the e-pawn while holding on to the g-pawn. If white tries to play Rf5, black can either simply wait by playing Rb1/a1 until white plays e5 at which time Ra6/b6+ is fatal to white. There are two key lines from this point- an immediate e5 and Ke7. Taking the latter first:
4. Ke7 Ra7
5. Rd7 Ra4
6. e5 Kg5 (only move?)
7. e6 Kg6 (only move?)
And this is a classic endgame position that I already know is drawn:
8. Rc7 Kg7
9. Kd8 Kf6 (only move again)
10.e7 Ra8 (not Rd4??)
11.Kd7
Of course, Rc8 is drawn after the exchange at c8 of the rooks and black then takes at e7. Continuing:
11. …..Kf7 and white cannot support the pawn’s advance since, if the white rook leaves the seventh rank, black either checks at a7 forcing it’s return if the pawn is to be saved, or captures the rook at c8 if white tries to shield the queening square by playing Rc8.
Lastly, all the way back at move 4 in the line above, an immediate e5 changes nothing:
4. e5 Kg5
5. Rc5
Here, Ke7 isn’t going to be different from the line previously.
5. …..Kg6
6. Kd7 Rd1
7. Kc7 Kf7 and this will either reduce down to the position seen previously, or white will find it impossible to protect the pawn- one or the other.
Now, a question is- could black draw this with any other beginning in the first two moves? I looked the starting position up in the Nalimov tablebase- 1. ….Rf1+ is the only drawing move.
I was under the impression that the only theoretically drawn R+2P (different files) v R ending was with rook pawn and bishop pawn. So I’m surprised that we are looking for drawing line for black here. Looking forward to seeing the answer if I can’t work it out.
Hugh Jarce
Not only rook and bishop pawns draw but also a+h pawns draw
Stefanova found the right beginning, but made a losing mistake at move 89- a mistake that is hard to spot. From the position given, the actual game continued:
85. ….Rf1
86.Ke5 Kg6
87.Kd6 Re1
88.e5 Kg5
89.Rd2 Kg6?
This mistake isn’t easy to spot, but it gives white a key tempo to play
90.e6!
And now the pawn can’t be stopped. If the black king plays to f5, white pushes the pawn to f7 forcing black to play Kf6, white then checks from f2 forcing the the black king to the g-file:
90. …Kf5
91.e7 Kf6
92.Rf2 Kg7 (Kg6 or Kg5 similar)
93.Rf8 Rd1
94.Kc5 Rc1
95.Kd4 and the white king will walk the rook down driving it away for one move in order to have time to queen the pawn.
Or, at move 90, if black plays Kf6, he loses still:
90. …..Kf6
91. Rf2 Kg7
92. Ke7 Re3 (nothing better, IMO)
93. Rg2 Kh7
94. Kf7 Rf3
95. Ke8 Re3
96. e7 Re1 (K moves no good, too)
97. Rg4
To get ready for the shield maneuver:
97. …..Kh6
98. Kf7 Rf1
99. Ke6 Re1
100.Kf6
Threatening mate, of course, but this isn’t all that important:
100. ….Kh5
101.Rg5 Kh4 (or Kh6)
102.Re5 Rf1
103.Ke6 and the pawn will queen without even being captured.
Back at move 90, black still loses with Ra1 (to harass the white king from the a-file), the move Stefanova actually played:
90. …..Ra1
91. e7
This is the only winning move, I think. Everything else should be a draw:
91. …..Ra6
Other moves are also losing- Re1 loses like I showed above. Ra8 will lose to Kd7 like below.
92. Kd7 Ra7
93. Ke8 Kf6 (Kg7 94.Rg2)
94. Kf8
The neatest way to finish, and the actual game ended with something close to this actual position:
94. …..Re7
95. Rf2 Ke6
96. Re2 and black loses his rook.
The move to save the draw at move 89 was Kf5. Let’s see why this changes things:
89. …..Kf5!
Here, the Nalimov tablebase confirms this is a draw, and Ra1 would have also been a draw. Kf4 loses because the pawn runs away from the black king for that critical tempo we discussed earlier. From f5, the double attack on the pawn keeps white from pushing it since black would capture at e6 with check. As long as the white rook stays on the second rank, black cannot capture the pawn while it sits on e5 since this will lose the rook to the checks from the f-file followed by a check from the e-file. However, the white king can’t move at all and retain the pawn- Kd5 loses the pawn to Rd5 with check. So, white has only rook moves like Rd3, or moves along the 2nd rank. Let’s look at those:
90. Rd3 Re5 (simplest)
91. Rf3 Ke4 with equality. Or
90. Rf2 Kg6 (only move)
91. e6
Nothing wins, but this is the most relevant line:
91. …..Ra1 (an only move)
92. e7 Ra6 (an only move)
93. Kd7 Ra7 (an only move)
94. Ke8 Ra8 with a draw.
Also, it does white no good to try to walk the rook down on the a-file on move 94:
94. Kd6 Ra6
95. Kc5 Re6 and the pawn is lost.
Rook endings are tough.
Ms. Susan, you make me lose sleep with these endgame positions.
I knew the few that can go draw of T vs T+2P.
But this position is not within the classic schemes.
At the end, yes, I could understand but I lost four hours of sleep.
Best regards
Stef
To me this position is actually more like a R + 1P vs R ending. The point is that, with the right start, black can pretty much win the g-pawn early on if white wants to make any progress at all.
An interesting parallel to the game a couple years ago from the Urals cup. Stefanova needs to work on her R and P endings.