Chess Strategy

The 2009 World Cup was a tough knockout tournament whose winner would be awarded the seat in the World Championship Candidate Matches. GM Boris Gelfand of Israel won the exhausting race.

The endgame of our interest occurred in the return game of the first round. Bellow are analysis by GM Valeriy Aveskulov, originally posted on Chessdom. Our next post will provide theoretical insights based on GM Jesus de la Villa’s fantastic book “100 Endgames You Must Know”.

Pavel Tregubov (2642) - Varuzhan Akobian (2624)
World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (1.2), 22.11.2009
Comments by GM Valeriy Aveskulov

The first game of the match ended with a win by Akobian. He needed only to draw to qualify for the second stage.

66…Nxe6+!
The easiest way to reach the goal.

67.Bxe6 a2 68.Bxa2 Rxa2
This endgame is completely drawn.

69.Ke5 Rd2
Black’s only task so far is to place the king in front of the pawn. That’s why 69…Kd8! was more precise.

70.Rc5! Ke7
70…Rh2! with the same idea 71.Rd5 (Otherwise Black King goes to the d-file) 71…Rh4 72.Rd4 (72.Kd6 Kd8! 73.Kc6+ Kc8 and then Rh6=) 72…Rh5+ 73.Ke4 (73.Kd6 Kd8!=) 73…Ke7 74.c4 Ke6 with a simple draw.
70…Kd7? loses 71.Rd5+ Rxd5+ 72.Kxd5+-
Editor’s note: The pawn endgame resulting after Rooks’ exchange on the 5th rank is winning when White pawn is on c3. The difference is that Black won’t be able to catch the opposition as White has a spare c3-c4 tempo.

71.Rd5 Rh2 72.Kd4
72.c4? leads to a drawish pawn endgame 72…Rh5+ 73.Kd4 Rxd5+ 74.Kxd5 Kd7= (See above)

72…Ke6?
The fatal mistake. Black allows Kc5 and loses. The easiest plan of defense is to place the rook on the 8th rank 72…Rh8!, and White can’t make real progress with a rook on d5, 73.c4 Rg8 74.Kc5 (King is cut off along the rank after 74.c5 Rg4+ 75.Kd3 Ra4=) 74…Rc8+, three lines between pawn and rook provide Black with a draw, 75.Kb5 Rb8+ 76.Ka6 Ke6 77.Rb5 Rc8 78.Rb6+ Kd7 79.Kb5 Rh8=
72…Rc2, also saves the game, 73.Kc4 (The familiar pawn endgame is appearing in case of 73.c4? Rd2+ 74.Kc5 Rxd5+ 75.cxd5 Kd7=) 73…Ra2!, going back to the 8th rank, 74.Kb5 Ra8 75.c4 Rb8+, see the line with 72…Rh8.

73.Kc5!
Black king is cut off and the rook can’t play Rc8+. White is winning.

73…Rh8 74.Rd6+ Ke7 75.c4 Rc8+ 76.Rc6!
Here is the difference.

76…Rb8 77.Rc7+ Kd8 78.Rh7 Rb1 79.Kc6 Rg1
If the Black king were on the queen-side (on b8, the so called short-side rule) this endgame would be drawn. But now giving checks just misplaces the Black Rook.

80.Rh8+ Ke7 81.c5 Rc1 82.Rb8
The shortest way is 82.Rc8! with idea Kb7 and c5-c6. Black rook hasn’t got enough space for flank checks. If the pawn was one file to the right, Black would have a draw with Rd1-a1. But with a pawn on the c-file 82…Ra1 doesn’t save the game 83.Kb7 Rb1+ 84.Kc7 Ra1 85.c6+-

82…Rc2 83.Rb5 Kd8 84.Rb8+ Ke7 85.Rb1
White is winning time to find the correct plan.

85…Kd8 86.Rh1 Ke7?
Makes White’s task even easier. The second time that the American Grandmaster allows his king cut off. After the stubborn 86…Rc3 Tregubov would need to find the familiar plan: 87.Rh8+ Ke7 88.Rc8+-

87.Rd1! Ra2 88.Kc7 Ra7+ 89.Kb6 1-0
Black resigned because pawn c5 is unstoppable. On next day the opponents played 14 (!) more games to determine the winner. Finally, Varuzhan Akobian won, but only he knows how much extra effort this loss had cost him.

Download this and two more endgames in PGN format.