The Chess Mind

A few days ago, in commemoration of former world chess champion Vassily Smyslov's 85th birthday, I presented the first and last of his studies as given in StudyDatabase2000.

Here's the first:



(Smyslov 1936) White to move and win.


And here is the second:



(Smyslov 2000) White to move and draw.


Were they easy? Challenging but solvable? Or, as they say in New York and New Joisey, fuggedaboutit? Whatever else they are, they've been tamed here.

The players agreed to a draw in this position, with White to move:



Yet, it might not seem obvious at first sight just how White draws. Some accuracy is required, and it's a good exercise for the reader to work out the details. Of course, I presented this position a week ago, so now it's time for the solution, which can be found right here.

It's milestone week, it seems: the 23rd is Viktor Korchnoi's 75th birthday, while the 24th is both Vassily Smyslov's 85th birthday and the 60th anniversary of Alexander Alekhine's death. By way of a partial commemoration, here are the starting positions of two Smyslov studies, composed an impressive 64 years apart!



(Smyslov 1936) White to move and win.



(Smyslov 2000) White to move and draw.

A few days ago I presented this analysis position from game 6 of the 1974 Candidates Match between Boris Spassky and Anatoly Karpov:



It's Black to move, and according to Botvinnik's analysis, White holds the draw after 44...axb4 45.Bxb4+ Kd5 46.a5 b5 47.a6 Kc6 48.Ba5! Nc5! 49.Kf3 Nxa6 50.Bc3 b4 51.Bxf6 b3 52.Ke2 Nc5 53.Kd1 Ne4 54.Bd8 Kd7 55.Ba5. My challenge, to those intrepid souls who dared seek the truth, was to determine if Botvinnik's analysis was indeed correct.

The answer, of course, is that it's not, and it goes awry on the very first move. Instead of the obvious 44...axb4, Black should play 44...b5!!.



Does this idea look familiar to you? It should: less than two weeks before "assigning" this position I presented two pawn endings featuring a similar breakthrough idea (here and here). Although this breakthrough occurs on the opposite side of the board, the king positions are significantly different and there are minor pieces on the board, the fundamental idea is the same. So even if you couldn't work out all the details (and they are substantial: in My Great Predecessors V Kasparov devotes almost an entire page of variations to the proof), I do hope that the idea crossed your mind!

As for (some of) the gritty details, click here.

In the following position from the game Kholmov-Stripunsky, Karaganda 1994, the players agreed to a draw.



Suppose Stripunsky had decided not to offer the draw. How would White, to move, save the game?

(The answer will be given in a few days; as always, I remind readers not to comment the answers.)

It was a pivotal game in their semi-final Candidates Match: the score was 1-1 (with 3 draws) with everything up in the air. Karpov was an incredible young talent, but Spassky had been the world champion and looked resurgent after his loss to Fischer in 1972.

Game six had been balanced most of the way, but towards the end of the first time control Karpov had seized the upper hand, and in this position, achieved early in the second session was a crucial one:



It's White to move; in the game, Spassky played 42.Bd4 and went on to lose. Instead, many commentators, including Botvinnik, argued that Spassky could have held with 42.Rc3, as 42...Rxc3+ 43.Bxc3 Kxd6 44.b4



leads to a draw after 44...axb4 45.Bxb4+ Kd5 46.a5 b5 47.a6 Kc6 48.Ba5! Nc5! 49.Kf3 Nxa6 50.Bc3 b4 51.Bxf6 b3 52.Ke2 Nc5 53.Kd1 Ne4 54.Bd8 Kd7 55.Ba5 (Botvinnik, cited in Kasparov's new and excellent volume five in his My Great Predecessors series, devoted to Korchnoi and Karpov (p. 261)).

Is this correct? (Don't put your answer and/or analysis in the comments, please.) The answer will be posted in a few days, and for those of you who'd like to replay the above analysis online, click here.

From the game Baramidze-Lahno, GM-Tage Pulvermuehle 2006, position after 46.h5:



A rather funny position: Black can only move her bishop, which isn't much fun and not likely to improve her defensive chances. On the other hand, if White plays Kc3 followed by b4, Black will rip off the b-pawn straight away and breathe a contented sigh - the bishop is immune due to stalemate. It might seem that White can't win: if he releases the potential stalemate to allow the b-pawn to enter the action, then the Black king will cross over in time to save the day.

Nevertheless, White can reel in the full point, and it's really not that difficult: you just need to think systematically. When you're ready to see how Baramidze reeled in the full point, click here.

The third in our recent series of king and pawn endings featured this position:



With Black to move, the task is to evaluate 1...g5. It looks sensible, but is it? If you think you've got it worked out, click here. If you want a hint, click below.