The Chess Mind

This was the position after 59.Rf1+ in the "Armageddon" game Alexander Grischuk-Peter Svidler from the World Blitz Championship:



A few days ago I asked what Black should do here. 59...Kg2 is the natural, unsophisticated approach: go pawn grabbing! Those of us with more experience, however, are aware of the important concept of "shouldering", a technique where a player uses his king to keep the opponent's king at bay.

Svidler has plenty of experience and a refined sense of the game we can all only dream about...but here it probably cost him the game. Naively going for the pawns drew; shouldering lost. Have a look, here.

Here's the position, with Black to move (obviously, since he's in check):



What should Black do? There are two competing ideas: the unsophisticated pursuit of a pawn dinner with ...Kg2, and the more refined ...Ke2, attempting to "shoulder off" the White king. (Bear in mind that sophistication isn't always all it's cracked up to be!)

In trying to answer the question, I suggest you do so in two steps. First, without calculating any lines, quickly determine your "instinctive" feeling about the position. Having done so, proceed to step two and try to quickly calculate which move is best.

I'll give the solution and the back story in a day or two.