Bishops of Opposite Color Endings: They're Usually Drawn, Even When They're Not
As mentioned a few posts ago, Aronian defeated Bacrot by a 1.5-.5 score, thereby qualifying for the finals of the ongoing World Chess Cup. That's how things go in a knockout event: some win, some lose, but the tragedy of the match was that Bacrot resigned in what looks like an objectively drawn opposite-colored bishop ending. The drawing tendencies of such endings are well known, and even if they don't guarantee a draw, they do give the weaker side a healthy push towards the safe haven.
But it doesn't work if you resign first! Have a look here, mourn for Bacrot, and learn some lessons - about opposite-colored bishops, of course, but also that you shouldn't resign until you're sure your opponent knows how to win in the final position.
But it doesn't work if you resign first! Have a look here, mourn for Bacrot, and learn some lessons - about opposite-colored bishops, of course, but also that you shouldn't resign until you're sure your opponent knows how to win in the final position.
All Related Posts (on one page) | Some Related Posts:
- World Chess Cup: Final Standings
- World Chess Cup, Round 7 (pre-tiebreak)
- Bishops of Opposite Color Endings: They're Usually Drawn, Even When They're Not
- World Chess Cup, Round 6...
- World Chess Cup, Round 2
- World Chess Cup, Round 1
- FIDE World Chess Cup
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Thursday December 15, 2005 at 3:32am
everyone seems to be missing the point here. as Yermo has pointed out, white has the plan of running the king to b7. it's not the "win" that was difficult to find, it was the method of drawing. If you see white's plan of K to b7 and see no way of stopping it, resigning is not so foolish. There would be much less fuss if Bacrot allowed Kb7 and resigned.
And no, Bacrot did not lose on time and the final position was correct.
It's possible that he calculated everything out and failed to realize that forcing f6 made the draw trivial; if that's what happened, then he just had a bad day. The moral still holds, though, even if it doesn't apply to Bacrot's situation.
Finally, I think you're absolutely right that if he had played on and lost to some line with Kb7, there would have been much less ado; but I also think that if he played on, the chances of that hypothetical arising would have been next to nothing.