Mexico City, Round 13, Live Update #3
The third game - Aronian-Svidler - has finished: a draw. The game was an unusual English (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Bc5 5.Nxe5 Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 Nxe5 7.e4 etc.) in which White almost but never quite managed to gain a real advantage. There was an entertaining tactical flurry starting with 25...d5 and concluding with 31...gxf6, the upshot of which was to reach a drawn queen ending.
Meanwhile, in The Game That Counts, Grischuk has let the win, or at least the serious winning chances he enjoyed, slip away, and the game is almost surely winding down to a draw in a very few moves. If so, it's a very close escape for Anand, and one that just about guarantees him the title.
Meanwhile, in The Game That Counts, Grischuk has let the win, or at least the serious winning chances he enjoyed, slip away, and the game is almost surely winding down to a draw in a very few moves. If so, it's a very close escape for Anand, and one that just about guarantees him the title.
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Friday September 28, 2007 at 7:33pm
Enjoyed your analysis. Understood the 35. Nxc3 and shadowing the king moves. Thanks.
Part of being a great player is salvaging a draw from what appears to be a bad situation. And Anand has shown just that in R13.
What if in R13, Grischuk (vs. Anand) were to proceed with:
62. a6-a7 Kf5-g5
63. Kb7 h5-h4
64. a7-a8=Q RxQ
65. KxQ
I am sure I am missing a ton of obvious other possibilities. Where am I going wrong in this analysis?
Thanks in advance.
Andy
Thanks and you're welcome!
I'm not sure I understand your line. White's not going to lose, of course - that's just about impossible - but Black's drawing margin is even larger now: 62.a7 Kg5 63.Kb7 h4 64.a8Q Rxa8 65.Kxa8 helps Black in two ways. First, White's king is as far away as possible; second, White's rook isn't as well situated on the side as it is from behind the pawn. (An exception is if we push everything (except the White king, obviously) up a rank. Then White wins because the pawn can't advance too far without getting cut off from the king.)
So let's continue with obvious moves: 65...h3 66.Kb7 h2 67.Rb1 Kg4 68.Kc6 Kg3 69.Kd5 Kg2 and White's choices are limited to perpetual check, swapping the rook for the pawn/promoted queen, and losing. (If everything's up a rank, however, then we would have this: 65...h4 66.Kb7 h3 (losing, but if Black just waits White's king continues to approach, with decisive effect) 67.Rb3! h2 68.Rh3 and wins.)
The only dangerous plan is the one in the game, trying to grab the a-file. It was still a draw this time, but it's a typical and very important plan that often wins in very similar positions. Even here, it was just a tempo short!
P.S. Please address further questions about this game in the post with the analysis link - thanks.
thank you.
andy
the font in the area where i am typing are tiny.
you may want to set it up to increase the font size.
andy