A positional draw

It is theoretically possible for a lone bishop, in certain very rare situations, to draw against two rooks. The bishop must be pinning one of the rooks against the enemy king, the bishop must have at least one additional square available to it on the pinning diagonal, the defender's king must also be attacking the rook, and the attacker's other rook and king must be tied up defending the rook. The "free" rook must be placed in such a way that it cannot check the defending king or pin the defending bishop. See diagram below.

Problemists have long known of this type of drawing position. It is also mentioned in some practical books, for example Ludek Pachman's Attack and Defence in Modern Chess Tactics. In actual practice, it is an extremely rare bird. Mega Database 2013 has about 5.5 million games. The position after Black's 75th move is the only example of this positional draw.

I remember being amazed when I first encountered this idea almost 40 years ago, in a comment by Manfred Zitzman in Robertson Sillars' "Reader's Showcase" column in Chess Life & Review (the magazine known today as simply Chess Life). (As I recall, Zitzman and his opponent might have reached such a position in their game, but didn't actually do so. Zitzman proposed calling this type of situation "the Zitzman theme," until readers pointed out that problemists had conceived this idea long before.)

Despite White's huge material advantage, he cannot make progress. If he waits with Rb5/c5/d5/e5, Black does the same by shuffling his bishop from h7 to g6 and back again. White's only winning try is to give up his rook and try to win the resultant rook versus bishop ending (a book draw). Adams realized this and immediately gave up his rook, but it was still a draw.

Incidentally, this sort of positional draw is one of the few instances where we humans can feel superior to chess engines. If one shows this position to Houdini 3 (for example), it is utterly unimpressed. It gives White a +6.17 advantage - a trivial win! Asked how it proposes to win, it produces 76.Rc5 Bg6 77.Rd5 Bh7 78.Re5 Bg6 79.Rc5, and keeps going that way until it's on the brink of a three-time repetition. Then it finally gives up the rook and changes its evaluation to +0.32 (small advantage to White).

Michael Adams annotates...

...his simul win against Steffen Klug of the Downers Grove Chess Club.

Daniel Parmet's report on the simul (with scores of all ten games) can be found here.  At the risk of repeating myself, I had a wonderful evening, as I'm sure that those who attended GM Adams's lecture and simul at the North Shore Chess Center also did.  He's a really nice guy!

Final results, Chicago Open

Reposted from chicagoopen.net:

The 21st Annual Chicago Open was held May 24-28, 2012, at the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel, 601 North Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling, Illinois.

The Open Section was won by Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian, who finished undefeated with 7/9. A crucial 8th round win over GM Tamaz Gelashvili followed by a draw in the final round against GM Mesgen Amanov secured at least a share of first place. GMs Robert Hess and Milos Perunovic, the only other people capable of sharing the spoils, were unable to beat GMs Yury Shulman and Michael Adams respectively, leaving Sargissian all alone at the top.

IM Daniel Ludwig finished in joint 2nd-8th with 6½/9, scoring a GM norm, as well as taking the top U2500 prize, while FM Kayden Troff finished with 5/9, scoring an IM norm.

 Final standings, with prizes, are now posted for all sections.

Congratulations to Gabriel Sargissian: the Armenian grandmaster also won the Open in 2009. 

On the local front, a great comeback for Mesgen Amanov, who was upset in round 1, but then scored five wins and three draws against a field that included five GMs and one IM.  Nikola Mitkov also shared second place with a last-round win against GM Mikheil Kekelidze.

Games and reports to follow!

Michael Adams in Downers Grove

I played in the English grandmaster's clock simultaneous exhibition in Downers Grove last night: Adams scored a very clean 10-0 against players with median ELO comfortably above 2000. (Well, Adams did get overambitious against Jeff Dixon and was probably losing for a couple moves.)

The gracious Michael Adams signs a book for some bald guy

  Here's my game: not too embarrassing, but I lost the handle somewhere around move 32.

Thanks to Grandmaster Michael Adams, Steffen Klug, Daniel Parmet, and the Downers Grove Chess Club for a fun evening!

Not bad for a sixth-grader (or a supergrandmaster)

GM Michael Adams (photo: Chicago Tribune)

Grandmaster Michael Adams (perhaps a few years past his peak, but still #18 in the world on the live ratings list and still Britain's top player) is in town for the Chicago Open (you have two days to preregister!).

This past Saturday, Adams lectured for six (!) hours at the North Shore Chess Center, then gave a simultaneous exhibition against nineteen twenty-one brave souls.  (GM Adams only lost one game: to a sixth-grader!  (To be fair, just as GM Adams is no ordinary grandmaster, National Elementary Co-Champion Alex Bian is no ordinary sixth-grader.)  The grandmaster makes a "typical" simul oversight: Alex finishes his task with steady and crisp technique.

Final score per Sevan Muradian: 16 wins, 4 draws, and the above loss.

One or two people may still be able to squeeze into the Adams simul in Downers Grove on May 23rd.

May 23rd in Downers Grove: GM Michael Adams clock simul!

Strong Chicago showing in L.A.

I have yet to see games from the 1st Metropolitan Chess Inter,national , a 9-round norm event held August 17-21 in Los Angeles.  But our local players certainly did well.  GM Mesgen Amanov tied for second with a 6½-2½ score.  GM Dmitry Gurevich had a mediocre event, but still scored 5½-3½.  Eric Rosen had an IM norm in his grasp, but lost against IM Mark Ginsberg in the last round.  (Note to Eric: I beat Mark Ginsberg when I was sixteen.)  And NM Adarsh Jayakumar beat up on the locals (including IM Jack Peters) and gained some ELO with his 4½-4½ score.

GM Michael Adams simply outclassed the field: he won with a 7½-1½ score.  One wouldn't want to be playing him in the World Cup!

Classic Michael Adams

It's interesting that a top GM is willing to use the Four Knights to avoid the Berlin Defense, and interesting that 4...Bd6!? has become a perfectly respectable line in the Four Knights.

Enjoy Adams's Capablanca-like technique!