Student Overtakes Coach

Cross posted at Prospect Chess.

I knew it would happen eventually and this weekend Robert Moskwa upped his rating to 2017 to overtake my 2011 by going 5-1 at the North Shore Chess Center G60 tournament including a final round win over 2086 rated 7th grader Alex Bian.  The turning point came in the following position.

Playing the White pieces, Alex made the perfectly understandable decision to give his king a little breathing room with 22.h3?!  Unfortunately, this gave Black the opportunity to take the intiative with 22...Rf2 whereupon White allowed Black to activate his bishop with tempo by 23.Qd3? Bf5.  Ten moves later, White found himself in the following untenable position.

Technically material is even, but Black's active pieces and connected passed pawns give him an overwhelming position.  The funny thing about bishops of opposite colors is that they are extremely drawish when there are no other pieces on the board, but when you add rooks, they can become a huge advantage for the player with the initiative, almost as if he was playing with an extra piece since he can attack on squares that his opponent cannot adequately defend.

Not all opposite-color bishop endings are drawn

Boris Gelfand just won a textbook ending against Hikaru Nakamura in the first round of the Grand Prix event in London:

On the queenside, Black's bishop and two pawns paralyze White's four pawns with a dark square blockade. On the kingside, Black's two connected passers are mobile, and the Black king, bishop, and pawns coordinate with each other.. (Nakamura was even up a meaningless pawn for several moves.)  So the final position is an easy win, even for you and me.  Opposite-color bishop endings are funny that way: you can be two pawns up and it's a dead draw, or material is equal and somebody's completely winning.

I should add that I followed this game live from the new website of The Week in Chess.

P.S. Alejandro Ramirez annotates this game on ChessBase.

Chess Life Online covered yesterday's opening ceremonies.

Bobby Fischer vs. Albert Sandrin, Milwaukee 1957

The fourteen-year-old Bobby had already won the Game of the Century, but he had not yet won his first U.S. Championship: that would come shortly after this game, in his miracle year 1958. Bobby didn't win the 1957 North Central Open, the traditional Turkey weekend event in Milwaukee, but he won this game against former U.S. Open champion Albert Sandrin of Chicago. Fischer was a virtuoso of the King's Indian Attack: this is a great early game that I'd never paid attention to before. Hat tip to Marty Wilber for calling it to our attention.

Fellow blogster NM Frederick Rhine has noted that the game shows Albert in a good light too, as Black had very real drawing chances in the opposite-color bishop ending. See the comments at chessgames.com.

Still thinking about Tuesday's game

....and endings with bishops of opposite color.

In his Internet Chess Club commentary, GM Har-Zvi mentioned the famous Flohr-Bothvinnik game from the 1955 Soviet Championship as a wonderful example of the principles behind opposite-color bishop endings.  It's not so important who has more pawns; it's more important to have more than one threat, ideally on opposite sides of the board.

Flohr-Botvinnik, USSR (ch), 1955

Black to play and win

The Harikrishna Variation, continued

Topalov-Anand

World Championship, Game 8, May 4, 2010

Black to play resigned

When Anand resigned, many of the spectators were mystified.  Can you figure out how White wins by force?

Many of your questions will be answered by the analysis at ChessVibes (which references Sergey Shipov's analysis session with special guest Garry Kasparov).

A critical position

MrHat notes that after 54.Kg5, Anand could have defended with 54....Bd3 55.g4 Ke8 56.f4 Kd7. 

White to play

How do you evaluate the position after 57.f5?  (The question mark is for you, not for the move.)

The Harikrishna Variation

"TomCruise" on the Internet Chess Club (GM Pentala Harikrishna) analyzed the position after White's 44th move long before it occurred in the game.

Topalov-Anand

World Championship, Game 8, May 4, 2010

After 44.h5: Black to play

Black has two moves that don't lose material immediately: 44....Be8 and 44...gxh5.  Which move would you make?

Anand found the drawing move, but went wrong later.  This position may become a classic in endgame books.

"....just like in the movies"

MrHat opines on Black's best move in the following position:

Topalov-Anand, 2010 World Championship

Game 8, May 4, 2010

Black to play after 41.Bd4+