Our next example, from the Twickenham Junior u18, is filled with critical positions: The expected result of the game changes 6 times in 14 moves! The drama begins in a king and pawn ending, with pawns on both sides of the board:
In this drawn king and pawn ending, Black played the natural looking 46…Kf5?, which turns out to be a losing move. You can’t just play these positions – you need to calculate!
46…g4 was one way to make a draw.
a) 47.h4 Kf5 works now that g4 from White is prevented.
b) 47.hxg4 Kg5 48.Kf3 b5 49.a3 with the following position:
49…g6! puts White in zugzwang and regains the pawn. 50.Kf2 Kxg4 51.Kg2! with a draw.
Returning to the game, after Black’s mistake:
Now there was a win: 47.g4+! Totally blocks off the kingside, leaving the White king free to concentrate on the queenside – which it will reach first. 47…Ke6 48.Kd3 Kd6
49.Kc3! Kc7 50.Kb4 Kc6
51.a3 the first zugzwang: The black king has to give way. 51…Kc7 52.Kb5 Kb7
53.a4! The point of this is not to take opposition and outflank. Rather, it is to exchange the queenside pawns and clear a path across the fifth rank to take Black’s d-pawn. 53…Kc7 54.a5! bxa5 55.Kxa5 Kc6
Now opposition comes into play: 56.Ka6! Kc7 57.Kb5 Kd6 58.Kb6 wins the d5-pawn and the game.
58…Kd7 59.Kc5 Ke6 60.Kc6 and the Black king will give way, losing the pawn. 60…g6 61.Kc5 only delays things by one move.
As you’ve probably already figured out, that’s not what happened.
Instead, 47.Kf3? Missed the golden opportunity. 47…g4+ we have already seen this temporary pawn sacrifice in the notes. 48.hxg4 Kg5
Having missed a win, White could have easily thrown away the draw here. For example, 49.Kf2? Kxg4 50.Kg2 b5!
51.a3 g6 puts White in zugzwang. This means that they are forced to make a move that will worsen their position, and would have preferred to simply ‘pass’. 52.Kf2
52…Kh3! Outflanks the White king. 53.Kf3 g5 54.Kf2 g4 wins the g-pawn and the game. In the game, White played better:
49.a4! Only move to hold the draw! 49…g6! Black responds in kind, putting White in zugzwang and thus winning back the pawn.
50.Kf2! was required, intending to meet 50…Kxg4 with 51.Kg2!. Black can take the opposition with 51…g5, but this happens at the cost of losing the spare move with the g-pawn.
52.Kf2! And now Black has nothing better than to hold the draw with 52…Kf5!. The incorrect 52…Kh3? 53.Kf3 actually loses for Black!
This shows why it was important for White to provoke Black to move the g-pawn earlier. If it was still on g6, Black could advance it one square and transfer the move to White, forcing the white king to retreat. But with the pawn on g5, pushing it doesn’t help: 53…g4+ 54.Kf4 is a mutual zugzwang, where whoever moves loses. Here, it is Black drawing the short straw. Returning to the game:
50.Kg2? Loses by walking into zugzwang. 50…Kxg4 51.Kf2 brought up another key moment:
51…Kh3! Is a winning outflanking! The idea is that after 52.Kf3 g5!
White has to retreat the king and lose the pawn by 53.Kf2 g4!. Returning to the key moment:
Alas, the chance went begging. 51…Kf5? Missed the win, allowing White to stabilize with 52.Kf3. The position is drawn once more. I will simply give the moves preceding the final twist: 52…g5 53.g4+ Ke6 54.Ke3 Kd6 55.Kd3 Kc6 56.Kc3 led to a position where Black needed to be precise.
56…Kb7! Is the key drawing move. Black has to be able to meet 57.Kb4 with Ka6!, not letting White execute the a4-a5 pawn break.
Instead, Black played 56…b5? Allowing White to execute a plan we saw earlier in the notes.
57.Kb4! Leads to the exchange of queenside pawns with the White king being more advanced than its counterpart. We saw this idea earlier: White will be able to cross the fifth rank and take the d5-pawn. 57..bxa4 58.Kxa4 Kb6
59.Kb4! Takes the opposition, forcing the Black king to give way. 59…Kc6 60.Ka5! Outflanking! 60…Kd6
61.Kb6 Kd7 62.Kc5 Ke6 63.Kc6 wins the pawn and the game. However, in the actual game:
57.a5? missed the chance. 57…Kb7!
And both players finished the game accurately from here: They realized that b4 and a6 were ‘mined squares’. Black has to be ready to meet Kb4 with …Ka6. White has to be ready to meet …Ka6 with Kb4. But neither player can step on their square first if the other can respond accordingly!
58.Kb3! (58.Kb4? Ka6! Wins for Black) 58…Ka7! 59.Ka3 Kb7!
60.Kb3! Ka7! = with a draw agreed.
Some interesting moments from this one:
1) White’s winning idea at the beginning: Locking the kingside so that the white king could focus on reaching the queenside first, then exchanging queenside pawns to come across the fifth rank and take the d-pawn.
2) The ‘fight for a tempo’ when Black was regaining the kingside pawn: Neither player realized that Black could win by outflanking the white king and then making a spare move with the g-pawn, placing White in zugzwang.
3) Again, the concept of White trading queenside pawns to clear a path to the d5-pawn. Black actually facilitated this plan with …b5?, but White did not take advantage.
4) The ‘mined squares’ that both players successfully navigated at the finish.