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Judit Polgar stays in the competition for the World Cup after beating Leinier Dominguez with black pieces to equalize the score 1-1. But the victory did not come easy as she had to convert the notorious R+B vs R ending into a full point.
Many years considered as a theoretical draw, the endgame is nowadays known as winning with precise procedure when the “weaker” King is on the edge of the board.
Polgar had a good start as when she captured the remaining pawn on b3, the White King was already cut on the a-file. However, she shuffled around for a while trying to find the exact pattern.
This could have cost her dearly as she allowed a three-fold repetition! But Dominguez returned the favor and on his turn missed to claim a draw. (Replay through the annotated game and compare the positions after White’s 95th, 105th and 107th moves).
It is possible that being in time trouble Dominguez didn’t even track the repetitions and tried to survive long enough to claim a 50-move draw (which should come on 130th move). Or he wasn’t sure if the repetition occurred as per the rules (with the same player to move etc).
Once the opportunity is gone, the player can’t claim retroactively.
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Judit is da bomb. Hurray.
Great game by Judit! I am glad she managed to find the winning plan. I would enjoy a final bewteen Judit and Vassily to the fullest!
bravo…bravo
Congratulations on a world class win and effort by Polgar a tip of the hat from WCF World Chess Champion Stan Vaughan on this.
After having missed 74…Kc1, I thought a draw… Instead. 🙂
Fantastic Judit.
Best regards
Stef
That game was exhausting to watch. Must have been *really* exhausting to play!
Watching it, I kept thinking that there just had to be a 3-fold repetition in there somewhere, but at the rate they were playing at the end, I don’t think Dominguez really had the time to actually keep track of them either.
I don’t know who the commentators were on Chessbomb, but one of them made the absolutely prescient prediction that Dominguez risked weak back rank problems in the 2B + R vs 2R game after move 37. As it turned out, that is exactly what got Dominguez into trouble- mating threats on the back rank plus threats on the a-file.
All in all, one of the more entertaining games I have ever followed live.
This game with all the possiblilities, has made this tournament extremely popular. We have lessons in rules, endgames etiquette and so on… If this format could bring such games and such talented players like Judit, what else do we want?
May Judit continue her form and throw a real challenge to the top 4 players.
Congratulations to her on her fine victory.