This position (or very close to it) was reached in round 7. It is Black to move and it is a clear win. Black would have won the National Championship. Instead of taking his time, his face was beaming and he made a series of quick moves in a row and lost, giving White the National Championship.
The lessons are simple. TAKE YOUR TIME, especially when you think you are winning. It is NEVER over until it is over. In addition, a note to coaches, parents and players: Make sure your young players learn ENDGAME. Until one gets to at least 1600 or so, openings are NOT that important. Focus on tactics, middlegame strategies and ENDGAME!
This was a very painful lesson for the young man with the Black pieces.
1…Bxb6 2.Kxb6 h4 [2…g4! 3.f4 Ke4 4.Kc5 Kf3 5.Kd6 Kg2 6.Ke7 f5 7.Kf6 Kxh2 8.Kxf5 Kxg3 9.Kg5 Kf3 (9…h4??) 10.f5 g3 11.f6 g2 12.f7 g1Q+ and Black wins!]
3.Kc5 and White went on to win the game. I was not able to see how the complete game ended but Black ended up losing all his pawns. What a shocking ending!
Hi Susan, first time I post here.
It would be nice if you paste the FEN everytime you generate a picture of a board position, so we could paste it in our chess engine and play the situation without setting up all the pieces by hand.
Great blog, and probably great woman!
I think Black can win cleanly with 1…g4 2.b7 Ba7 3.f4 h4! (but not 3…Ke4?! 4.Kd7! with counterplay)
No need to take the pawn right away! Black should let it move to b7 and get it protected by the WK, in order to take on b8 and leave the WK very far from the action. Havomg saod this, I would have followed:
1…Ke5 2.b7 Ba7 3.Kc7 Kd4 4.b8=Q Bxb8 5.Kxb8 Ke3 and black wins easily.
This is a lesson about taking time to think every move, and about endings knowledge. White king is far away from the king side pawns and g4 is the way to make a path for the black king to the h2 pawn.
Young people knows the opening as well as tactics, but they must study more endings than they do. Please study the games of Capablanca!!
Any case black player must be happy to achieve this winning position and continue his hard work for beeing a good chess player.
Even then White CANNOT win
1..Bxb6 2.Kxb6 h4? 3.Kc5 hxg3 4.hxg3 g4 5.fxg4+ (5.f4?? Ke4 6.Kd6 Kf3 7.f5 Kxg3 8.f6 Kh4! and black wins even though it is bishop pawn since black king is very close) Kxg4 6.Kd6 is draw
I dont now how white won this game after 2…h4
nback from a 6 days journey – what do i find? AN ENDGAME position! 🙂
it is of course a clear win for black, but it is not THAT easy; unfortunately the winning line given by GM Susan Polgar contains some inaccuracies. To those who enjoy endgame analysis – like i do – i’ll post my analysis in pgn.
have fun!
[Event “?”]
[Site “Susan Polgar Chess Blog”]
[Date “2006.12.11”]
[Round “?”]
[White “N”]
[Black “N”]
[Result “*”]
[Annotator “?”]
[SetUp “1”]
[FEN “8/5p2/1PK5/5kpp/8/4bPP1/7P/8 b – – 0 1”]
1… Bxb6 (1… g4 2. f4 (2. b7 $2 Ba7 3. f4 h4 (3… Ke4 4. Kd7 Kf3 5. f5 Kg2 6. Ke7 Kxh2 7. Kxf7 h4 8. f6 hxg3 9. Kg8 g2 10. f7 g1=Q 11. f8=Q $13) 4. Kd6 ( 4. gxh4 Bb8 5. Kd7 (5. h5 Bxf4) 5… Bxf4 6. Kc8 Bxh2 7. h5 Kg5) (4. Kd7 hxg3 5. hxg3 Ke4 6. Ke7 f5 7. Ke6 (7. Kf6 Kf3 8. Kxf5 Kxg3 9. Ke5 Bb8+ 10. Ke4 Bxf4) 7… Kf3 8. Kxf5 Kxg3 9. Ke4 Kh4 10. f5 g3 11. f6 g2 12. f7 g1=Q 13. f8=Q (13. b8=Q Qg6+ 14. Kd5 Qxf7+) 13… Qd4+ 14. Kf5 (14. Kf3 Qg4#) 14… Qf2+) (4. Kd5 hxg3 5. hxg3 f6 6. Kd6 Ke4 7. Ke6 f5 8. Kf6 Bb8 9. Kg5 Kf3 10. Kxf5 Kxg3) (4. Kc7 hxg3 5. hxg3 Ke4 6. Kd7 Kf3 7. f5 Kxg3 8. f6 Kf4 9. Ke7 g3 10. Kxf7 g2 11. Ke6 g1=Q) 4… Ke4 5. gxh4 Bb8+ 6. Ke7 Kxf4 7. Kf6 Be5+ 8. Kxf7 Kf5 9. h5 Kg5 10. Ke6 Bxh2 11. h6 Kxh6 12. Kf5 Kh5 13. Ke4 Kh4 (13… Bc7 14. Ke3 g3 15. Kf3 Kh4 16. Kg2 Kg4) 14. Kd3 Bc7 (14… Bb8 15. Ke2 Kh3 16. Kd3 g3 17. Kc3 g2) 15. Ke3 Kh3 16. Ke4 g3 17. Kd5 g2 $19) 2… Ke4 {2…Bxb6 transposes to main lines} 3. b7 Ba7 4. Kd7 Kf3 5. Ke7 Kg2 6. Kxf7 Kxh2 7. f5 h4 $1 (7… Kxg3 $2 8. f6 Kh4 9. Ke6 g3 10. f7 g2 11. f8=Q g1=Q $13) 8. f6 hxg3 9. Kg7 g2 10. f7 g1=Q 11. f8=Q Qa1+ 12. Kg6 Qb1+ 13. Kh5 g3 14. Qf4 Qxb7 15. Qh4+ Kg2 16. Kg6) 2. Kxb6 g4 $1 (2… h4 $2 3. Kc5 Ke5 (3… g4 4. fxg4+ (4. f4 $4 hxg3 5. hxg3 Ke4 $19) 4… Kxg4 5. gxh4 f5 6. Kd4 Kxh4 7. Ke3 $11) 4. Kc4 $8 hxg3 5. hxg3 f5 6. Kd3 Kd5 $11) 3. f4 Ke4 4. Kc5 Kf3 5. Kd6 Kg2 6. Ke7 $2 (6. f5 $142 Kxh2 7. Ke7 (7. f6 $143 $6 h4 $1 (7… Kxg3 $2 8. Ke7 h4 9. Kxf7 h3 10. Kg6 h2 11. f7 h1=Q 12. f8=Q Qe4+ 13. Kh5 Kg2 14. Kg5 g3) 8. gxh4 g3 9. Ke7 g2 10. Kxf7 g1=Q 11. Ke7
Qc5+ 12. Kf7 Kh3 13. Kg7 Qe5 14. h5 Kg4 15. h6 Kf5 16. h7 Qxf6+ 17. Kg8
Qc5+ Qg6+
18. Kh8 Qe8+ 19. Kg7 Qe7+ 20. Kg8 Kg6 21. h8=N+ Kf6 22. Nf7 Qxf7+ 23. Kh8 Qg7#) 7… h4 $1 (7… Kxg3 $2 8. Kxf7 h4 9. f6 h3 10. Kg7 h2 11. f7 h1=Q 12. f8=Q) 8. gxh4 (8. Kxf7 $143 hxg3 9. f6 g2 10. Ke7 (10. Kg7 g1=Q 11. f7 Qa7 12. Kg8
Qxf7+ 13. Kxf7 $19) 10… g1=Q 11. f7 Qa7+ 12. Kf8 Qxf7+ $1 13. Kxf7)
Qxf7+ 8… g3
9. Kxf7 g2 10. h5 g1=Q 11. h6 Qa7+ 12. Kg6 Qe7 13. h7 Qf8 14. f6 Kh3 15. Kg5 Qh8 16. Kg6 Kg4 17. f7 Kf4 18. Kh6 Qf6+ 19. Kh5 Qg5#) 6… f5 7. Kf6 Kxh2 $8 8. Kxf5 Kxg3 $4 (8… h4 $1 9. gxh4 g3 10. h5 g2 11. h6 g1=Q $19) 9. Kg5 $4 (9. Ke5 $1 h4 10. f5 h3 11. f6 h2 12. f7 h1=Q 13. f8=Q Qa1+ (13… Qe1+ 14. Kd5
Qd2+ 15. Kc6 Kg2 (15… Qc3+ 16. Kb5 Qe5+ 17. Kc6)) 14. Ke6 Qa2+ 15. Kd7
Qd2+ Qa4+
16. Ke6 Qe4+ 17. Kd7) 9… Kf3 (9… h4 $4 10. f5 h3 11. f6 h2 12. f7 h1=Q 13.
f8=Q) 10. f5 g3 11. f6 g2 12. f7 g1=Q+ 13. Kf6 Ke4 14. Ke7 Qa7+ 15. Kf6 Qxf7+ 16. Kxf7 h4 $19 *
1.Bxb6 just complicate things. Without that move Black can play 1…h4 and win.
However, he didn’t overlooked mate in one 🙂
Arlauk
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This position looks very similar to what Tommy’s would have been had he played:
38. RxNe7 Kxe7
39. Bb4+ and Bxa3
Tommy missed the combination but won the game. The other kid noticed the combination that got him a piece up, but then blew the endgame!
why give the bishop away so easily? i would play Bd4-e5, then push the h pawn… that is three moves, and white needs four to promote, since he must move the king… so we eat one of the kingside pawns and win… am I missing something here?