Evreinov, 1971
White to move. Find the best continuation for white.
Source: http://www.chess-evolution.com
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1.g4 Bd8
(1…Kb4 2.Kg6 Kc5 3.Kf7 Kd6 4.Ke8)
2.Kg6 Kb4
3.Kf7 Kc4
4.Bf8 Kd5
5.Bxe7 Ba5
6.Bxf6 Ke4
7.Kg6 Bb4
I don’t see anything better than a draw here.
If white wants to win, he should keep both pawns with 1.g4 since a single pawn is easy pray for a bihop sack from black.
White must also go and take e7 with help of the king. He may be able to do so, but this gives black time to take g4 also with the king, planning a bishop sack on the f-pawn. So how could there be anyting better than a draw?
But it is possible for white to loose this!
How to guarantee a draw?
Best looking moves for this purpose could be:
1. Bf8 Bd6 (Bxg3 Bxe7+ is an easy draw)
2. Kg4 Kb3
3. Kf3
but I’m not 100% sure about this….
I said in my first post that I see no better then a draw here. But also that I am not shure. Could there be a surprising bishop sack on f6? I try:
1. g4 Kb4
2. Kg6 Kc5
3. Bxf6! exf6
4. Kxf6 Bd8+
5. Kg6 Kd5
6. f6! Bxf6 (black had to sack back)
7. Kxf6 Ke4
8. Kxg5
White should win this?
Or:
2. … Be5
3. Kf7! Kc5 (must get his king into play)
4. Kxe7 Kd5
5. Bxf6
also seems winning?
I admit this is quite complicated to me, I may overlook things here.
What about this (probably too long for me) line:
1. g4 Kb4
2. Kg6 Bd8
3. Kf7 Kc5
4. Ke8 Ba5
5. Kxe7 Kd5
6. Bxf6! (keeping king on e7) Ke4
7. Be5! (not too greedy) Kf4
8. f6 Bb4+
9. Bd6!
So my general solving suggestion is:
g4, Kg6 and then sacking B on f6 for 2p, if black allows it. If not, Kf7 attacking e7, still keeping Bxf6 in mind.
Black king has a long way to g4, that he shall have to attack.
White has the shot f6 as tempo winning idea.
If bishop avoids beeing exchanged, it seeks an aktive position on e.g. e5.
About the two words to prove I’m not a robot.
They are sometimes difficult to read, but if I deliberately miswrite both, they don’t seem to block my post?
Interesting, there are more than one option for a beginning here. In the present position, black is threatening the g3 pawn- white can either move it to g4, move the king to g4 to protect the pawn, or offer it in sacrifice in order to play Bf8 and Be7 with check, thus winning f6 and g5, too. My first instinct here is to go for this latter line since it seems the least obvious:
1. Bf8 Bg3 (alternatives later)
2. Be7+ Kb3
I don’t think it much changes anything if black plays Ka4 or Kb2 (black can’t save g5 anyway, so the the second check won’t matter) here, but getting the king back to the king side is going to be required to hold, so getting on the white diagonal seems most logical. Continuing:
3. Bf6
And this should be a won ending for white. Black can take the time to play Kc4 to get back to the kingside, but then white will play Kg5 and then shield the f6 and f8 squares with the king-protected bishop:
3. …..Kc4
4. Kg5 Kd5 (nothing better)
5. Kg6 Bf2 (again, nothing better)
6. Bg7 Bh4 (most tenacious move)
7. Bh6
Coming to g5 for the shield move (and to keep the black king out of e7 if black tries Kd6-Ke7). Continuing:
7. …..Be7 (nothing better)
8. Bg5 Bf8 (nothing better)
9. f6
So, the first maneuver is complete- white has crossed the f6 square, and the rest is straightforward, though requires proper technique:
9. …..Ke5
Here, Ke6 is probably a shorter win for white, though I am not completely sure it isn’t the longer defense for black: [9. …Ke6 10.f7 Bd6 11.Kg7 Bc5 12.Kg8 Bb4 13.Bh6 Bc5 14.Bf8 Be3 15.Bb4 Bh6 16.Bc3 and there is now no defense to the coming Bg7 shielding f8 long enough for the pawn to queen safely.] Continuing:
10. f7 Ke6 (contacting f7 pawn)
11.Be3
White needs to drive the bishop off of f8. In this position, black can’t now play Ke7 without allowing Bc5 with a skewering check winning the black bishop outright. On any other king move, black will have to give up the attack on f7 long enough to allow white to play Bh6 and/or Kh7: [11. …Kd7 12.Kh7 Ke6 (or 12. …Ke7 13.Kg8! wins the bishop) 13.Kg8 Bd6 14.Bh6 Bc5 15.Bf8 Be3 16.Bb4 Bh6 17.Bc3 with Bg7 coming to shield f8 for the new queen to arrive.] Black can try a bishop move at move 11, but it won’t hold either:
11. ….Bd6
12.Kg7 Bb4 (Be5 13.Kg8 still wins)
13.Kg8 Bd6 (nothing better)
14.Bh6 Bc5
15.Bf8 Be3
16.Bb4 Bh6
17.Bc3 Kf5
18.Bg7 and white will queen the pawn.
Now, in this line, back at move 3, black could try to gain a usesful tempo by giving up the pawn at g4 by pushing the pawn, and I will take this up in my next comment:
In my previous comment, I discussed the following line:
1. Bf8 Bg3
2. Be7 Kb3
3. Bf6
And I showed that black loses the endgame after 3. …Kc4. Black could try 3. …g4 here forcing the white king to capture at g4 losing a tempo. This seems a slightly more tenacious defense to me, but still losing. Let’s pick it up here:
3. …..g4
4. Kg4 Bd6 (eyeing f8)
5. Kg5 Kc4
6. Kg6 Kd5
7. Bg7 Be7 (preventing f6)
8. Bh6 Ke5 (nothing better)
9. Bg5 Bd6 (Bf8 10.f6 like before)
10.f6 Ke6 (Bf8 11.f6 still)
11.Bh6 Bc5
12.f7 and clearly this is won based on the analysis I have done previously.
So, does black have to take at g3 on the very first move in this line? Of course not- he can just protect e7 with the bishop, but this also has bad consequences since his king is so far from the action- white can double attack. Let’s look at this line:
1. Bf8 Bd6 (Bd8 later)
2. g4
Preparing for the king coming to f7. Continuing:
2. …..Bb4 (contact with the king)
One can simply count the moves here- Black cannot bring the king to d7 in time to protect e7 a second time. Nor can black bring the king to win at g4 and f5 before white wins at e7, f6 and g5: [2. …Kb3 3.Kg6 Kc3 4.Kf7 Kd3 5.Be7 Be5 (or 5. …Be7 6.Ke7 Ke3 7.Kf6 Kf3 8.Kg5+-) 6.Bf6 Bf4 7.Kg6 Ke3 8.Bg5+-]. The idea of Bb4 is to threaten to play e5 creating a passed pawn for black, but this is still a lost ending for black since white can still win black’s bishop for the e-pawn with the black king so far away. Continuing from move 2 above:
3. Kg6! e5 (everything else lost)
4. fe6!
The only win I believe: [4.Bb4 Kb4 5.Kf6 e4 6.Kg5 e3 7.f6 e2 8.f7 e1Q 9.f8Q+ and if this can be won, I would be surprised.] Continuing:
4. …..Bf8
5. Kf6 Kb4
One can just count the moves, but this position is hopeless for black. Continuing:
6. e7 Be7
7. Ke7 Kc4 (nothing better)
8. Kf6 Kd5
9. Kg5 Ke6 (what else?)
10.Kh6 Kf7 (what else?)
11.g5 Kg8 (else, 12.Kh7 wins)
12.Kg6 Kh8 (Kf8 13.Kh7 wins)
13.Kf7 and the pawn will queen.
Lastly, let’s look at the other way to protect e7 at move 1. White can go wrong with the second move and the third:
1. Bf8 Bd8
2. g4!
A hasty Kg6 allows black to play g4 and white will lose critical time if he goes back to h5 and g4 to win this pawn, allowing the black king to reach d7 in time. I think white can continue to f7 instead: [2.Kg6?! g4! 3.Kf7! Kb3 4.Be7 Bc7 5.Kf6 Bg3 6.Kg5 Be5 7.Kg4 Kc4 8.Kg5 and white should still have a winning endgame here. 2.g4 just takes away all the counterplay for black:
2. …..Kb3 (what else?)
3. Kg6 and we don’t need to recover this old ground- black will lose.
Congratulations, Yancey Ward!
You’ve discovered a cook that remained hidden since 42 years! Even the guys at chess evolution, the guys at Shakhmaty SSSR and Van der Heijden didn’t find what YOU find here.
Impressive!
The intended solution was
1.g4 Kb4
2.Bf8 (not Kg6 ravi, pht) Bd8 (intending to protect once more the e7-pawn with Kd6)
3.Kg6 Kc5
4.Kf7 Kd6
5.Bxe7+! (splendid conception!) Bxe7
6.Ke8! zugzwang! (in fact zz: white to play loses!)
Now, let’s see
1.g4 Kb4
2.Kg6? Bd8? (pht2) loses!
3.Kf7 Kc5
4.Ke8 Ba5
5.Kxe7 Kd5
6.Bxf6? draws! (Kxf6 wins) Ke4
7.Be5? loses! Kxe5!
8.f6 Bb4+
The correct refutation of 2.Kg6? is 2…Kc5:
1.g4 Kb4
2.Kg6? Kc5
3.Kf7 (ravi) Kd6
4.Ke8 but a move like 4…Ke5 holds
5.Kxe7 Bd6+
6.Kf7 Bc7
7.Bxf6+ and draw Kg4
8.Ke6 Kxg4 egtb5
1.g4 Kb4
2.Kg6? Kc5
3.Bxf6 (pht) exf6
4.Kxf6 Bd8+
5.Kg6 Kd5
6.f6 and now there’s no need to sack: Ke6 draws easily (easier than the first variation given by ravi, that is!)