MARK RUBERY CHESS
An encounter took place at a tournament in Denmark that would by most standards be unremarkable-except for the conclusion of the R + 4p v R + 3p ending which is generally regarded as a draw. The exact (or very similar) position that was reached had occurred in other games down the years and such is the activity of the White king that a win was quickly delivered in each case In the following game Grandelius implemented the strategy of giving up a pawn to enter a winning king and pawn endgame. Grandelius,N (2491) - Brynell,S (2463) [E15] Scandinavian Open Copenhagen DEN (4) 2009 1.c4 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.e4 d5 8.cxd5 Bxf1 9.Kxf1 exd5 10.e5 Ne4 11.Nc3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 c5 13.Kg2 Nc6 14.dxc5 bxc5 15.Rhd1 0–0 16.Bf4 Qd7 17.Rd3 Qe6 18.Rad1 Rfd8 19.Qd2 d4 20.cxd4 Nxd4 21.Nxd4 Rxd4 22.Rxd4 cxd4 23.Qxd4 Qxa2 24.Qe4 Rf8 25.Rd7 Bc5 26.Be3 Bxe3 27.Qxe3 a5 28.Qc5 g6 29.Ra7 a4 30.Qd4 a3 31.Qc5 Rd8 32.Rxa3 Qd5+ 33.Qxd5 Rxd5 34.Re3 h5 35.Re2 Kg7 36.f4 Rd3 37.Ra2 Rb3 38.Kh3 Rb7 39.Kh4 Kh6 40.Ra6 Rb2 41.Kh3 Kg7 42.Ra7 Re2 43.Rb7 Re1 44.Kh4 Re2 45.Kg5 Re3 46.Re7 Re4 (The above position had similarly been reached on at least four other occasions: Stean-Hartston, Brighton 1972, Ionov-Karasev, Leningrad 1983, Matveeva-Rappoport, Baku 1983 and more famously Piket-Kasparov, Internet 2000) 47.e6! Rxe6 48.Rxe6 fxe6 49.h3! (Maintaining the opposition and forcing the black king to give way. Note that 49 h4? does not suffice as White needs another tempo with g4 to secure the win)…Kf7 50.Kh6 Kf6 51.g4 h4 (51…hxg4 52 hxg4 Kf7 53 g5) 52.g5+ Kf5 53.Kg7 Kxf4 54.Kxg6 e5 55.Kf6 1–0 Piket,Jeroen (2633) - Kasparov,Garry (2851) [A34] KasparovChess GP g/60 Internet.2000 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Nc7 7.d3 e5 8.0–0 Be7 9.Nd2 Bd7 10.Nc4 0–0 11.Bxc6 Bxc6 12.Nxe5 Be8 13.Qb3 Bf6 14.Ng4 Bd4 15.e3 Bxc3 16.Qxc3 b6 17.f3 Bb5 18.Nf2 Qd7 19.e4 Ne6 20.Be3 a5 21.Rad1 Rad8 22.Rd2 Qc6 23.Rc1 Qb7 24.a3 Nd4 25.Kg2 Rc8 26.Rb1 Rfd8 27.Bxd4 Rxd4 28.b4 axb4 29.axb4 Qd7 30.bxc5 bxc5 31.Rbb2 h6 32.Ra2 Kh7 33.Ra5 Rd8 34.Qxc5 Bxd3 35.Rxd3 Rxd3 36.Nxd3 Qxd3 37.Ra2 Qb3 38.Qc2 Qxc2+ 39.Rxc2 h5 40.f4 g6 41.e5 Rd3 42.Kh3 Re3 43.Kh4 Kg7 44.Kg5 Re1 45.Rc7 Re2 46.Re7 Ra2 (46…Re4 transposes to the position in the diagram) 47.f5! gxf5 48.e6 h4 49.Rxf7+ Kg8 50.Kf6 1–0 When a chess player looks at the board, he does not see a static mosaic, a ‘still life’, but a magnetic field of forces charged with energy - as Faraday saw the stresses surrounding magnets and currents as curves in space; or as Van Gogh saw vortices in the skies of Provence. - Arthur Koestler