What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

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Kevin O'Rourke
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What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Kevin O'Rourke » Mon Jul 24, 2017 3:54 pm

A while ago I think I made a strategic mistake in a game which was played under the shorter of the 2 time controls we use. (70mins for 34 moves - + 15 mins)
Game had been going a while and pieces had been exchanged but all 16 pawns were still on the board and there were no open files. Every time a pawn capture was offered both players would push the pawn forward rather than capture - which created big pawn chains. I think we ended up with all 4 rooks imprisoned on the back 2 ranks and a progress stalemate with time running low on both sides. Game finally blew open a little but draw agreed due to mutual time shortage.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Mon Jul 24, 2017 3:59 pm

Here's one of my contributions to the genre:


Kevin O'Rourke
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Kevin O'Rourke » Mon Jul 24, 2017 4:02 pm

claustrophobic position.

Nick Burrows
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Nick Burrows » Mon Jul 24, 2017 8:53 pm

My position from the 4ncl congress last week after 30. b5


Roger de Coverly
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:09 pm

Perhaps reading Kmoch many years ago has left me reluctant to close off pawn breaks. Here's one of the few games where I did so. It's a position from thirty years ago. Black has just played move 43. But you can win such positions with a sacrifice, so move 44 is Nxa5.






Thomas Rendle
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Thomas Rendle » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:06 am

I've had a few games with no exchanges at all past move 40. I remember playing Willy Hendriks at Hastings many years ago in a blocked Advance French (6.a3 c4) where I finally got fed up and played an ...f6 or g5 break around move 44, only to reach a much worse position. Eventually I claimed 3-fold repetition after we'd stopped recording and we reconstructed the game (with viewing arbiters help) and the draw was awarded at 9.45pm on New Year's Eve!

The game below I played at the British Championships, so another long time control. I did feel a bit bad about it but my opponent was starting to run low on time (again!) as the decisive breakthrough came - 65.g5!

Last edited by Thomas Rendle on Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Paul McKeown » Wed Jul 26, 2017 11:41 am

62 moves, afaik.

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JustinHorton
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by JustinHorton » Wed Jul 26, 2017 12:43 pm

Thomas Rendle wrote:I remember playing Willy Hendriks at Hastings many years ago in a blocked exchange French (6.a3 c4)
I assume that should be Advance
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Richard James » Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:52 pm


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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:02 pm

Anybody beat that, then?
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Roger de Coverly
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Roger de Coverly » Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:12 pm

Richard James wrote: [Site "Guernsey"]
[Date "1985.??.??"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Yeo, Michael J"]
[Black "Bellin, Robert"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
Being played back in the days of adjournments, I gather they they were still playing it days after the round had completed for all the other players. 136 moves at 20 moves an hour could have taken almost 14 hours of play. That might have been one original session of five hours and five adjournment sessions of two hours each.

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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by NickFaulks » Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:15 pm

Be grateful for the 50 move rule. I bet Mike was wishing he had played the Belgrade Gambit, which he sometimes favoured.
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Michael Yeo » Wed Jul 26, 2017 3:47 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Richard James wrote: [Site "Guernsey"]
[Date "1985.??.??"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Yeo, Michael J"]
[Black "Bellin, Robert"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
Being played back in the days of adjournments, I gather they they were still playing it days after the round had completed for all the other players. 136 moves at 20 moves an hour could have taken almost 14 hours of play. That might have been one original session of five hours and five adjournment sessions of two hours each.
13 hours and 20 minutes.
This game was from Round 3 of a 7 Round tournament with a reasonable prize fund. The time limit was 50 moves in 2½ hours in the afternoon followed by 20 moves per hour in adjournment sessions in the morning. My opponent had worked out that by postponing winning this game he would only be credited with ½ point for the adjourned game and would thus get easier pairings. Somewhere during the 4th session around move 100 this plan backfired as the position became more drawn than winning for Black.
There were only 4 adjournment sessions. The FIDE rules stipulated that all adjourned games had to be finished before the start of the last round. Unfortunately my Round 6 game against Stuart Conquest was also adjourned and didn't finish until 11.20 pm after nearly 8 hours (I lost an ending I should have drawn). Thus it was that we sat down to conclude this game at midnight.
At 2.15 am my opponent rather oddly enquired "Shall we go to bed?" I ascertained that this was in fact his way of illegally offering a draw before explaining that my wife was asleep upstairs and thanks to him hadn't seen much of me all week.
The last round started at 8.30 am the same morning. Both Bellin and I lost. My game against Hebden lasted 83 moves and over 7 hours when I blundered. It was some years before I persuaded my wife to come on holiday with me to a chess tournament again.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:00 pm

Wow, that game length of 13 hours and 20 minutes must be up there among the longest games.

Some other examples here:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 586#p47751
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 866#p47829
http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 866#p49866

My game from that latter link lasted just over 10 hours.

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Re: What’s the longest you’ve played with 16 pawns still on the board?

Post by Thomas Rendle » Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:59 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Thomas Rendle wrote:I remember playing Willy Hendriks at Hastings many years ago in a blocked exchange French (6.a3 c4)
I assume that should be Advance
Thanks - corrected earlier post!