Hastings International Chess 29 Dec 2014 - 6 January 2015

[Clive Blackburn]

Vakhidov clearly not a fan of Fred Reinfeld - only playing with the king side pieces. Looks like Zhao moves to 7.5. But now, no doubt, someone running a Komodo (is that really an engine) on Deep Whatever will tell me Black is OK.

Looking through the draw, I thought for a moment that Deep Sengupta was a chess computer!

[Alex McFarlane]

Benjamin Gledura needs a win for a GM norm and Tereza Olsarova needs a win for a WGM norm.

[benedgell]

Was Gormally's resignation a bit premature? The position looks pretty rough, but I can't really believe its lost rather then just some degree of worse.

[John Moore]

Looks a bit early - but Danny might be a bit fed up with his position. Incidentally, didn't Steve Gregory miss a draw against Adam Ashton with 35 .. Qa3.

[John Moore]

Benjamin Gledura needs a win for a GM norm and Tereza Olsarova needs a win for a WGM norm.

Teresa seems to have secured the necessary win, so well done to her.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looks set to be a 3- or 4-way tie for second on 7/9 (behind the all-conquering Zhao on 8/9), though without any English players as Mark Hebden lost and I don't think Keith Arkell can win.

[Roger de Coverly]

but I can't really believe its lost rather then just some degree of worse.

The engine at the chessbomb site scores it as +2.2 for White, which is less worse than Nakamura had against James Adair last month. It also identifies 18. .. Nc7 as a mistake, preferring to grovel onwards with 18. .. Nb8 defending the d7 pawn. The GMs see a lot more, but most forum readers would be surprised if their opponents resigned in that position. Still it was the last round, so perhaps he wanted an early departure rather than defend for hours with probably little to show for it at the end.

[John Moore]

Looks set to be a 3- or 4-way tie for second on 7/9 (behind the all-conquering Zhao on 8/9), though without any English players as Mark Hebden lost and I don't think Keith Arkell can win.

Ah Chris but can he draw. Might teach us all a lot about how to hang on.

[John Moore]

Particularly now. Can White gradually pick off the two pawns and then pressure Black with 2 Bishops against N

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Particularly now. Can White gradually pick off the two pawns and then pressure Black with 2 Bishops against N

"An example is the endgame K+2B vs. K+N. For 300 years this endgame was thought to be a draw. Computers have analyzed this endgame a forced win for the K+2B."

Quoted from here:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general ... g-position

Interesting description of the winning method.

If you put the position at move 43 into something like the Shredder endgame engine (Nalimov tablebases) and remove either of the two Black pawns, it is a forced win for White. With both pawns there, who knows! I suspect it is indeed won for White.

8/8/p2k4/1p3B2/1n2K2B/8/8/8

Would that position (White to move) be in the Lomonosov tablebases?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Cripes. If they play 20-30 moves and then a pawn move each time, and then end up with BB vs N, this could be a *very* long game.

[John Moore]

Chris - going for my dinner. Fascinating ending.

[NickFaulks]

I feel that KBB v KN is a very unsatisfactory ending. Properly speaking it's lost, but sometimes you're saved by the 50 move rule. Don't envy the man defending it in the seventh ( or eighth! ) hour of the ninth day, when everyone else is having a drink.

[Richard Bates]

I feel that KBB v KN is a very unsatisfactory ending. Properly speaking it's lost, but sometimes you're saved by the 50 move rule. Don't envy the man defending it in the seventh ( or eighth! ) hour of the ninth day, when everyone else is having a drink.

I think we can make an exception for Keith having to find himself in this situation every now and again...

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Keith down to under 3 minutes now... (vs 34 minutes).

One other live board still going (Bob Eames-Adam C. Taylor).

EDIT: ....and there go the pawns (after 73.Bf3). Wonder if any programs can give the maximum moves to defend for Black once they are gone?

And after 76.Kxb3 Kd5 we reach this position (White to move):

8/8/8/3kn3/8/BK6/4B3/8

Is it good to have the king and knight on the central squares? For reasons I don't fully understand, the maximum moves to defend with optimum moves is 66 from this position:

8/8/8/1B6/8/8/4n3/1KBk4

White to move can only win by Ba4+ and it takes 66 moves. Incomprehensible...