Saturday, March 7, 2009

Minor Piece Endgame Study

In the final round of the USATE 2009, I won a difficult minor piece endgame as Black against Christopher Sugino (FIDE 2022).


The first diagram shows the position after Black's 45th move. White played 46.Bxg4 to which I replied 46...Kd4. Instead 46...Nxg4 47.Kxg4 b5 48.Kxg5 b4 49.e5 b3 50.e6 b2 51.e7 b1=Q 52.e8=Q Qg1+ is a draw. But better than 46...Kd4 would have been 46...b5 47.Be6 Kd4.

Next, we look at the position following 59...Ne4+. White played 60.Kg2, avoiding the lost queen ending after 60.Bxe4 Kxe4 61.Kxg4 b5 62.h4 b4 63.h5 b3 64.h6 b2 65.h7 b1=Q 66.h8=Q Qg1+ 67.Kh5 Qh1+.


From the third diagram, play continued 64.h4 gxh3+ 65.Kxh3 Ne4. After the game, my team captain Steve Ferrero pointed out that I could have won the h-pawn by 64...Ne4 65.h5 Kg5 66.Bd5 Nf6. Rather than push the h-pawn two squares, White missed 64.h3 forcing the game continuation because now 64...g3 65.h4 Ne4 66.h5 Kg5 67.Bc2 would be drawn.


Finally, take a look at the position after 88...Nc4. Ferrero criticized White's 89.Ba2, but 89.Ke2 Na3 90.Ba2 Kc7 would transpose to the game which concluded 91.Ke3 Nb5 92.Bf7 Kc1 93.Bg6 Na3 when White resigned.