Friday, August 8

Endgame Skills

(White to move. Assess this position. Which side is better, or is it a draw?)

I won my US Open game last night against Marc Jimenez (2044) of Texas, although I am not proud of how I handled the middlegame. Fortunately, I somehow managed to milk a full point out of this endgame, down a pawn with opposite colored bishops. Dead draw? No way! Believe it or not, the opposite colored bishops are not always an automatic draw, especially when one side can activate his pieces (plus king) and the opponent cannot.

Here is the conclusion of my game. The d-pawn is my trump.

Aigner-Jimenez 47. Rc7 Kf6 48. h4 Kg7 49. Ke4 Kf8 50. h5 gxh5 51. gxh5 Kg7 52. Kf5 Kf8 53. Bd7 Ba3 54. Ke4 Bb4 55. d6 a4 56. Ra7 Ba5 57. Rxa5 Rxd7 58. Kd5 Rb7 59. Kxc5 a3 60. Rxa3 Rb2 61. Ra8+ Kg7 62. d7 1-0

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