Endgame Analysis: PayNe v Foard (Seb Parker)
In this game I found a couple of positions to comment on: THE ENDING Interesting position of 4 pawns vs 2 pawns + bishop at move 47. |
A lot of positions with that material balance are wins for the bishop side, because the bishop can move faster around the board than the king, and can hoover up pawns and cover multiple important squares from a distance. However, in this position black has the maximum advantage of 2 pairs of connected pawns, on opposite sides of the board, so he may have the resources to create a draw instead of a loss. |
At move 48, if fxg5 then after … fxg5 white will not have enough material to mate. Unfortunately the move 48… g4 is a glaring blunder as it disconnects the pawns. The proper technique with connected pawns against a king is to hold them steady! Say you got to this position: |
(In this position, even if the bishop trades for the b-pawn, the white king can take on f6, lose the race to queen, and end up in a very technical queen vs bishop’s pawn on the 7th rank… but still a draw).
White can have an easier draw if, instead of chasing the failing plan of attacking f6 with the king, plants the king on d4, obstructing the black king from advancing, while staying in range to prevent the g pawn from queening. THE BISHOP PAIR
The next position that caught my eye was at move 36: |
My first candidate move here would be 37.Bb5, which controls all of the knight’s escape squares, but the computer found the even better tactical line 37. Re8+ Kh7 38. Bd7 (threatening Bf5+ followed by Rh8#) Kg6 (forced) 38. Re3 This is a very forcing line, which uses the bishop pair to mount a very effective attack, while black’s knight is very poorly placed to defend the king, as it sits on the opposite side of the board |
I can definitely see the logic of the line in the game, which trades off B+R for N+R - pawns + 0 pieces vs pawns + a piece is very often a win, I can see it being the practical choice considering the clock situation. But if fatigue / time pressure are not at issue, I think that since the knight is so out of place, a better ending could be achieved by keeping pieces on the board a little longer. (Black’s rook is also very limited in where it can go, because it is the only defender of the knight) I would be interested to see more about this opening, as David has been playing it for a while with good results. If I played anything other than 1.e4, I would definitely consider this! Sebastian |