Know How in the Pawn Endgames (2)

Let us see now how the know-how can help us save points:

[Event "30th Metz Open"]
[Site "Metz FRA"]
[Date "2012.04.??"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Lalic, Bogdan"]
[Black "Gurevich, Mikhail"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E01"]
[WhiteElo "2469"]
[BlackElo "2611"]
[Annotator "Bojkov, Dejan"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/5k2/8/6Rp/1r5P/6P1/8/5K2 b - - 0 44"]
[PlyCount "25"]
[EventDate "2012.04.14"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "FRA"]
[Source "Chess Today"]
[SourceDate "2012.04.22"]

{Diagram [#]} {At a glance it seems as Black is lost. he cannot defend the h
pawn and the two passers should win easily. However, the famous player and
renown coach replied with the cool:} 44... Rg4 $1 {It seems insane to allow a
pawn endgame when beind down a pawn. On the top of that the extra pawn is a
defended passer. Still after:} 45. Rxg4 hxg4 $11 {A textbook draw is achieved.
Lalic tried to win for a while:} 46. Ke2 Ke6 {Distant opposition.} 47. Kd3 Kd5
{Normal opposition.} 48. Kc3 {Diagram [#] The black king can no longer follow
the opponent but there is a neat solution.} Ke5 $1 {Bishop opposition. From
here the black king is ready to take the normal opposition no matter which
direction the white king will choose.} (48... Kc5 $4 49. h5) 49. Kb4 (49. Kd3
Kd5 {only repeats moves.}) (49. Kc4 Ke4 $11) 49... Kd4 50. Ka3 {Once again the
black king is limited to the square of the h pawn, but Gurevic uses the
familiar method:} Ke5 $1 {You can name this dstant bishop opposition if you
like :)} 51. Ka4 Ke4 {Normal distant opposition.} 52. Ka5 Ke5 53. Ka6 Ke6 54.
Ka7 Ke7 55. Kb7 Kd7 {Opposition.} 56. Kb6 Kd6 1/2-1/2

Gurevich did not have to invent the hot water. He knew the following position:

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1922.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Grigoriev"]
[Black "?"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Annotator "Bojkov, Dejan"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/8/8/4k3/Pp6/1P3K2/8/8 b - - 0 0"]
[PlyCount "19"]
[Source "Chess Today"]
[SourceDate "2009.03.11"]

{Diagram [#]} 1... Kd5 $1 {[%csl Rd5,Rf3][%cal Rf3e4,Rd5e4] Bishop opposition.}
2. Kf4 Kd4 {[%csl Rd4,Rf4][%cal Rf4e4,Rd4e4]} 3. Kg4 Ke4 4. Kg3 Ke5 {[%csl Re5,
Rg3][%cal Rg3f4,Re5f4] Bishop opposition again. Whenever the norml opposition
does not work, the defender should use the bishop one.} (4... Ke3 $2 5. a5 $18
{[%cal Ra5d5,Rd5d8,Rd8a8,Re3d4]}) 5. Kf3 Kd5 6. a5 Kc5 7. Ke4 Kb5 8. Kd5 Kxa5
9. Kc4 Ka6 $1 {[%csl Ra6,Rc4][%cal Rc4b5,Ra6b5]} 10. Kxb4 Kb6 {[%csl Rb4,Rb6]
[%cal Rb4b5,Rb6b5]} 1/2-1/2

You are not yet convinced? Then check this out:

[Event "Cappelle op 28th"]
[Site "Cappelle la Grande"]
[Date "2012.03.09"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Andriasian, Zaven"]
[Black "Sveshnikov, Vladimir"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B04"]
[WhiteElo "2616"]
[BlackElo "2426"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/6p1/4k3/8/Pp3K2/1P6/8/8 b - - 0 51"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2012.03.03"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "FRA"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2012.04.24"]

{Diagram [#]} 51... g5+ $1 {Sveshnikov demonstrates knowledge. He could have
kept the pawn on g7 and only after White captures it he can play Ke7 which
would also be a draw.} 52. Kxg5 Ke5 53. Kg4 Ke4 54. Kg3 Ke5 55. Kf3 Kd5 56. Kf2
Ke6 57. Ke2 Kd6 58. Kf3 Kd5 {Diagram [#]} 59. Kg3 Ke5 60. Kh4 Kd4 61. Kh3 Kd5
62. Kg2 Kd6 63. Kf2 Ke6 64. Kg2 Kd6 65. Kh3 Kd5 66. Kh4 Kd4 67. Kh5 Kd5 68. Kh6
Kd6 69. Kh7 Kd7 70. Kg6 Ke6 71. Kg5 Ke5 72. Kg4 Ke4 73. Kg3 Ke5 74. Kf3 Kd5
1/2-1/2

Try finding this over the board after a tense four-five hour game. To make things even spicier, imagine that this is a day with a double round, this is your second game and you have played the same four-five hours…
(To be continued.)