Recalling a famous pawn ending

by Jonathan Speelman
3/3/2019 – This week, JON SPEELMAN takes a gander at the games of an Indian junior rated 1628. The Agony is a London System that turned into a difficult rook endgame. Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!
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Speelman's Agony #94

This week's pair of games are by a young Indian Kalki Eshwar who writes:

EshwarI am currently 14 years old and rated 1628 I learnt this marvellous game when I was about four years old and started playing serious chess about five years ago, I am currently working without a coach, Both of these games were played in the same tournament and illustrate a person's play with and without pressure. I hope you enjoy them!

Indeed I did! Both are hard battles and were very well annotated by Kalki to which I've added, as usual, my comments as 'JS'. We start with the Agony. A tough battle in which he equalised out of the opening but then shed a pawn and lost a difficult rook ending.

 
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This game was played in the last round of the state championship. A win and loss would mean everything, if I win, I would make it to the top 15. Sadly for me, I lost. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.h3 c5
7.c3 JS 7.0-0 Qb6 8.Nbd2 Be6 8...Qxb2? 9.Nc4 Qc3 10.Rb1 9.Ng5 Bd7 10.Nc4 led to a total mess in a critical game a decade ago 1-0 (41) Pert,N (2551)-Hawkins,J (2423) Canterbury ENG 2010 7...Nc6?! I had banged this move on the board without thinking. Only after playing the move did I realise that Be6 was theory. 7...Be6 JS Yes this very annoying move (for occasional users of the London System like me) prepares Qb6 when it can't be met by Qb3 8.Nbd2 Qb6 8.dxc5 JS This is, possibly, the best answer to Be6 but here White doesn't need to make the decision yet and can just continue Nbd2. dxc5 9.Qxd8 Rxd8 10.Nbd2 b6 11.Ne5 Nxe5 12.Bxe5 Bb7 13.Bf3?! 13.f3 Rd5 14.Bh2 Rad8 15.Nf1 Ne8 16.e4 and the rook is in deep trouble 13...Bxf3
14.gxf3? This is a serious positional error which then got my hopes up for winning the game. JS I'm not so sure it's a positional error. White gets some light square control in the centre which could be useful though of course some endings could be disastrous. (You may remember Cohn v Rubinstein where the black king got to h3 in a pawn ending and he won). 14.Nxf3 Ne4 is very uninspiring for White. 14...Nd5 14...Ne4!? 15.Nxe4 Bxe5 16.f4 Bg7 17.a4 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.a4 Nc7 16...Rd7 17.Ke2 Rad8 18.Rhd1 e5 is a more accurate plan 17.0-0-0
17.Ke2 JS looks more natural 17...a6? This weakens the b6 pawn which then led to my downfall. All I can do is give an excuse, I wanted to win the match! 17...Ne6 or 17...f6 were normal. 18.Nc4 Nd5 This loses a pawn but Black gets an active rook which can harass the white kingside pawns. 18...b5 19.Nb6 Rxd1+ 20.Rxd1 Re8 19.Rxd5 Rxd5 20.Nxb6 Rad8 21.Nxd5 Rxd5 JS You can see now that with the king on e2 it would be even better for White. 22.b4 cxb4 23.cxb4 This is still a drawn endgame JS That's a very categorical statement. though quite possibly true. The passed pawn on the queenside is certainly not going to be entierly harmless. Rf5 24.f4 One critical line is 24.Kd2 Rxf3 25.Ke2 Rf6 26.b5 axb5 27.axb5 Rb6 28.Rb1 Kf6 But with Black's kingside completely intact he looks fine. 29.Kd3 Ke6 30.Kc4 Kd7 24...e5
25.Rd1 25.Kd2 JS gets the king into battle and prepares Rb1. exf4 26.Rb1 Rd5+ 27.Ke2 27.Kc3 fxe3 28.fxe3 Kf6 29.b5 axb5 30.axb5 Ke5 31.b6 Rd8 32.Kc4 Ke4 33.Rb3 g5 34.Kc5 f5 35.b7 Rb8 27...fxe3 28.Kxe3 Kf6 29.b5 axb5 30.axb5 Ke5 31.b6 Rd8 32.b7 Rb8 25...exf4 26.e4! Re5 26...Rh5 27.Rd3 Re5 28.Rd4 Rh5 27.f3 27.Rd4 JS is less weakening 27...Rh5 28.Rh1 28.Kc2 Rxh3 29.b5 axb5 30.axb5 Rh5 31.Rb1 Re5 32.b6 Re8 28...Rg5 29.h4 Rg2 I played this move thinking that activity of the pieces was more important than material. Well, chess is a game with a lot of exceptions. Turns out that this is one. 29...Rg3 would have secured the draw JS After Rf1 Rg2 leads to the game but Black can play Kf6 instead 30.Rf1 Kf6 31.Kc2 31.b5 axb5 32.axb5 Ke7 30.b5
30...axb5?! JS This gives White control. Instead Ra2 was a little hair raising to start with but Black is in time to stop the b-pawn and White has to commit that pawn to b7 which basically makes it into a race. 30...Ra2 31.b6 Rxa4 32.Rh2 Ra1+ 33.Kb2 Ra5 34.Kb1 Re5 35.b7 Re8 36.Rc2 Rb8 37.Rc7 Kf6 38.Kc2 g5 38...h5 39.Kd3 g5 40.hxg5+ Kxg5 41.Kd4 h4 42.Rxf7 h3 39.hxg5+ Kxg5 40.Rxf7 h5 JS A very good line by Kalki. Black should normally be able to draw in postions "like" this though of course it all comes down to the tempi. 31.axb5 Ra2 32.Rd1 Ra8 here is where I got nervous and started to play weird moves 33.Kc2 Rb8 34.Rd5! h6 35.Kc3 JS With the white rook so active this is very tough for Black. Kf6 36.Kc4 Ke6 37.Kc5 Rc8+ 38.Kd4 Rb8 39.e5 Rb6 40.Rc5 f6 40...Kd7 41.Ke4 JS also looks lost 41.exf6 Kd7 41...Kxf6 42.Rc6+ Rxc6 43.bxc6 Ke7 43...Ke6 44.Kc5 g5 45.hxg5 hxg5 46.Kb6 44.Ke5 JS wins easily 42.f7 Ke7 43.Rc7+ Kf8 44.Kc5 JS Now it's totally over. Rb8 45.b6 g5 46.hxg5 hxg5 47.b7 g4 48.Rc8+ I was only playing with the hopes of stalemate! Kxf7 49.Rxb8 gxf3 50.Rf8+ Kxf8 51.b8Q+ Kg7 52.Qxf4 f2 53.Qxf2 Kg6 54.Kd5 Kg5 55.Ke5 Kg4 56.Qg2+ Kh4 57.Kf4 Kh5 58.Qg5# JS Kalaki got a perfectly good position from the opening but a6 was very careless. In the rook ending Kalki drifted at times but his opponent his opponent played well to get control 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Umesh,R1728Kalki,E15151–02018A48Kar State Open Chess Championship 201810
Kalki,E1515Siddayya,G19931–02018C24Kar State Open Chess Championship 20184
Cohn,E-Rubinstein,A-0–11909D21St Petersburg

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The London System PowerBase 2019 contains 9105 games of which 113 are annotated.

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

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