Thursday 18 September 2008

Turning Draws into Wins

It is unusual to say that someone turned a draw into a win. The most common expression is "turning a draw into a loss", but just as that requires someone to play a move bad enough to turn a drawn position into a lost position, it also requires the opponent to play a move good enough to make it a win.
The two diagrams shown are from games I saw yesterday (the first during a coaching session, the second at my club). Both of them are winning positions, although in both cases there are some lines that lead to draws. Indeed in the first position White may be able to bluff an unwary Black player by quickly moving the king between h1 and g2 and then offering a draw on the grounds that any attempts to involve the king (by moving it to h3 or f3/f2/f1) result in a stalemate. Of course the winning plan is to promote the h pawn followed by moving the king to f3 or h3. Here is an example
1.Kh1 Kd5 2.Kg2 Ke4 3.Kh1 Ke3 [ 3...Kf3??=] 4.Kg2 h1Q+ 5.Kxh1 Kf3 [ 5...Kf2??=] 6.Kg1 g2 7.Kh2 Kf2-+

The second position is a little more clear cut, in that White has a number of ways to win. Interestingly White passed on the more obvious paths to victory and went for a more prosaic line, one which almost looked like it allowed Black to escape with a draw. However White was happy to allow Black to queen with check, knowing full well that his reply left Black without a defence. The game continuation was 1.c8Q h3 2.Qc2+ [ 2.Qg4+ Kh2 3.Ke4 Kh1 4.Qxh3+ +-] 2...Kg1 3.Ke4 h2 4.Kf3 [ 4.Ke3 h1N ( 4...h1Q 5.Qf2#) 5.Kf3 Nf2 6.Qxf2+ Kh1 7.Qg2#] 4...h1Q+ 5.Kg3+-

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