A quick morning puzzle
A couple of months ago, I had a rare occasion to play against a fellow Australian in the 4NCL league match weekend in England. The Aussie in question is IM Justin Tan, an extremely talented young player who probably hasn’t received the attention he deserves for two reasons: (1) He shares exactly the same name as one of Australia’s former chess prodigies (leading to all sorts of database confusion!), and (2) He comes from an astoundingly vibrant generation of chess talents in my country, including the phenomenal 14-year-old IM Anton Smirnov and former World Under 12 Champion IM Bobby Cheng.
For these reasons, and having recently moved to England for a stint, poor Justin is relatively unknown in the Australian chess community. However, I’ve respected his talent ever since he very nearly blew me off the board way back in 2011. Justin’s chess results have shown a remarkable climb in the last few years and he recently gained the IM title, which led to a nice write-up in the British press. This perhaps inspired him to take a gap year to focus exclusively on chess, and so now we wait to see just how far his talents can go. I suspect we will be surprised!
But enough chat; I did after all promise a ‘quick’ puzzle. In our encounter, I once again managed to slime my way to a second victory in a long queen endgame, but also once again it was somewhat undeserved. After almost seven hours and two cancelled dinner reservations, we reached the position after my confidently-played 83…Kf1. Justin played 84.g4 and resigned a move later, and that was all she wrote, as we say. Or was it?
I’ll post the solution tomorrow!
SOLUTION:
My 83rd move was a huge blunder; Black could still win by sending his king to the other side of the board. The very cute draw begins with 84.Qb1+!!. The key point is that if Black promotes to a queen, White either forces a draw by perpetual check, or checkmates the black king!
That’s not entirely the end of the story, though. Black can still play for a win with 84…e1=N!. The ending QNvQ is a book draw, but Black has one final trick up his sleeve. Check out the variations to see more.
In case you haven’t seen what Justin said on his FB, this is what he wrote:
Apparently, GM David Smerdon shows too much respect for me! -I’ve played so many games with this guy and have 0% (rendering me the punching bag tongue emoticon I’m quite good at that, ask other good players) anyway, here is his blogspot- http://davidsmerdon.com/ -i missed this unbelievable line.. even in my analysis!! so no, he was not undeserved to win, rather, it would have been undeserved if I drew:)
Its probably true Ive somewhat flown under the radar, down under, but I don’t think that’s unfortunate -in fact, I’m really proud to be a part of this formidable generation of aussie chess:D so i dont particularly mind if i’ve individual recognition or not, as long as I’m kinda recognised as a part of this youthful driving force of our country smile emoticon moreover, i am officially determined to help move aus up the world rankings :))
Meanwhile, the British press has indeed been kind, giving me some telegraph articles and others.. if only there were other aussies out here -for sure, most of them would do a better job than me!!
In case you haven’t seen Justin’s reply on FB, here is what he said: …
…Apparently, GM David Smerdon shows too much respect for me! -I’ve played so many games with this guy and have 0% (rendering me the punching bag tongue emoticon I’m quite good at that, ask other good players) anyway, here is his blogspot- http://davidsmerdon.com/ -i missed this unbelievable line.. even in my analysis!! so no, he was not undeserved to win, rather, it would have been undeserved if I drew:)
Its probably true Ive somewhat flown under the radar, down under, but I don’t think that’s unfortunate -in fact, I’m really proud to be a part of this formidable generation of aussie chess:D so i dont particularly mind if i’ve individual recognition or not, as long as I’m kinda recognised as a part of this youthful driving force of our country smile emoticon moreover, i am officially determined to help move aus up the world rankings :))
Meanwhile, the British press has indeed been kind, giving me some telegraph articles and others.. if only there were other aussies out here -for sure, most of them would do a better job than me!!
Hi, is that Scandinavian monograph ever coming? If time, please check this. I wasn’t happy out of the opening but maybe ok and not sure where to improve. Thx:
[Event “Quebec 2015”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “2015.??.??”]
[Round “7”]
[White “Grenier, Marcel Jr”]
[Black “Sly, Douglas”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B01”]
[WhiteElo “1599”]
[BlackElo “1658”]
[Annotator “Sly,Doug”]
[PlyCount “104”]
[Source “MonRoi”]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. Nf3 Nxd5 4. d4 Bf5 5. Bd3 Bxd3 6. Qxd3 Nb6 (6… Nc6 7.
c4 Ndb4 8. Qb3 e5 9. d5 Na5 10. Qc3 e4 11. O-O c6 12. a3 Nd3 13. b4 cxd5 14.
bxa5 Rc8 15. Bb2 Rxc4 16. Qb3 Rc5) 7. O-O e6 8. c3 Be7 9. a4 O-O 10. Rd1 c5 11.
Be3 Nd5 12. Na3 Nxe3 13. fxe3 Nc6 14. Nc4 Qc7 15. h3 Rad8 16. Qe2 cxd4 17. exd4
h6 18. Nfe5 Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Bf6 20. Ng4 Be7 21. Rf1 Bd6 22. Qe3 Qe7 23. Rf3 f6
24. Qd3 f5 25. Ne3 g5 26. Re1 Qf6 27. Ref1 Qg6 28. Qc4 Kg7 29. Qb3 Rd7 30. Qc2
h5 31. b4 (31. Nc4 g4 32. Re3 Rf6 33. Nxd6 Rxd6) 31… g4 32. hxg4 hxg4 33.
R3f2 g3 34. Rd2 Qh5 35. Rf3 Qh2+ 36. Kf1 f4 37. Ng4 Qh1+ 38. Ke2 Qxg2+ 39. Nf2
gxf2 40. Rxf2 f3+ 41. Kd3 Qg6+ (41… Qg4 42. Kc4 Bg3 43. Rf1 Rc7+ 44. Kb3 e5
45. Rd3 exd4 46. Rxd4 Qxd4 47. cxd4 Rxc2 48. Kxc2 f2 49. Kd3 Re8) 42. Kc4 Qxc2
43. Rxc2 Bg3 44. Rf1 f2 45. Re2 Rc7+ 46. Kb3 Rf3 47. Kb2 Rcxc3 48. d5 Rce3 ({
Rybka 4 x64:} 48… Rb3+ 49. Ka2 exd5 50. Rfxf2 (50. Re7+ Kf6 51. Re8 Rbe3 52.
Rf8+ Kg6 53. Rxf3 Rxf3) 50… Bxf2 51. Rxf2 Rxf2+ 52. Kxb3 Rf3+ 53. Kc2 Kf6 54.
Kd1 Ke5 55. Ke1 Rf4 56. Kd2 Rxb4 57. a5 Ke4 58. Ke2 d4 59. Kd2 d3 60. Kc3 Ke3
61. Kxb4 d2 62. a6 bxa6 63. Kc3 d1=Q {-12.44/16}) 49. Rxe3 Rxe3 50. Kc2 Re1 51.
d6 Rxf1 52. d7 Bh4 0-1