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Posted by kansaspatzer
uskidscompute.com

6/07/2008
14:03:34

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Subject: Philidor Position?

Message:
Recently I studied the Philidor and Lucena Positions. Although the Lucena is straightforward enough, I understand the basics of the Philidor but am not sure about how to apply it in an actual game situation or when exactly it comes up. I just finished this game, and I think that around move 66 I missed a chance to utilize this drawing resource. Can anybody tell me if I did?

gameknot.com

Posted by bonsai
uskidscompute.com

6/07/2008
15:23:12

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Message:
You are right you reached Philidor's position (or something very much like it) several times and could have drawn easily.

The position 60.Rxf4 should be an easy draw, not sure why you gave away your f6 pawn, even so it was all still easily drawn, because your king was on the promotion square. With 67...Ra6+ you nicely set up a third (sixth) rank defence (=Philidor's position) which easily holds the draw.

69...Ra7 is still a draw, but why bother with taking the rook of the 6th rank?? Just wait until his pawn has advanced far enough to not give his king any place to hide from checks and then go to the first rank and check him.

In the same sense 71...Ra6 was the right move. 71...Ra5 looses - white could have played 72.Kf6, but he missed that, after 72.Rh7 you could once more have held it with 72...Ra6.

After missing that the defence became more complicated. 75...Re1 would still have drawn for black, but it's harder to do. 75...Kf8 looses. However white doesn't really know what he's doing 77.Ra5 is a pointless move that throws away the win, the rook is great on the 8th rank and one should just play 77.Kd6 to advance the pawn (and if Rd1+ then Ke7).

After 86...Kf7 you've once more got a nice third rank defence, but you once more go for the wrong kind of continuation with 87...Ra5 and this time white punishes it properly and doesn't let the win slip away, again.

Posted by kansaspatzer
uskidscompute.com

6/08/2008
02:04:22

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Message:
Thanks for the detailed analysis. A pure Philidor position, then, is reached when the pawn is on the sixth rather than fifth rank? That is what had thrown me off - once I was at move 70 or so, I assumed that I had already missed my chance.
———
Chess Champ Kamsky Marches On — The top-seated Armenian chess grandmaster Levon Aronian was the heavy favorite to emerge as the winner of the 2011 FIDE Candidates matches in Kazan, Russia, and challenge Vishy Anand of India for the world chess title in 2012. According to the same scenario, Aronian's opponent in the Candidates Final was supposed to be the Bulgarian grandmaster Veselin Topalov. But both grandmasters are gone now, having lost the Candidates quarterfinal matches. Topalov was eliminated by the U.S. chess champion Gata Kamsky, Aronian lost to Alexander Grischuk of Russia. The semifinals - Kamsky vs. Gelfand and Kramnik vs. Grischuk - resume Thursday and ...
Posted by marinvukusic
uskidscompute.com

6/08/2008
02:31:49

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Wikipedia is your friend

Message:
en.wikipedia.org

Much better than asking on a forum IMHO
———
Chess: No need to make a drama out of the endgame — Pawn endgames often involve bold sacrifices – but sometimes there are quieter ways to win. We've seen in the last two chess columns that superior king position does not always guarantee the advantage – contrary to standard pawn endgame chess lore – but here there is no disputing Black's dominance. The only question is, how to break through? RB: Pawn endgames frequently have the potential for dramatic sacrifices. You can have five pawns and give up four of them so one might queen and win the chess game. I don't see that here, however. So I'm going to go the other route: undramatic, quiet moves in an attempt to create zugzwang, force the white king back and invade. So 1…e5, when ...
Posted by bonsai
uskidscompute.com

6/08/2008
02:49:14

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Message:
The position with your king on/next to the promotion square, your rook on the 6th rank as black (or 3rd rank as white) and his pawn on the 5th rank is what is called Philidor's position (or the third rank defence). The way to draw it is to keep the rook on the 6th (3rd) rank until he advances the pawn beyond to the 6th rank, then the rook goes to the first (8th) rank and keeps checking the king.
———
Nakamura gets to observe — By Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Having competed in six prior U.S. Chess Championships, including the past two here at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, it is certainly an unusual feeling to be a casual observer this year. Over the past few months, I have raised my rating to number eight in the world, and I elected to not play in this year's event to focus my energy on preparing for the world elite and the next World Chess Championship cycle. This break has allowed me to witness the U.S. Chess Championships from the perspective of a chess player and fan. I've enjoyed following all of the games at the same time and watching the great commentary from Grandmaster (GM) Maurice Ashley and ...
Posted by ionadowman
uskidscompute.com

6/08/2008
17:54:26

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marinvukusic -

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-... but asking on the forum is much more fun. bonsai's responses look pretty good to me, at that.
Cheers,
Ion


———
It's All in the Programming: Computer Falls to a Beginner — It has been commonly accepted for about a decade that computers are better than people at chess. But a couple of weeks ago, a widely circulated story out of Ukraine suggested that a man who learned to play the game less than a year ago had beaten the world’s best chess program. The story seemed preposterous. The man, Andriy Slyusarchuk, beat Rybka 4, the strongest commercially available chess program, in a two-game match, winning one and drawing the other. He not only won, he played what is known as blindfold chess, meaning he called out his moves and had the computer’s relayed to him. The match was taped in front of an audience and broadcast on television. Slyusarchuk, 39, claims ...
Posted by marinvukusic
uskidscompute.com

6/09/2008
04:35:02

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Yeah, but...

Message:
... Wikipedia has really excellent chess articles, much better than anything any of us might write on the forum. So that should be the first resource IMHO.

Of course if the purpose of the topic is fun that forum is better :)
———
U.S. chess championship felt like a tornado — I wasn’t at the airport last month, but I still feel like I got hit by a tornado. For some players, the 2011 U.S. Chess Championship concluded April 29, but unfortunately April 21 was my last game. On the bright side, I had a ringside seat for the remainder of the chess matches, including the heart-pounding women’s finals, which went into an Armageddon round (that’s triple overtime)! The chess tournament featured an interesting format – the top two players from two eight-player round-robin groups qualified for the semi-final matches. The two semi-finalists from the “A” group were no surprise. Reigning Chess Champion and Grandmaster (GM) Gata Kamsky and last year’s runner-up, GM Yury Shulman, easily ...
Posted by ionadowman
uskidscompute.com

6/09/2008
12:57:41

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Marin...

Message:
... I certainly have no quarrel with the Wikipedia article(s) in question, having followed up the link you gave earlier. And, aware of these now, one has an easily accessible (and readable) on-line resource for the questions raised here.

But maybe I shouldn't have said "fun" - rather that a discussion of the question is a more ... social way of exploring the topic. Here, it is a more engaging way of studying this kind of endgame.
Cheers,
Ion