How to draw with R vs R and 2P

In my next example of a lost ending I have selected the game Capablanca vs Kostic, 1919 and have again flipped the board.

In this game the position with white to move is-



1. c6 .. Rf1;
2. Rb7+ Kc8 (2. Ka8 resists for only a little longer);
3. a6 (and Kostic resigned) but the game could continue
3. ... Rb1+;
4. Kc5 .. Rc1+;
5. Kd5 .. Rd1+;
6. Ke4 .. Re1+;
7. Kd3 .. Rd1+;
8. Ke2 .. Rc1;
9. a7 .. Ra1;
10. Kd3 .. Rd1+;
11. Kc3 .. Ra1 (11. Rc1+ achieves nothing after 11. ... Kb2 when black must give up the Rook or the a pawn queens);
12. Rb8+ .. Kc7;
13. a8=Q winning easily.

The problem here for black is that his King was cut off on the back rank. It appears such positions are usually lost

So there are a couple of things I must avoid. I will be looking at more before making up my mind on what to move in my game.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
In my efforts to draw my Game 4244304 I have come to a critical position after whites 57th move, Kc6 -

[fen]8/k7/1RK5/P1P5/8/8/8/1r6[/fen]

This position continues to obsess me and much to the dismay of my wife I spent 2 hours on it last night.

There seem to be 2 strategic possibilities -

(1) attack the a or c pawn with my Rook; or
(2) return my Rook to give checks across the ranks to hinder the pawn advance which may as well be from the h file.

RXR clearly loses immediately and there is no point even considering a King move as we know from examples I have given that I do not want my King cut off on the 8th rank.

It seems fairly easy to discount Ra1 as my King can deal with that pawn so Rc1 and Rh1 become the only 2 moves to consider. They need to be considered in depth.

First I looked at 1. ... Rc1

There follows 2. Rb7 .. Ka6 (obviously better than Ka8 getting trapped in the corner and attacking the h pawn); 3. Rb8 .. KXP; 4. Ra8 .. Rb4; 5. Rb8+ .. Kc4; 6. Rb5 .. Rh1; 7. Kb6 .. Kd5 (I must try and get my King back in front of the pawn); 8. c6+ .. Kd6; 9. Kb7 .. Rh7+; 10 Kb6 .. Rh1; 11. Rb2!! (this took me ages to find but both Rooks will work better at a distance) .. Rc1; 12. Kb7 and the pawn cannot be taken because of Rd2 so try .. Rc3; 13. Rd2 .. c7 and its all over now.

However there seem possibilities for improvement down this line so I cannot write it off.

I haven't even started looking at Rh1 yet.

Well having not found the draw with Rc1 I decided to play Rh1 so obviously aren't going to post that analysis here just yet as I don't want to tell my opponent everything.

Suffice it is to say that the main reason I choose Rh1 is because with Rc1 I can find a certain win for white but with Rh1 I cannot for sure, therefore the latter must give me better chances.

This ending has recently occurred between Kramnik & Aronian Wijk aan Zee 2008 Rd 7. Chessbase have annotations by Mihail Marin which are quite illuminating.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4394

(Sorry - missed the Wijk aan Zee thread)

Originally posted by tapestry
This ending has recently occurred between Kramnik & Aronian Wijk aan Zee 2008 Rd 7. Chessbase have annotations by Mihail Marin which are quite illuminating.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4394

(Sorry - missed the Wijk aan Zee thread)

I suspect Kramnik was worn out which is something that would not have happened in correspondence chess when I suspect he would have drawn easily.

Originally posted by Dragon Fire
I suspect Kramnik was worn out

He won... Aronian blundered because he was in serious time trouble.

Originally posted by Nordlys
He won... Aronian blundered because he was in serious time trouble.

Trust me not to pay attention to who was white and who was black.

Time trouble is of course something you do not face at correspodence chess.

Originally posted by tapestry
This ending has recently occurred between Kramnik & Aronian Wijk aan Zee 2008 Rd 7. Chessbase have annotations by Mihail Marin which are quite illuminating.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4394

(Sorry - missed the Wijk aan Zee thread)

I've looked at Marin's annotations and am quite baffled at one point, namely the comment after Kramnik's 100th move. The position was as follows:



Kramnik now played 100.f6. Marin comments: "As far as I know, this setup has not been investigated by humans. It is Kramnik's merit to have found this excellent practical chance. The far advanced pawns are very dangerous if sustained by the rook, even if the king is temporarily far from them."

Aronin now played 100....Ra7, which Marin doesn't see fit to comment on. I was following this game live and couldn't see why Aronin didn't simply play 100...Ra3+, which I thought was an immediate draw. In fact I still do. Black continues lateral checks on the a file, and if white tries to avoid them by marching the king onto the b file, then black plays the rook to the f file and wins the remaining pawns. Or am I missing something?

Originally posted by Northern Lad
I've looked at Marin's annotations and am quite baffled at one point, namely the comment after Kramnik's 100th move. The position was as follows:

[fen]8/7k/7P/5P2/8/4K3/r7/7R w[/fen]

Kramnik now played 100.f6. Marin comments: "As far as I know, this setup has not been investigated by humans. It is Kramnik's merit to have found this excellent pract ...[text shortened]... k plays the rook to the f file and wins the remaining pawns. Or am I missing something?

No...you haven't missed anything...I am surprised that 3 GMs missed this!

Originally posted by Northern Lad
I've looked at Marin's annotations and am quite baffled at one point, namely the comment after Kramnik's 100th move. The position was as follows:

[fen]8/7k/7P/5P2/8/4K3/r7/7R w[/fen]

Kramnik now played 100.f6. Marin comments: "As far as I know, this setup has not been investigated by humans. It is Kramnik's merit to have found this excellent pract k plays the rook to the f file and wins the remaining pawns. Or am I missing something?

I wish I had a greater understanding of the position to be able to comment in more depth. Looking at the analysis I wonder if Marin was using a tablebase to look at the game. I don't have any myself, but I have found a site online and if you look at the position after 100. f6 there are a few options for black, of which 100... Ra7 is one move. I hope that the fact that we are asking ourselves these questions leads to a greater understanding than we would otherwise expect, but, if I were faced with this over the board I would hope that I have taken away the ideas of how to defend/proceed in such positions, althought I doubt I'd be that successful.

Try this link: http://chess.jaet.org/cgi-bin/dtx?fen=8/7k/5P1P/8/8/4K3/r7/7R+b

Originally posted by tapestry
I wish I had a greater understanding of the position to be able to comment in more depth. Looking at the analysis I wonder if Marin was using a tablebase to look at the game. I don't have any myself, but I have found a site online and if you look at the position after 100. f6 there are a few options for black, of which 100... Ra7 is one move. I hope that ...[text shortened]... successful.

Try this link: http://chess.jaet.org/cgi-bin/dtx?fen=8/7k/5P1P/8/8/4K3/r7/7R+b

That just shows that 100...Ra7 didn't in itself lose. However, I still think 100...Ra3+ would be the first move I'd look at in that position. It doesn't take much analysis to see that it is in effect an immediate forced draw, whereas after 100...Ra7 black still had chances to go wrong, which is indeed what happened.