I'm just playing through the games from England v Azerbaijan from the Olympiad and i see that Gawain Jones lost a BNK v K ending to Mamedov (who i believe is 2700 or near enough).
My question, could this be considered rude? Surely it should be pretty obvious that such a strong player will know this ending (and know a lot harder endings besides). Should Gawain have just resigned? Giving a 2700 player 50 whole moves to find the mate in this ending, I'd say he has a better chance of winning the lottery than somehow making the 50 move rule.
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I was looking at that game as well. I wouldn't say it's rude - they are playing for the team, and if there is a chance of a 1/2 point it should be taken. Very accurate play from black in the endgame as well. Yes they are GMs and we should expect that, but still, we can marvel at it ..
Also interesting that Gawain played 2.c3, whereas he has written an entire book based around 2. Nf3. Maybe he thought his opponent would be expecting that ..
There were 3 pure B & N endings in the same round as this one.! (all were converted )
If time trouble is not an issue then yes perhaps resign but only against
the very good guys.This ending gets screwed up on a regular basis.
I've not seen footage of the game, perhaps the winner hesitated
and had to find the correct path OTB Gawain played on forcing the
lad to find it OTB...with a crowd watching....a large crowd watching.
Also this was a team event so Gawain might has considered resigning
but decided to play on for the team. This will also explain why here:
Luke McShane - Teimour Radjabov from the same round:
(Azerbaijan v England and England are losing)
White has just played 79.g2-g4 hoping for 79...fxg3 Stalemate
(Black played 79....hxg3 and White then resigned.)