Crazy imbalanced endgame

Originally posted by Burnsider
I should start by saying I was the Black player in this game, and thank danilop for his kind comments, he also is a worthy and tough opponent and we both agreed this was the strangest endgame we had both played on the site.

The line is one I picked up from Avrukh's 1. d4 Vol2, and it is also referenced in Palliser's recent Chess Developments: The Modern ...[text shortened]... sit still or White's king will get back in front of the pawns and that will be that.

Thanks for the comments. 🙂

It's funny to read your version: it turns out that both of us entered the ending with high hopes and both started fearing the worst as the end approached. I was convinced I had the win when I found out that my rook and knight could stop the queenside pawns, but the h-pawn push had me worried that the connected pawns might beat the rook before my king came to the rescue.

Just out of curiosity, I analysed the position from the first diagram with an engine last night. The box thinks it's pretty much equal. Looks like we didn't embarass ourselves in the endgame, after all.

Hi Duchess.

"This game reminds me of Gufeld-Kavalek (1962)"

That is the Gulko game I was recalling when I was talking about what
I would play in the posted game.

I call it the Gulko game (though Kavalek won it with the Bishop) because
I first saw it with Gulko's notes in Learn from the Grandmaster by Keene.

It's one of Keene's best books. Becasue he never wrote it!!
He asked 13 GM's to supply two games with notes. One with a win from their
own games. And one game played by anyone else that inspired them or they
found memorial.

Gufeld chose two of his own games one being the Kavelek game.

A great book, a great game with sparkling honest notes from Gufeld.
It came out in 1975 and you can see that Gulko's notes after his 7th move
set me on the correct path.

I was already a tricky trappy player looking for a direction
then I saw this:

Gulko has just played 7.d5


I quickly played 7.d5 hoping for 7...Ne7 when 8.Ne6 wins the Queen.
(it actually happened in a previous game Gulko recalled.)

Click!
This GM guy can play for traps 'hoping' the other guy will fall for it.....

Kavalek played 7....e3!
Gufeld then writes he now realises he himself had fallen for a trap.

Click!
These GM types are setting traps for each other....I am sorted.

I even remembered that note about the Rooks wanting to get taken
by the Bishop.

Here:


Gufeld played 30.Rb4 and writes 'Please take me.'
Kavalek played 30...Kf4 'No'.

A book I owe a lot. Tal used a game from a player called Nezhmetdinov.
(never heard of him). I found some of his games......I am fully sorted.


Eduard Gufeld - Lubomir Kavalek 1962



"playing 'hope chess' tends to lead to some embarrassing outcomes."

But you do take part in some brilliant games.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

I am sure we all must have played 'hope chess' at some time, even the Duchess. 😏

It's better than hopeless chess, that's for sure. 🙂

Originally posted by danilop
It's better than hopeless chess, that's for sure. 🙂

That's a good one. Duchess should take notice. 😏

The post that was quoted here has been removed

I did understand what you wrote. I just couldn't resist making the silly pun. 🙂

Not really sure how we ended up discussing "hope chess" and its harmful consequences here. I think the game makes it clear that neither me nor my opponent were playing hope chess in this game. If anything, my choice of 44. Nf3 instead of gp's 44. Ba1 and my decision to exchange knight for bishop later in the endgame were both examples of cautious, not at all "hopeful" play.

Delete 'Hope Chess ' insert 'Proper Chess'.

We all sit down at the board and hope we win.
We all hope our opponent makes a blunder.
We all hope to play a good game.

How are you going to win a game if your opponent does not make a blunder.
(Hope he resigns in a won position?)

Make a move, set a trap and hope they fall into it. That is chess.
You keep doing this until you win.
And if per chance your opponent plays better than you and you are in a
'hopeless position', you resign and hope you win the nex game.

The chess player's anthem is:

"Land of Hope and Glory..."

(it's certainly not 'God Save the Queen' - I'll be saccing my Queen first chance I get." )

Originally posted by greenpawn34
The chess player's anthem is:

"Land of Hope and Glory..."

(it's certainly not 'God Save the Queen' - I'll be saccing my Queen first chance I get." )

"The rottenest bits of this chessboard of ours..."

Richard

It is a good thing for me that there is no Duchess piece in chess for I would probably be saccing her the first chance I get. Just kidding. 😀

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Ah. But that wasn't play: that was just a post-mortem analysis. I was just throwing around random ideas. After the game is over and we already know the result of the main line, there's no harm in looking for apparently silly, potentially unsound alternatives. 🙂