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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Butchering an Ending

I reached the following position online in a 1 minute + 3 second game:
Glancing at the clock I noticed I had about 6 seconds left. The first thing that came to mind was that his P was going to queen. So my plan was to sac the R for it, capture the a-Pawn then hope I could do something with the two passed P's against the R. That thought was all wrong, but I played…

50...Kc4
Bad move! The correct move was 50...c4 with a likely draw. 51.Kg5 (51.Ke3 Rh2 52.Rg5+ Kc6 doesn't lead anywhere.) 51...c3 52.Rc7 c2 53.Rxc2 Rxh7
51.Kg3
51.Kf5 was better. Then if 51...Kb3 52.Kg6 c4 and White has good chances.
51...Kb4
No time to think. I had 2.6 seconds left. Now it's all over. 51...Kd5 would likely have held the position.
52.Rg4+
Shielding the P and winning outright.

This could have been a very interesting ending, but without time to think it got butchered. That’s why I hate speed chess. What’s the point of playing games like this?

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