Author: Peter Kappler
Date: 16:41:42 03/10/99
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On March 10, 1999 at 19:15:50, John Merlino wrote: >On March 10, 1999 at 02:33:14, Peter Kappler wrote: > >> >>8/8/4kpp1/3p1b2/p6P/2B5/6P1/6K1 b - - bm Bh3; id "Topalov-Shirov Linares 98"; >> >> >>Does everybody remember this game? It's from last year's Linares tournament, >>where Shirov played a shocking bishop sacrifice in the endgame and won >>brilliantly. I believe that post-mortem analysis proved it was the only way to >>win. (Please correct me if this is wrong) >> >>I watched this game live on ICC with dozens of others, and we were all quite >>impressed with Shirov's powers of calculation. >> >>This *should* be an extremely difficult problem for computers - but I'm sure >>somebody will tell me that Hiarcs or some other commercial program can solve it >>in 10 seconds. >> >>Just curious... >> >>--Peter > >Chessmaster 6000 could not find it after thinking for about a half-hour on a >P2-300. It preferred a3. > >Forgive a low-rated player, but why is this not a won position for black even if >he plays a3? I had Chessmaster play itself (30 sec/move -- not much but enough >to brute force at least 10 plies ahead on my machine) and black won easily in 30 >moves, announcing mate in 7 on move 23. > >jm John, I don't have the analysis of the game in front of me, but in general, opposite-colored bishop endings are terribly difficult to win even when one side is ahead one or two pawns. The reason for this is that the weaker side can dominate the squares that his bishop controls, making it much easier to blockade an extra pawn or two. In this position, for the a-pawn to queen, it will require Black to march his king over to that side of the board, but he must be careful not to allow White's king to pick off too many Black pawns. It's a tricky ending. Another person just posted that Be4 is the only other winning move, claiming that the win was some 40 moves away... --Peter
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