Author: Charles Milton Ling
Date: 18:42:53 03/12/99
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Not me! It was Shirov himself who claimed that after Be4, the win was 40 moves away... Charley On March 10, 1999 at 19:41:42, Peter Kappler wrote: >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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