2013 British Chess Championships (Torquay)

[abi&timadams]

Having trouble with seeing the commentary. Anyone else or is it just us? Thanks

[Jonathan Bryant]

Arkell Rook Ending alert.

I thought putting your pawn on the third made the defence easier. Which is not to say that White's lost here - I've no idea - but I wouldn't be surprised if Keith turned this into a win.

[Andrew Collins]

well generally speaking isn't 2 vs 1 supposed to be a relatively easy draw, not that generality means anything of course. I however am going to punt that Keith is going to be frustrated again.

[Jonathan Bryant]

Sure, but

(a) Keith Arkell
and
(b) normally white would have gone f2-f3 (e.g. Short-Carlsen, LCC 2011 http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1650150) which means he doesn't get cramped.
and
(c) if the clock times on the feed are correct White's down to increments [now reading 48 minutes for White - so I guess they weren't right before)


Not that I see anything specific here - perhaps king coming in via the h-file



[2nd edit] Annoying Emms' Survival Guide to Rook Endings h&g v g; f&g v g; e&f v f ... but not f&g v f

[Andrew Collins]

I've just taken a look at Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual there is a couple of pages devoted to this topic. Although no exact similar examples

[Jonathan Bryant]

Bringing the king to f3 now for Black?

{edit: maybe white brings rook to a-file to defend}

[Andrew Collins]

looks like Keith has done it to my untrained eye, I can't see any way to hold now, I think it is like people were discussing the other day, a few inaccuracies and the defensive task is suddenly more difficult because it requires being a lot more accurate.

[Andrew Bak]

Did anyone else notice the rather interesting passage of play in Brown-Friedland starting on move 29?

[Jonathan Bryant]

looks like Keith has done it to my untrained eye, I can't see any way to hold now, I think it is like people were discussing the other day, a few inaccuracies and the defensive task is suddenly more difficult because it requires being a lot more accurate.

I think possibly one inaccuracy - not playing f3 when he had the chance.

I suspect position may well have been drawn, objectively speaking, when you first posted, but it's not easy in practice.

Not that I'm claiming I saw *how* Black was going to win.

[Andrew Collins]

It just goes to show sometimes how fascinating the 'simplest' at least in terms of amount of material, some endings can be.
I like to regularly practice drilling a list of relatively simple Drawn/Winning endgames. Although the downside of Defending against the computer is that it doesn't pick what are inferior but tricky tries.
Oh how I dream one day of getting the chance to potentially hold such an ending against a GM....

[Rob Thompson]

A very good result for Dominic Mackle against Gary Lane, I see. With Mackle now on 4/5 with his only loss being against Gordon, an IM norm looks possible.

[Simon Ansell]

Is Mark Hebden going to win this? I glanced at the position about an hour ago and thought he was struggling, then it seemed he'd just about managed to escape, but now...

[Jonathan Bryant]

Oh how I dream one day of getting the chance to potentially hold such an ending against a GM....

I had exactly that chance - against Keith Arkell no less - at Penarth a couple of weeks ago. Could have traded down to a 4v3 rook and pawn ending where all the pawns were on the kingside, but I (with the 3, obvs) not having got ... h5 in so I'd be permanently cramped.

I kind of regret not doing it, although I'm quite sure I'd have lost in the end anyway.



Incidentally, having now had the chance to play through the earlier moves I see this was another minority attack win for Keith.

[Nick Thomas]

Terrible blunder by Ghasi.

[David Grobler]

whats the view on Peter Shaws game?