World Chess Championship 2013 - Page 63

On November 18 2013 00:03 urboss wrote:



The best defense for White is to get the white rook to the 7. or 8. rank to give checks to the Black king from there.

Mind that if the white rook plays back immediately with 60. Ra8, then the Black king doesn't need to protect the pawn on f4 anymore and can step into f2 which eventually wins because the g2 pawn falls.

Anand's idea with 60. Ra4 is to keep the pawn on f4 under attack and to give checks to the king laterally. As was seen in the game, this fails because White's pawns will obstruct the white rook from giving checks.

In the actual game, 62. c4 is not the best defense. Instead the rook should come back to the 8th rank to give checks.
Let's see how Black can win after 60. Ra4 if White uses the best defense:

After 60. Ra4 h3
61. gxh3 Rg6
62. Ra8

The rook comes back to give checks from behind.
62. ... f3
63. Re8+ Kf2
64. b4

Now the black rook will invade and place itself on e1.
64. ... Rg2+
65. Kh1 Rg1+
66. Kh2 Re1

Then the black king can sneak to f1 and the black pawn will promote.
67. Rf8 Ke2
68. Rd8+ Kf1

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This is one way how Black can win.
However, what happens if 60. b4 is played instead?

60. b4 h3
61. gxh3 Rg6
62. Rc8

Again, the rook comes back to the last rank to give checks.
The only difference now is that the b pawn is more advanced.

62. ... f3
63. Re8+ Kf2
64. b5

Here, we try again the same operation as before, placing the rook on e1:
Rg2+
65. Kh1 Rg1+
66. Kh2 Re1
In this case, the white rook can take on e1.
67. Rxe1 Kxe1

Both pawns will queen at the same time in the end.

This is just one out of many possible lines.
All the draws are based on the fact that White's b pawn is more advanced and that only checks from the 7th or 8th rank are working.