We have a fun game in store to look at today. At least, it's my definition of fun -- a long endgame.
Laishevkin, Mykhailo (2093) - Paciorkowski, Lev (2448)
2026 Bill Wright Open, St. Louis, MO (Rd. 3)
G/90+30
I'm playing black against an 18 year old expert. We'll skim through the opening quickly.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 d6 6.Re1 Bd7 7.c3 g6 8.d4 Bg7 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Nxe5 dxe5 11.Bxd7+ Qxd7 12.Qxd7+ Nxd7 13.Be3 0-0-0 14.f3 (D)
This is a very equal position, with completely symmetrical pieces and pawn structure. I would venture to guess that a lot of people would be uncomfortable agreeing to this kind of position against someone 300-400 points lower rated, because the drawing margin is quite high. That may be valid, but I decided not to let that kind of thinking affect my decisions during this tournament.
I also got some feeling that my opponent was "playing for a draw". Over the years I've kind of gotten a sixth sense for this. So perhaps from his point of view, he was happy to get this position.
My two cents on "playing for a draw" against a higher-rated player: be careful. This kind of mindset tends to have a pernicious effect on your decision-making during the game. I say that as someone who has done his fair share of "playing for a draw" with white when I was a kid.
The problem is that you will invariably find yourself going out of your way not to "rock the boat" in any position. After all, we don't want to make the game complicated, right? If we just trade all the pieces and keep everything symmetrical, then we cannot lose. This means that you may pass up opportunities to "initiate complications" when you objectively should.
A strong enough player will always find a way to keep some life in the position. Eventually, they will initiate complications on their own terms, at which point you'll suddenly need to play with a high degree of precision to maintain the balance. Most likely, the stronger player will on purpose wait to do this until your time gets low. At that point, mistakes will happen.
Now, to the game. The funny thing about analyzing these types of positions is that the engine will give basically every reasonable-looking move as 0.00. However, as a human I can say I have some experience of what kinds of positions are more comfortable than others, even if they are all objectively "equal". So this type of experience becomes at least as important as the engine here.
I decided to start by getting my knight to a better square. 14. ... Nf8 15.Nd2 Ne6 16.Rad1 (D)
Now, I made the first "move" to try and imbalance the game with 16. ... Nf4 (D)
17.Bxf4!? I will say this decision from my opponent did slightly surprise me. Yes, it may look scary that the knight can appear on d3, but I didn't actually see what I'm doing after 17.Nc4 Nd3 18.Re2, when the plan is Re2-d2 next and white has everything covered. By taking on f4 white does continue with the strategy of "trading pieces", but I would say that this exchange greatly helps black. The pawn on f4 will have a slight cramping effect, and that bishop on e3 was probably white's best minor piece. The diagonal for the Bg7 also opens up, so (much) later on, plans like ...b5-b4 become an option to pressure the queenside.
Of course, the engine thinks everything is dead equal, 0.00. But I'll still stand by my human assessment.
17. ... exf4 18.Nb3 c6 19.Kf1 Kc7 (D)
20.Rxd8!? This was more of a confirmation of my suspicions earlier. There's no need to do this; white can just play Ke2. 20. ... Rxd8 21.Ke2 (D)
21. ... Re8 Of course, if we do just trade off both sets of rooks, then it will become much drier. But white's rook by itself won't be able to do anything on the d-file since my king can cover the entry squares. So I set off on a fishing expedition.
Here I had my longest think so far in the game, at 10 minutes. I was considering something like 25. ... a5 26.Nc1 a4 but ultimately felt that after 27.a3, I am not achieving anything on the queenside, and my rook will start to feel claustrophobic after Nc1-d3. (Unsurprisingly, according to the engine everything is 0.00.)
So, I decided to bring the rook back to home base. 25. ... Re5 26.Nc1 Re7 27.Nd3 g5 28.Ke2 (D)
Since I can't do anything with my rook yet, I now started to think about how to improve my bishop. I thought it would be great on e3, but it's not so easy to actually get it there: it would require something long-winded like Bf8-d6-c7-b6. So I decided to at least get started with this operation.
28. ... Bf8 29.Kd1 Re6 30.Kc2 Bd6 31.c4 (D)
I personally would have preferred something like b4-a4-a5 if I was playing white, but of course it's all still equal.
31. ... Bf8!? Played after about 3 minutes' thought. This looks like a funny move. Didn't the bishop just come from f8? I realized I was a little apprehensive about 31. ... Kc8 32.c5 Bf8 33.b4, when I would have liked to be able to quickly play Re8-a8 and then a6-a5. But I wasn't sure if white played c4 specifically with the intention of c4-c5. So I decided to wait for a move to see what my opponent would do. (Again, everything is 0.00 according to engine.)
32.a3 In case of 32.c5!? I now would have played 32. ... Re8, intending a6-a5 and Ra8. 32. ... Re8 I still wasn't sure, does white want b2-b4? 33.Rd1 I guess not. 33. ... Re6 (D)
Actually I burned 9 minutes on this move, which in hindsight seemed a bit silly. What am I doing with this shuffling back and forth? Well, I am basically probing to see what my opponent wants to do. Is he also going to shuffle back and forth, or is he going to carry out some real plan? In my experience this kind of shuffling also gives the lower-rated player a false sense of comfort, since it makes it seem like I am thinking about agreeing to a draw (in reality I would never do that from this position). Some psychological mind games, if you will. I do still have the plan of Bd6-c7-b6 in my back pocket.
34.Rd2!? Personally I think white should prefer something like 34.Rh1, when black would have to at least think about the possibility of h3-h4, activating the rook. 34. ... a5 Just in case white still wants b2-b4. 35.a4!? Even though the engine still gives everything as dead equal, I don't like this move for white, since now it freezes his queenside play and b2-b4 will never be an option anymore. Instead I thought 35.h4!? would be interesting for white, but that is also the kind of "rocking the boat" move that my opponent probably felt uncomfortable playing because of his mindset.
35. ... Bd6 36.Rd1 Kc8 37.Rd2!? (D)
Now it is clear white isn't interested in doing anything. Again, I think 37.Rh1 should be preferred.
37. ... h5 I was actually a little hesitant to continue with 37. ... Bc7 because I didn't like 38.Nc5 Re7 39.Nb3, when now white's knight can get to f5 via d4. (Still all 0.00!) So I make a small improving move on the kingside and toss the ball back into white's court.
38.b3!? This I was thrilled to see, because now there is no Nc5-b3-d4-f5! Finally I can complete my bishop maneuver. 38. ... Bc7 39.Nf2 Bb6 40.Nd3 Be3 41.Re2 Bd4 (In case of 41. ... Re8, I wasn't quite sure yet if I wanted to allow 42.g3!?) 42.Rd2 Re8 43.Rd1 (43.Nxf4? Be3-/+) 43. ... Be3 44.Re1 (D)
If you compare this to the position from 20 moves ago, black definitely seems to have made some progress. But still, it is objectively equal! Baby steps though. Now I can improve my king.
44. ... Kd7 45.Re2 Ke6 46.Nf2 (I thought now if white tries 46.g3 I could play 46. ... Rg8 and just keep the tension, then play f7-f5 at some point) 46. ... Rg8 47.Nd1 Bd4 48.Nf2 (D)
White cannot afford to allow ...g5-g4 too easily. At some point ...Bxf2 comes under consideration, but I wasn't quite ready to do that yet. Instead I came up with
48. ... Rc8!? (D)
This looks mysterious, but I actually am hinting at playing b7-b5 to open a new front on the queenside. Finally, after a lot of shuffling around, my opponent makes a real mistake here.
49.Kd3? This careless move gives black multiple extra tempi in the rook endgame we get soon. Better was 49.Nd3.
49. ... Ke5 50.Kc2 Bxf2! Now it is time for this. 51.Rxf2 (D)
Here I had quite an inexplicable lapse in judgement. I wanted 51. ... Kd4 here, which is the best move and perhaps even is objectively winning for black. What I didn't like though was 52.Rd2+ (If 52.Kd2 I thought at the very least 52. ... b5!?-/+ is strong) 52. ... Ke3 53.Kd1 when I somehow talked myself out of seriously pursuing this further, not liking the prospect of white's rook appearing on d7 with counterplay. This is fairly ridiculous though. Black is just winning after e.g. 53. ... Rc7 54.Ke1 f6! 55.Rd6 g4!-+.
So instead I returned the favor with 51. ... b5? 52.Rd2 This is much less clear. 52. ... bxa4 53.bxa4 Rb8 54.Rd7 Rb4 (I didn't like that white picks up my a-pawn after 54. ... f6 55.Ra7) 55.Rxf7 Rxa4 (D)
Out of nowhere, what was a quiet position just 10 moves ago has erupted into a very tricky rook endgame (finally got the complications I was looking for). Objectively this should still be a draw, but during the game it felt like white is the one who has to be more careful, because my king is going to be more active and my pawns are generally more advanced.
56.Kb3 This is fine. 56. ... Ra1 57.Rf5+ Kd4 58.Rxg5 a4+ 59.Kb2 Rg1 (D)
White is even a pawn up now, but somehow it doesn't feel like it. 60.Ka3? would run into the unpleasant 60. ... Kc3!, with a mating net around white's king. My opponent instead tried 60.c5, which is a reasonable move and still maintains the balance. 60. ... Kc4 intending ...Kb4, and then to maneuver my rook to give a check on the 2nd rank. 61.h4!? A little strange, but still fine. I thought white at least could try 61.e5. 61. ... Kb4 (D)
Not an easy position for white. I have the dangerous idea of ...Re1, then ...a3+ followed by Re2. White can still hold this with something like 62.Rg8 (there are other moves too), planning to get the rook to b8/a8 for checks, but still, 62. ... Kxc5 and black can play on with the two passed queenside pawns.
Here my opponent had only 5 minutes left, and he spent all his remaining time before playing the losing move: 62.Ka2? (D)
This move I did not understand at all. Perhaps the thought was that black cannot do anything, but I quickly played 62. ... Re1-+ It's the only winning move, but plenty good enough. My rook is perfectly placed to watch the e-pawn, and deliver a check from e2. 63.Rg8 Re2+ 64.Kb1 Kxc5 (D)
This position is a good example of how pawn structure can be overrated. Black has four isolated pawns, while white's pawn structure is in theory perfect. But that doesn't matter at all here because my pieces are so active, something else we have discussed in the past.
White's problem is that his king is cut off now, which means there are always mating net ideas. This makes the position indefensible.
65.Ra8 Kb4 66.Rb8+ Kc4 67.Ra8 c5 (D)
For example. 68.Rxa4+ Kb3 wins because of the double threat of mate and on the rook.
68.e5 There is hardly anything else to suggest. 68. ... Rxe5 69.Rxa4+ Kb3 70.Re4 Rxe4 The KP ending is winning. 71.fxe4 Kc4 72.Kc2 Kd4 73.Kb3 Kxe4 0-1 (D)
White is losing the race after 74.Kc4 Ke3 75.Kxc5 Kf2 76.Kd4 Kxg2 77.Ke4 f3. Funnily enough, some 60 moves after giving me that pawn on f4, it is the one that decides the game.
Except for that one strange moment on move 51 where I played ...b5? instead of ...Kd4!, I felt this was a pretty high quality game that I could be happy about.
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