Vladimir Simagin vs Ratmir Kholmov (1947)

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Vladimir Simagin vs Ratmir Kholmov
URS-ch sf Moscow (1947), Moscow URS, rd 6, Oct-??
Queen's Indian Defense: Classical. Traditional Variation Main Line (E19) · 1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Sep-19-07		whiteshark: I bet that 99/100 player in this position click for larger view would not have played the move Simagin made. He abandoned the open e-file playing <32. Rc1>, only to create some play on the queenside. He could open the a-file later and invade with his rook. Black missed some better contiuations ...

Jun-21-18		acirce: Tricky exercise: If 49..Re2 50.Qh1 Qd2 51.Rxc7 Rf2 click for larger view White to move and win.

Jun-21-18		Fusilli: <acirce> Rc2. Nice.

Jun-22-18		acirce: 52.Rc2 Qxc2 53.d8=Q Qe2 and?

Jun-23-18		Fusilli: <acirce: 52.Rc2 Qxc2 53.d8=Q Qe2 and?> OK, the resulting position is: click for larger view I see that 54.Q8d1 meets 54...Rh2+ and it's a draw. And 54.Qh4 arrives at a pitiful position for white, with both queens stuck to prevent two different mates. Black can draw by moving the king back and forth between the 8th rank and h7. So... are you saying black would have drawn with 49...Re2? OK, going to check with the computer now.

Jun-23-18		Fusilli: <acirce> OK, I checked with the computer. 52.Rc2 actually gives away the win. White has to promote on move 52 and wins. For example: 52...Qxd8 53.Qc6 Qg8 54.Qg6+ and 55.Re7. Tricky, as you said.

Jun-23-18		acirce: <White has to promote on move 52 and wins.> You are right, but not specific enough :)

Jun-23-18		Gregor Samsa Mendel: Let me try this. In your "White to move and win" position, if white promotes to a queen or rook, black can draw with Rh2+ and stalemate is unavoidable. If white promotes to a knight, black plays Qe2 threatening Qxh5#. Therefore white has to promote to a bishop; then after Qe2 white can interpose with the bishop at h4. After 52 d8=B Qxd8 53 Qc6 it looks like black is lost. Am I right?

Jun-23-18		Gregor Samsa Mendel: Upon further examination, after 52 d8=B Qe2 black is threatening Qg4# along with Qxh5+, and I don't see a way to stop that. Maybe there is a win for white after 52 d8=N Qe2 53 Rxg7+. If 53..Kxg7 54 Qb7+; then if the obliging ..Kf6 55 Qf7#. If black is less obliging with 54..Kh8, then 55 Nf7+ Kg8 (otherwise 56 Ng5+ with mate to follow) 56 Nxh6+ Kh8 57 Qc8+ Kg7 58 Qg8+ and mates. If black is even less obliging with 54..Kg8, after 55 Qf7+ Kh8 56 Qf6+ Kg8 57 Qg6+ and mates. After 53 Rg7+ Kh8 54 Rh7+ black will eventually get mated after either 54..Kxh7 Qb7+ or 54..Kg8 55 Qd5+. At some point I gave up on doing this without a board and brought out my little magnetic chess set to work things out.

Jun-23-18		acirce: Correct! 52.d8=N is the only win. I got this from a video with Dvoretsky and Gustafsson on chess24.

Jun-23-18		Gregor Samsa Mendel: <Acirce>--It's nice to see you posting here regularly again. You raise the level of discourse on this site, both chess-wise and otherwise.

Jun-23-18		Fusilli: <acirce> When looked at from the position at move 49, the whole thing is mind-boggling. While 49...Re2 was objectively a losing move as much as 49...Qxg2+ was, from a practical point of view it's what Kholmov should have played. It makes winning clearly more difficult for white.

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