| KEG: Tchigorin missed chances in the opening and was foiled by a couple of clever combos by Mason. The game then seemingly petered out into a boring draw, but the finale was very pretty. Despite Tchigorin's horrible results and play against the French Defense in this tournament, Mason decided to try the Petroff against him in this game and found himself facing 3. d4 from Tchigorin rather than the more drawish 3. Nxe5. I don't much care for Mason's 5...Be7 (though Hort played this against Spassky in their 1977 Candidates' match). After 5...Be7, I prefer Spassky's 6. Nd2 to Tchigorin's 6. 0-0, though both moves probably yield similar chances for White. Mason's 6...Nf6, however, was simply bad. It was a loss of time Black cannot afford, and with 7. Nd2 (a la Spassky) Tchigorin would have had a nice advantage. Tchigorin's 7. Nc3 was less promising. Tchigorin had one more chance in the opening after Mason's bizarre 10...Be8, but his 12. Ng4 simply led to a series of exchanges rather than to any significant advantage. (12. Qd3 would have been much better). Perhaps Tchigorin thought that his Rook on the seventh rank would give him an edge. Indeed, the Tournament Book seems to think Tchigorin had much the better of the game after 16. RxN, but Mason's active play in the ending defanged any threats Tchigorin may have been entertaining. If Tchigorin expected to break through with 18. a4, he was soon sadly disappointed. After 18...Bxa4 19. Ra1 the position was: 
click for larger viewAccording to the Tournament Book, 19...Bxc2 loses here, and maybe Tchigorin had the same idea. But so far as I can see 19...Bxc2 was best and would have resulted in an even game after 20. Rxa7 f6. (Fritz rates the position here as 0.00) (if 21. Nd7 Rf7). But Mason here, rather than 19...Bxc2, played the tricky Rfe8. After the exchange of Rooks (20. RxR BxR), Tchigorin gobbled up Mason's a-pawn and seemed to be generating some pressure on the Queen's side. But then Mason brought Tchigorin back to earth with a pretty move. After 24. Ra5, the position was as follows: 
click for larger viewMason here played 24...g6. Tchigorin then tried to win a pawn with 25. Nxd5 but Mason had seen further. After 25...b6 26. Ne7+ Kf8 27. Ra7 Re8 28. c4 Bxc4 29. Nxc6, Mason won back the pawn with 29...Re1+ 30. Kf2 Re2+. At this point, the Tournament Book says that the game could have been abandoned as a draw. Indeed, the ending was now quite even and Tchigorin's efforts to muster up threats over the course of the next approximately 30 moves got him nowhere. But the game had a spectacular finish.
After Tchigorin's 63. f4 the position was as follows: 
click for larger viewMason here played 63...Bxg4 and the players agreed to a draw, presumably in light of 64. Nf6+ Kg6 65. NxB Kf5. Given the difficulty of winning with Rook and Knight against Rook, I assume that Mason's two pawns in addition to his Rook against Tchigorin's Rook and Knight meant he had a draw in the bag. A delightful finish after about 30 moves of uninspiring play in the Rook and minor piece endgame. | 
Kibitzing
