DoctorD: The late Larry Evans looked at this position in the June 2010 issue of Chess Life, with some analysis from Fine's The World's Greatest Chess Games. click for larger viewEvans notes that white lost with 1. c6? Qh3! and that 1. h3? leads to
mate after Rg1+.
But the drawing line he gives is:
1. Be2 Qh4 2. h3 Rh5 3. Kh2 Rg3 4.fxg3 Qxg3+ 5. Kh1 Rxh3+ 6. Qxh3 Qxh3+ 7. Kg1 and now indicates it is a draw by perpetual check with 7 ... Qg3+ 8.
Kf1 Qh3+ 9. Kg1 (9. Ke1? loses)
However, Black may well have a win. How does White meet 7. ... g5!! which seems to win instead of draw? The idea of course is to push to g4 and either capture on f3 or push f3 if white captures the pawn. The white pieces are too disjointed to coordinate and the black pawns are dangerous. If the bishop goes back to d1, the queen can come to h4 and so on. Advancing the c-pawn just loses - black can advance the g-pawn all the way to g3 while White is doing that. The most interesting push is of the d pawn, which also is answered by letting White queen while pushing the g pawn all the way to g3. Then black needs to be careful 8. d6 g4 9. d7 g3! 10. d8Q+ Kh7! and
black seems to win after a long struggle as white has to give his new
queen back, but few would not call the position "winning" at that
point. Again, unless I am missing something, the passed Black
h-pawn will be the winner with the black queen tying White up. |