Snowdrops and Oldhands 2013

Oh, the rook ending!

[08.12.2013 00:00:00] - It was an incredible experience for all of the spectators how charmingly and in what tempo seventy-years-old GM Genna Sosonko moved from one chessboard to another. When all of the games ended he was signing score sheets and books and even was able to explain all of the mistakes to his adversaries.

The simultaneous game of Dutch GM of Russian origin Genna Sosonko against eleven adversaries took place on Saturday 7th November 2013 in Poděbrady within the match Snowdrops and Oldhands – Vršanská uhelná chess match 2013. And the final score? Four draws of Peter Budinský, Pavel Englický, Vojtěch Trochta and Radka Růžičková and seven wins for GM Genna Sosonko. That is 9 : 2 for the grandmaster.

Jana Maříková, a young Czech junior representative, who recently became champion of the Czech Republic under eighteen years, was also among the opponents of GM Sosonko. She fought excellently and during the ending she had a draw within reach and after 58th move of the white this ostensibly easy position appeared:

Genna Sosonko vs Jana Maříková
Simultaneous game, Poděbrady, 7.12.2013



After just a simple glimpse, most of the readers will say: „a draw!“. But it is not that simple. By that time Sosonko played just against last three players so he has not had a lot of time to think.

58...g5 59.Rc5+ Ke4?!
Our young representative Jana Maříková definitely saw another uncomfortable move of the white 60.Rb5 under the time pressure, but still, she should not have left her pawn without a cover. 59...Kf4 should have happened and after 60.Rb5 Rc1+ 61.Kd5 Rc8 62.b7 the black would take a draw for example by 62…Rd8+ 63.Ke6 g4 64.Rb4+ Kf3 65.b8Q (65.Kf5 Rf8+=) 65...Rxb8 66.Rxb8 g3, where the pawn takes a draw against the rook, 67.Kf5 g2 68.Rb1 Kf2=.

60.Rb5
This position is still able to take a draw, but the black has just one way to it …

60...Rc1+ 61.Kb4 Rb1+ 62.Kc5 Rc1+?
Well this one is approaching to loss. The black should have used an advantage of the position of the king on 5th row to move her rook on 8th row 62...Rd1 63.Kc6 g4 64.b7 Rd8, then she could sacrifice her rook for pawn and take a draw with the king and g -pawn against the rook 65.Kc7 Rh8 66.b8Q Rxb8 67.Rxb8 g3 with a draw.

63.Kd6 Rd1+ 64.Ke7 Rh1 65.Rxg5
Now the white has some time to take the pawn on g5, which could not happen with a position of king on c5 (viz. variant to 62nd move).

65...Rb1 66.Rg6 Kd5 67.Kd7
And the result of this game has been decided.

67…Rh1 68.b7 Rh7+ 69.Kc8 Rh8+ 70.Kc7 Rh7+ 71.Kb6
There is no chance to avoid the changing of the pawn.
1–0

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