Round 4 World Cup Ufa
The mysterious end of this game was 28-33?? 32.29x16 and black resigned. Of course Meurs had something different in mind with his last move: ≡ 32.39x6? 13-18 33.31x13 8x50 34.29x7 2x11 35.6x17 50x11 etc. At first Meurs had planned to play the logical ≡ 13-18! 32.31-26 11-16! Then white is in a lot of trouble. The best plan seems 33.26-21 27-31 34.36x27 22x31 35.38-33 16x27 36.33x13 8x30 37.29x7 2x11 38.34-29! Now the white left wing is extremely weak, but in practice it is difficult for black to take advantage of it. For example 11-17 39.43-38 17-21 40.39-33 31-36 41.41-37 36-41! (here black can win a piece with ≡ 21-26? 42.38-32 27x38 43.33x42 36-41 44.44-39 41x32 45.42-37 32x41 46.46x37, but then it is easy for white to make a draw) ≡ 42.37-31 27x36 43.46x37 21-26 44.38-32 26-31 45.37x26 36-41 46.26-21 41-47 47.21-16 30-34 48.29x40 47x45 49.16-11! and it turns out that the black advantage is not enough to win. While pondering about these possibilities the Dutchman suddenly changed his mind to the fatal 28-33, and so Kolesov was the lucky winner of the 4th round.
In this position Tolchikov started a very successful strategy with 24-30! 35.35x24 19x30 36.40-34? This is already losing. Perhaps ≡ 36.40-35 14-19 37.35x24 19x30 38.33-29 would have given better chances for white to survive. ≡ 30-35! 37.33-29 13-19 38.38-33 8-13 39.43-38 14-20 40.31-26 20-25 41.36-31 19-24! May be Kudriavcev only looked at ≡ 9-14? 42.33-28 14-20 43.39-33! 20-24 44.29x20 25x14 45.34-29! with a draw after 19-24 46.29x9 13x4. But after this backwards exchange white quickly runs out of moves. ≡ 42.29x20 25x14 43.33-29 14-20 44.38-33 13-19 45.33-28 20-25 46.28-22?! White has to invest 3 pieces to force a break-through. 17x37 47.26x17 37x26 48.27-21 16x27 49.17-11 9-14! 50.11-7 14-20! 51.39-33 19-24 52.33-28 24x22 53.7-1 26-31 54.1x15 31-37 55.15-47 27-31 56.34-29 31-36 57.29-23 37-41 58.23-19 41-46 59.19-13 Tolchikov has played perfectly until now. The only problem for black is the weak piece on 22. But with 35-40! 60.13-8 40-45! he is in time to defend this piece, and the remaining 5 against 2 endgame is undoubtedly winning (although earlier in the tournament Vipulis did not manage to win a 5 against 2 in his game with Getmanski). But now black wasted time with ≡ 46-10? 60.13-8? (here ≡ 60.47-15! was a draw) ≡ 35-40? 61.8-2! 40-45 and the piece on 22 got lost: 62.47-33 22-27 63.33-38 10-32 64.38-49 45-50 65.2-24 32-5 66.49x16 36-41 67.16-43 41-47 68.24-30 25x34 69.43x30 5-14 70.30-34 47-24 71.34-45 24-33 72.45-12 14-19 73.12-34 19-32 74.34-18 =
In this position Kirzner played 20-25 40.29x20 25x34 41.40x29 17-21 42.20-14 21x43 43.14x12. An alternative plan was ≡ 9-14?! 40.30-25 (and not ≡ 40.40-34? 17-21 41.38-32 18-22! 42.27x18 20-25 43.29x9 4x22 B+) ≡ 17-21 41.38-32 3-8 Now white cannot afford to carry on with 42.40-34? due to 8-12 43.34-30 12-17 44.45-40 4-10 45.40-34 10-15 46.36-31 17-22 47.33-28 22x33 48.29x38 18-23 49.38-33 23-29! 50.34x23 19x39 51.30x10 15x4 52.25x14 B+. And so he must take the following combination instead: ≡ 42.27-22 18x38 43.33x42 24x33 44.37-31 26x48 45.40-34 48x30 46.35x2 33-39, which leaves black chances in the endgame. The game continued with ≡ 43-49 44.29-24 49-44 45.33-29 44-6 46.12-7 6-1 47.7-2 1x34 48.2-19 34-30 49.37-31 26x37 50.19x46 30x13 51.46-28 13-24 52.28-37 24-2 53.36-31 2-8 54.37-48 8-19 55.31-26 19-13 56.48-37 13-31 57.37-48 31-22 58.48-30 22-17 59.30-19?
17-39? Here Kirzner could have won using the prosaic ≡ 3-8! 60.19x2 16-21!! and the white king is caught in a web.
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