Play chess online, free online chess games, chess clubs, chess league, board games, chess puzzles, chess games database, chess teams, free chess online, online games, chess games and more...

Tags: chess, play chess online, play chess online, chess, chess online, play chess, online backgammon

Chess Forum
ability-tw.com   << online chess - < chess - chess > - chess online >>
FromMessage
Posted by kansaspatzer
ability-tw.com

6/07/2008
14:03:34

Play online chess
Subject: Philidor Position?

Message:
Recently I studied the Philidor and Lucena Positions. Although the Lucena is straightforward enough, I understand the basics of the Philidor but am not sure about how to apply it in an actual game situation or when exactly it comes up. I just finished this game, and I think that around move 66 I missed a chance to utilize this drawing resource. Can anybody tell me if I did?

gameknot.com


Posted by bonsai
ability-tw.com

6/07/2008
15:23:12

Play online chess


Message:
You are right you reached Philidor's position (or something very much like it) several times and could have drawn easily.

The position 60.Rxf4 should be an easy draw, not sure why you gave away your f6 pawn, even so it was all still easily drawn, because your king was on the promotion square. With 67...Ra6+ you nicely set up a third (sixth) rank defence (=Philidor's position) which easily holds the draw.

69...Ra7 is still a draw, but why bother with taking the rook of the 6th rank?? Just wait until his pawn has advanced far enough to not give his king any place to hide from checks and then go to the first rank and check him.

In the same sense 71...Ra6 was the right move. 71...Ra5 looses - white could have played 72.Kf6, but he missed that, after 72.Rh7 you could once more have held it with 72...Ra6.

After missing that the defence became more complicated. 75...Re1 would still have drawn for black, but it's harder to do. 75...Kf8 looses. However white doesn't really know what he's doing 77.Ra5 is a pointless move that throws away the win, the rook is great on the 8th rank and one should just play 77.Kd6 to advance the pawn (and if Rd1+ then Ke7).

After 86...Kf7 you've once more got a nice third rank defence, but you once more go for the wrong kind of continuation with 87...Ra5 and this time white punishes it properly and doesn't let the win slip away, again.


Posted by kansaspatzer
ability-tw.com

6/08/2008
02:04:22

Play online chess


Message:
Thanks for the detailed analysis. A pure Philidor position, then, is reached when the pawn is on the sixth rather than fifth rank? That is what had thrown me off - once I was at move 70 or so, I assumed that I had already missed my chance.
———
Chess: A pawn endgame dilemma — Should White force a pawn endgame? It's a tricky decision... RB: My first reaction is: no, White should definitely not exchange. After 1 Nf4 Bxf4 2 Kxf4 Kd5 it seems to me as though Black is definitely better. But what else does White have? I don't want to drop the king back and allow the black king to invade. I could try 1 a4, but after 1…b6 I'm back to my original dilemma. It makes me nervous, but let's see what happens after 1 Nf4. Black takes, obviously, 1…Bxf4 2 Kxf4 Kd5. Now what? As long as ...
Posted by marinvukusic
ability-tw.com

6/08/2008
02:31:49

Play online chess
Wikipedia is your friend

Message:
en.wikipedia.org

Much better than asking on a forum IMHO
———
For Want of a Draw, a Player Loses the U.S. Chess Title — Yury Shulman forgot the old saying that a tie is better than a loss during his quest to win the United States Chess Championship last week. And that opened the door for Gata Kamsky to capture his second straight title. Kamsky and Shulman met in the tournament final, as they did last year, when four competitors competed in round robin play. Kamsky and Shulman emerged as the top scorers of that round and met in an Armageddon game, in which White has more time but Black only has to draw to be declared the winner. No Armageddon was needed at this year’s final, which ended Wednesday in St. Louis, because Kamsky won the first game and the second was drawn. The first game would ...
Posted by bonsai
ability-tw.com

6/08/2008
02:49:14

Play online chess


Message:
The position with your king on/next to the promotion square, your rook on the 6th rank as black (or 3rd rank as white) and his pawn on the 5th rank is what is called Philidor's position (or the third rank defence). The way to draw it is to keep the rook on the 6th (3rd) rank until he advances the pawn beyond to the 6th rank, then the rook goes to the first (8th) rank and keeps checking the king.
———
Yang-Fan Zhou breaks English international master drought — England used to produce one or two teenage international masters a year in the 1970s and 1980s, the golden era when the Olympiad team advanced to world No2 behind the Soviet Union. Now Russia and India lead in junior chess while, since David Howell became a grandmaster in 2007, the only new English GMs and IMs have been adults. Yang-Fan Zhou, 16, broke the drought last week when he scored his final IM norm at Coulsdon. It followed Zhou's eye-catching 9/9 at Brighton in February and the International Chess Federation (Fide) should formally award him his IM title in a few weeks' time. The sixth-former from Whitgift School in Croydon has made an 80-point surge up the world chess ratings, reflecting ...
Posted by ionadowman
ability-tw.com

6/08/2008
17:54:26

Play online chess
marinvukusic -

Message:
-... but asking on the forum is much more fun. bonsai's responses look pretty good to me, at that.
Cheers,
Ion


———
Kamsky Defends U.S. Chess Title — It was deja vu all over again for Gata Kamsky as he carved through the field of his opponents with relative ease and defended his title at the 2011 U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis. Miss, this week. The 36-year-old world championship candidate defeated GM Yuri Shulman, 35, in the final match 1.5 - 0.5. From the $170,000 total prize fund, Kamsky brings home $42,000, Shulman gets $30,000. In the battle for third place between two 19-year old chess players, GM-elect Samuel Shankland beat GM Robert Hess 2-1. The top four chess players qualified from two 8-player preliminary groups. The field included 14 grandmasters and two International Masters. The 2011 Women's Chess Championship went to ...
Posted by marinvukusic
ability-tw.com

6/09/2008
04:35:02

Play online chess
Yeah, but...

Message:
... Wikipedia has really excellent chess articles, much better than anything any of us might write on the forum. So that should be the first resource IMHO.

Of course if the purpose of the topic is fun that forum is better :)
———
Kamsky to Defend Title in Finals of U.S. Chess Championship — Over the weekend, experience triumphed over youth at the United States Chess Championships. Robert Hess and Samuel Shankland, two 19-year-old chess grandmasters, were eliminated in the semifinals of the championship, which is being held in St. Louis, by older, seasoned former chess champions. Shankland lost to Gata Kamsky, 36, the defending champion, while Hess was beaten by Yuri Shulman, 35 (who will be 36 on Friday), the 2008 champion. In a reprise of last year’s final, Kamsky and Shulman will play for the title on Tuesday and Wednesday. The winner will earn $40,000, while the runner-up will receive $30,000. Hess and Shankland will play for third place, which ...
Posted by ionadowman
ability-tw.com

6/09/2008
12:57:41

Play online chess
Marin...

Message:
... I certainly have no quarrel with the Wikipedia article(s) in question, having followed up the link you gave earlier. And, aware of these now, one has an easily accessible (and readable) on-line resource for the questions raised here.

But maybe I shouldn't have said "fun" - rather that a discussion of the question is a more ... social way of exploring the topic. Here, it is a more engaging way of studying this kind of endgame.
Cheers,
Ion