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A beautiful bishop ending from the National Premier

by Sagar Shah - 30/11/2016

Aravindh Chithambaram and Karthikeyan Murali are leading the National Premier 2016 with one round to go. The tournament report will soon follow. In this article Sagar Shah shows you a beautiful endgame played by Aravindh. It was the eleventh round victory over GM Tejas Bakre. The richness of the variations is astonishing and I invite you to be critical about my analysis. Let us together try to reach the truth in the position.

National Premier 12: Aravindh and Karthikeyan lead before the final round

Rank after Round 12

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg Club/City Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 8 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2565 T N 9,5 1,0 56,50 7,0
2 11 GM Karthikeyan Murali IND 2530 T N 9,5 0,0 57,00 6,0
3 12 GM Adhiban B. IND 2666 PSPB 8,0 0,5 47,00 3,0
4 5 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2689 PSPB 8,0 0,5 42,75 4,0
5 9 IM Ravi Teja S. IND 2384 RSPB 7,5 0,0 40,00 5,0
6 6 GM Laxman R.R. IND 2387 RSPB 7,0 0,0 37,50 3,0
7 4 GM Bakre Tejas IND 2450 I A 6,5 1,5 39,50 2,0
8 7 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2494 PSPB 6,5 1,0 37,25 1,0
9 2 IM Nitin S. IND 2415 RSPB 6,5 0,5 34,50 5,0
10 3   Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad IND 2316 A P 5,0 0,0 26,75 3,0
11 1 IM Abhishek Kelkar IND 2389 MAH 4,5 0,0 25,00 2,0
12 10 GM Sriram Jha IND 2426 L I C 3,0 0,0 12,00 0,0
13 14 FM Praneeth Surya K IND 2388 TEL 1,0 0,0 4,50 1,0
14 13 IM Mishra Neeraj-Kumar IND 2307 JHAR 0,5 0,0 3,00 0,0

After beating Adhiban with the black pieces, Aravindh showed another powerful performance by getting the better of Vidit Gujrathi in the twelfth round

Aravindh Chithambaram and Murali Karthikeyan are leading the tournament with 9.5/12. This is not at all a breaking news. After all Aravindh and Karthikeyan are two of the most talented youngsters in India. However, what is surprising is that they are 1.5 points ahead of the top two seeds Vidit Gujrathi and B. Adhiban. How did this happen? Well, a detailed report on this will follow soon. As of now I would like to focus on a beautiful bishop endgame that took place in the eleventh round between Aravindh Chithambaram with the white pieces and Tejas Bakre with Black.

GM Tejas Bakre was on the receiving end of some brilliant endgame play by Aravindh 
This tweet by R.B. Ramesh made me dig deeper

As always I like to test the readers before they dive into the huge sea of variations. Here I present to you some test positions which you must try to solve before checking the analysis.

Test yourself

Aravindh has sacrificed a pawn with g5!? How should Black react?

White has two options here Kg4 or f6. Which one would you choose and why?
42.b5!! was a classy move by Aravindh. Now Black has an extremely important decision to make. Will you take it with your a pawn or the c pawn?
Tejas took the bishop here with ...bxc6. Was this the correct choice? If not, then what is the best move?

Detailed Analysis

I tried my best to be as meticulous as possible with the analysis. But when analyzing such a complex endgame it is difficult to be error-free. Hence, I recommend you to share your opinion in the comments section below if you found any errors. You can also download this game by pressing on the save button on the top right corner of the replayer and then go through the analysis in ChessBase 13/14.

[Event "54th ch-IND Premier 2016"]
[Site "Lucknow IND"]
[Date "2016.11.28"]
[Round "11.3"]
[White "Aravindh, Chithambaram VR"]
[Black "Bakre, Tejas"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D17"]
[WhiteElo "2565"]
[BlackElo "2450"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "95"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Qc7 8.
g3 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Bf4 Nfd7 11. Bg2 f6 12. O-O g5 13. Nxe5 gxf4 14. Nxd7
Qxd7 15. Qc1 Bd6 16. a5 a6 17. Ra4 fxg3 18. hxg3 O-O 19. Ne4 Rad8 20. Rd1 Qe7
21. Nxd6 Rxd6 22. Rxd6 Qxd6 23. Rf4 Bg6 24. Qc3 Rf7 25. Rd4 Qe6 26. Qd2 Kg7 27.
b4 Re7 28. e3 Bf5 29. e4 Bg6 30. f4 Qb3 31. Kh2 Be8 32. Rd6 Qf7 33. g4 Rd7 34.
Qd4 Rxd6 35. Qxd6 Qd7 {Black offers a queen exchange which cannot be avoided.}
36. e5 {IM Srinath Narayanan later wrote to us saying, "The complications
after 36.e5 are indeed worth studying, but I would have preferred 36.Qxd7 Bd7
37.Kg3 with a technical advantage and excellent chances of winning the game."}
(36. Qxd7+ Bxd7 37. Kg3 $16) 36... Qxd6 37. exd6 {[#] This is the endgame
position that we are most interested in.} Kf7 (37... f5 {Trying to gain some
space can be an idea, but doesn't really work.} 38. gxf5 Kf6 39. Be4 {Overall
Black is in trouble because the white king will penetrate via c5 and b6.} Bd7
40. Kg3 Be8 41. Kf3 Bd7 42. Ke3 h5 43. Kd4 h4 44. Kc5 h3 45. Kb6 Bxf5 (45... h2
46. Kxb7 Bxf5 47. Bh1 $18) 46. Bf3 $18) 38. f5 $1 {Of course stopping Ke6 was
important.} (38. Be4 Ke6 39. Bxh7 Kxd6 40. Be4 c5 $1 $11) 38... Kf8 {This move
prepares Bf7 which is important to stop Bf1-c4-e6.} (38... Bd7 39. Kg3 Ke8 {
The king remains close to the bishop so that White cannot win with the
manoeuvre Bf1-c4-e6. However, this allows the white king to penetrate via h4.}
(39... h5 $2 40. gxh5 Bxf5 41. Bh3 $18) (39... Kg7 40. Kf4 {g5 is a threat in
this position.} Kh6 (40... h6 $2 41. Ke4 Kf7 42. Kd4 Ke8 43. Kc5 Kd8 44. Kb6
Kc8 45. Bf1 $1 $18 {The bishop goes from c4 to e6 and finishes off the game.})
41. Bf1 $18 {Once again Bc4-e6 will not be easy to meet.}) 40. Bf1 $1 $18 {
the normal idea of Bc4-e6 wins.}) 39. Kg3 Bf7 (39... h6 {What happens if Black
stopped the move g5.} 40. Kf2 $1 (40. Kh4 $2 Bf7 $1 (40... Kf7 $2 41. Bf1 Kf8
42. Bc4 $18) 41. b5 $5 {Just like in the game, this is the last possibility
for White to breakthrough, and he must do something as Ke8-d7 will just lose a
pawn. But it doesn't work.} axb5 $1 (41... cxb5 42. Bxb7 Ke8 (42... b4 43. Bxa6
b3 44. Bd3 b2 45. Bb1 Ke8 46. a6 Kd7 47. a7 Bd5 48. Kh5 Kxd6 49. Kxh6 Ke5 50.
Kg6 $18 {g5 followed by f6 is a big threat which cannot be stopped.}) 43. Bxa6
Kd7 $1 44. Bxb5+ Kxd6 $11) 42. Bxc6 bxc6 (42... b4 43. Bxb7 b3 44. Be4 b2 45.
a6 Bd5 46. Bb1 Ke8 47. Kh5 Kd7 48. Kg6 $18) 43. a6 c5 44. a7 Bd5 45. Kh5 c4 $1
{It is important to push this pawn, so that at the end of the variation, the
queen can go to g5.} (45... b4 $2 46. Kxh6 b3 47. g5 b2 48. d7 Ke7 49. gxf6+
Kxd7 50. f7 b1=Q 51. f8=Q $11) 46. Kg6 c3 47. Kxf6 Ke8 48. Kg7 c2 49. f6 c1=Q
50. f7+ Kd7 51. f8=Q Qg5+ $19) 40... Bf7 41. Ke3 Ke8 42. Kd4 Kd7 43. Kc5 {
White king reaches in time and we see why the move h6 was a waste of time.} Kc8
44. Be4 Bg8 45. Bd3 Kd7 46. Kb6 Bd5 (46... Kc8 47. d7+ Kxd7 48. Kxb7 $18) 47.
Kxb7 c5+ 48. Kb6 c4 49. Bb1 $18) 40. g5 $1 {Aravindh is alert and sacrifices
the pawn to get a passed f-pawn.} fxg5 $2 (40... Ke8 $1 {This move is another
critical option in the position. White has many ideas but none of them give
him the full point.} 41. b5 $5 (41. Be4 $2 {threatening g6 is a bad move
because of} fxg5 $1 (41... Kd7 $6 42. g6 hxg6 43. fxg6 Bxg6 $1 (43... Bg8 $2
44. Kf4 Kxd6 45. Bf5 (45. Ke3 Ke5 46. Bc2 f5) 45... c5 46. bxc5+ Kxc5 47. Bc8
Kb5 48. Kf5 Kxa5 49. Be6 $18) 44. Bxg6 Kxd6 45. Bd3 c5 46. b5 axb5 47. Bxb5 c4
48. Bxc4 Kc5 $11) 42. Kg4 h6 43. b5 cxb5 44. Bxb7 b4 45. Bxa6 Kd7 46. Bd3 Kxd6
$19 {Black wins this endgame.}) (41. gxf6 Kd7 42. Kf4 Kxd6 $11 {There doesn't
really seem to be a way in which White can win here.}) 41... cxb5 $1 (41...
axb5 $2 42. Bxc6+ bxc6 43. a6 Bd5 44. a7 c5 45. gxf6 $18) 42. Bxb7 b4 43. Bxa6
Kd7 44. Bd3 Kxd6 45. a6 Kc7 46. g6 hxg6 47. fxg6 Bxg6 48. Bxg6 Kb6 $11) 41. Kg4
$2 {Objectively this is not the best move because Black can wriggle out with a
draw. However, if Aravindh wouldn't have played this we would have been
deprived of some excellent ideas.} (41. f6 $1 {Why didn't Aravindh make this
obvious move? It seems like a completely winning one because the bishop will
come to h3 and prevent Ke8-d7.} Ke8 42. Bh3 Bd5 (42... h5 43. Bc8 Bc4 44. Bxb7
Bb5 45. Kf3 $22) (42... Kd8 43. Kg4 h6 (43... Be6+ 44. Kxg5 Bxh3 45. f7 $18)
44. Kf5 $18) 43. Bc8 h5 44. Bxb7 Kd7 45. Bxa6 Kxd6 46. Bd3 Ke5 47. a6 Kxf6 48.
a7 c5 49. bxc5 h4+ 50. Kh2 g4 51. Bf1 h3 52. Bb5 Ba8 53. c6 $18) 41... h6 42.
b5 $3 {This move doesn't win as yet. But it is a beautiful idea. Black has a
very tricky choice to make. Capture with the 'a' or the 'c' pawn.} axb5 {
This also seems to be sufficient for a draw.} (42... cxb5 {should also be
sufficient for a draw.} 43. Bxb7 Ke8 (43... b4 44. Bxa6 b3 45. Bd3 Bd5 46. a6
Kf7 47. a7 b2 (47... Bc6 48. Bc4+ $18) 48. d7 Ke7 49. f6+ Kxd7 50. Kh5 Ke8 {
Threatening Kg6-g7 or Kxh6-g7.} 51. Kxh6 $18) 44. Bxa6 (44. Bc6+ Kd8 45. Bxb5
axb5 46. a6 b4 47. a7 Bd5 48. f6 Ke8 49. Kf5 b3 50. Kg6 b2 51. Kg7 b1=Q 52. f7+
Kd7 53. f8=Q Qb2+ 54. Kg6 $11) 44... Kd7 45. Bxb5+ Kxd6 $11 {What exactly is
going on over here? It seems as if Black can hold a draw as it is not easy for
White to make progress. The king will stop the a-pawn and the bishop will take
care of the f-pawn.}) 43. Bxc6 bxc6 $2 {The final error of the game. The
finish is very nice.} (43... b4 44. Bxb7 b3 45. a6 b2 46. Be4 Bd5 47. Bb1 Kf7
48. a7 Bc6 {was the variation that IM Saravanan mentioned on Twitter. He
thought it was a draw and GM Lalith Babu felt that it was a win. I think Sara
was right as after} 49. Ba2+ Kf6 50. d7 Ke7 51. f6+ Kxd7 52. Kh5 g4 $1 {
With this counter sacrifice Black is able to defend.} (52... Ke8 53. Kxh6 Kf8
54. Kxg5 $18) 53. Kxg4 (53. Kg6 g3 54. f7 g2 $11) 53... Bd5 54. f7 Ke7 (54...
Bxa2 55. a8=Q b1=Q 56. Qe8+ Kc7 57. Qe5+ Kd7 58. f8=Q $18) 55. Bxd5 b1=Q 56.
a8=Q Qg1+ $11 {It's not so easy to wriggle out of the perpetual checks.}) 44.
a6 Bd5 45. a7 c5 46. f6 {Now the threat is d7.} Ke8 (46... Kf7 47. d7 $18) 47.
Kf5 $1 b4 48. Kg6 {White reaches the finish line first!} (48. Kg6 b3 49. a8=Q+
Bxa8 50. f7+ Kd7 (50... Kf8 51. d7 $18) 51. f8=Q b2 52. Qg7+ Kxd6 53. Qxb2 $18)
1-0

 

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The analysis of Aravindh vs Tejas Endgame was very dense and complex. Sometimes following such detailed analysis is not easy. ChessBase 14 highlights the variation from the Notation that you are playing through on the board. As you can see on the right hand side the current variation is highlighted. This helps you to follow complex variations with ease.

 

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Follow the last round of National Premier at 14.30 hours on 30th November.