A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 33

It is not always possible to come out of the opening with the best position and at the end to fight for the victory, you also have to defend. Sometimes it seems that the position is already ‘impossible to save’, after a while you will have to give up, but there is the only plan that still leads to a cherished draw.

The art of defense in the draughts game is certainly one of the indicators of the player’s skill. We express our gratitude to Yuri Kirillov for the book of paradoxically drawish positions ‘Искусство защиты’. Perhaps in this book you will find the game that was ‘not saved’.

	Diagram No. 166 (black to move) 1… HG5!  2.FH6 DE5  3.FG3! (3.BC5 EF4  4.CB6 FG3  5.AB4 GH2  6.BC5 BA7!! Draw)  3… HF2  4.EG3 ED4  5.GF4 BA7!  6.BC5 DB6  7.AB4 BA5  8.BC5 AB6!  9.CA7 AB4! Draw.
	Diagram No. 167 (black to move) White have found a draw. 1… FE5  2.GH4 DC5  3.HG5 BA3  4.DE3 EF4!  5.GF6!! FB4  6.FG7, draw.
	Diagram No. 168  Black have found an easy draw. 1.GH2 (If 1.FE3 AB4!  2.CA5 GF6, then a draw)  1… GF6  2.FG5 FE5  3.GH6 EF4  4.HG7 AB4!!  5.CA5 CD4! Draw.
	Diagram No. 169 (black to move) Black have found an easy defense. 1… HG5!!  2.FG3 GH4!  3.GF4 BA7! Draw.
	Diagram No. 170 (black to move) 1… BC7!!  2.CB4! CD6  3.BA5 DE5  4.AC7 EC3  5.ED4! CE5  6.EF2 GF4!!  7.FG3! FE3  8.CD8 HG5!  9.DA5 ED4  10.AB6 DC3  11.BG1 FE5! Draw.