A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 34

31.05.2023

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. 171 White have found a good draw. 1.CB4 ED6 2.DC3 DE7 3.CD4 EC3 4.BD2 DE5 5.DC3 EF6 6.CB4 CD6 7.ED4 CE3! 8.BC5 DB4 9.AC5 EF2 10.CB6! FG1 11.BC7 FG5 12.CD8 GF4 13.DC7, draw.

	Diagram No. 172 (black to move) White have found a good draw. 1… CB4 2.AB2 BD2 3.EC3 DC5 4.BA3 CD4 5.GH4!! DB2 6.AC1 AB4 7.CB2! ED4 8.BA3 BC3 9.HG5 CD2 10.GF6 DE1 11.HG7 FH6 12.FE7, draw.

	Diagram No. 173 (black to move) White have found a defense. 1… DE5 2.DC5 GH4 (If 2… ED4, then 3.CD6 DF2 4.EG3 GH4 5.DC7 HF2 6.CD8 FE7! 7.DE3! FD4 8.AB2 DE3 9.BC3 EF2 10.CD4, draw) 3.ED4 EC3 4.DB4 HG3 5.AB2 FE5 6.BC3 GH2 7.BA5 FE7 8.EF2, draw.

	Diagram No. 174 White have found a good draw. 1.CB4!! CD4 2.BA5 DC3 3.FE3! Easy, but this position is often lost by white.

	Diagram No. 175 White have found a good defense. 1.EF4!! AB6!! (If 1… FE5, then 2.CD2 EG3 3.HF2 DE5 4.FE3!! ED6 5.HG7! Draw) 2.FE5 DF4 (If 2… FD4, then 3.GF6 EG5 4.HF6 DE3 5.FG7 DE5! 6.GH8 EF4 7.HC3! FG3 8.CD2 EF2 9.DE1 BC5 10.CB2, draw) 3.GE3 BC5 (If 3… ED6, then 4.CD2 DC5! 5.DC3 FE5! 6.EF4 EG3 7.HF2 BA5 8.FE3 CB4 9.CD4 BA3 10.DC5 AB2 11.ED6, draw) 4.CD2 CB4 5.ED4 BA3 6.DC5 AB2 7.CB6 BC1 8.BA7 CF4 9.AB8, draw. The ending is drawish.