A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 35

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. 176 White have found the easiest defence. 1.FE5!! DB4  2.DC3 BD2  3.EC3 FG7  4.CB4 GF6  5.EG7 HF6  6.BA5 HG3  7.AB6 ED6  8.BA7 FE5  9.GH2, draw.
	Diagram No. 177 (black to move) 1… FE5!!  2.FG5 HF4  3.EG5 EF4  4.GE3 DE5  5.BA3 AB4  6.CA5 ED4, draw.
	Diagram No. 178  White have found a good defence. 1.GF2 HG7  2.HG3! GF4  3.GH4 FG3  4.HG5!! HF4  5.FH4 FE3  6.HG5! Draw.
	Diagram No. 179 (black to move) 1… HG5!! 2.CD4 CD6  3.DB6 AC5  4.GF4 CD4  5.FH6 DC3. Draw.
	Diagram No. 180 White have found an easy draw. 1.BC5!! BA5  2.FE3 FG3  3.EF4 GE5  4.DF6 EG5  5.DE3 DE7  6.CD4 EF6  7.EF4 GE3  8.DF2 FE5  9.FE3, draw.