A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 49

05.03.2025

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. 246 (black to move) Black have found a great draw. 1… GF6! (the only move) 2.AB6 HG5!! 3.BD4 AB6 4.FH6 DE5 5.DC5 BF2 6.EG3 FE7!! (the only move) 7.AB2 ED6 8.BC3 DC5 9.CB4 CD4 10.BA5 DC3 11.AB6 CD2 12.BC7 DE1 13.GH4 EF4 14.CD8 FG3! 15.DG5 EF2. Draw.

	Diagram No. 247 (black to move) In a bad position black have found a good defending plan. 1… CD6! 2.GH2 DC5 3.DB6 AC5 4.CB4 CA3 5.HG3 ED4 6.EC5 FE5 7.CB6! GF6 8.BC7 ED4 9.CD8 DC3 10.DH4 CB2 11.HF6 BA1 12.FH8 FE7 13.HG7 ED6 14.GF4 AC3 15.FG5 DC5 16.GF6 CD2 17.CE3 AB2 18.EF4 BC1 19.FE5 CB2! Draw.

	Diagram No. 248 (black to move) Black have been thinking that they have an advantage in this position! 1… FE5 2.GH2 EG3 3.HF4 EF6 4.DC3!! FE5 5.FG5!! HF6 6.AB6 CD4 7.EG5 AC5 8.GH6 EF4 9.HG7 FG3 10.GF8 GF2 11.FB4 FG1 12.BD6 GF2 13.DH2 FG1 14.AB4 GB6! 15.HG1 BA5! Drawish Sargin’s position.

	Diagram No. 249 (black to move) Black have a very bad position, but ‘when there is no good moves, seek for the sacrifice’. 1… EF4!! (the only move) 2.EG5 FE5 3.FG3 CD4!! 4.CB4 (If 4.GF4, then DB2! 5.FB8 BA1! Draw.) 4… CB6! 5.BC5 BA5! 6.CE3 AB4 7.GF6! EG7 8.ED4 BA3 9.DC5 AB2 10.CB6 BA1 11.BA7 AE5! 12.GH2 (12.AB8 EH2 13.GF2 ED6 14.BH8 HG1, draw) 12… EA1. Draw.

	Diagram No. 250 White have found a good defending plan. 1.AB6!! (the only move) CA7 2.CB4 EG3 3.HF4 AB6 4.ED4 BA5 5.BC5 DB4 6.AC5 DE7 7.DE5 EF6 8.EG7 HF8 9.FG5!! FE7 (the only move) 10.GF6 EG5 11.CD6. Draw.