A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 50

09.04.2025

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. 251 Black have found a defending plan. 1.FE5 AB4!! 2.CA5 FE7 3.ED6 CC3 4.AC7 ED6 5.CE5 CD4 6.EC5 CD2, a draw.

	Diagram No. 252 Black have found a great defending plan. 1… EF6! 2.FE5 CD6 3. EG7 HF8 4.EF2 BC7 5.FG3 GH4 6.GF4 FG7 7.AB2 GF6. 8.BC3 CB6 9.FG5 DE5! 10.GE7 EF4 11.EG5 HD8, a draw.

	Diagram No. 253 In a bad position white have found a good defence. 1.CD6! HG5 2.FH6 HG3 3.EF4! GC7 4.DC5! BA7! 5.DE3 FE7 6.CD4 CD6 7.EF4 DB4 8.FE5 FG5 9.HF4 BA3 10.FG5 AB4 11.EF6 ED6 12.DC5! DE5 13.FD4 BD6 14.GH6 AB2 15.HG7, a draw.

	Diagram No. 254 (black to move) White have found a great defence. 1… FE5 2.DF6 EG5 3.HG3 GH4 4.GF4 BC5 5.FE3 CA3 6.ED4 DE7 7.DE3, a draw.

	Diagram No. 255 (black to move) Black have found an easy way to draw. 1… FG5!! 2.HF4 EF6 3.FG3 FG7 4.GH4 GH6, a draw.