A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 51

07.05.2025

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. 256 (black to move) Black with precise game make a draw. 1… HG5! 2.DE3 ED6 3.CE7 DF6 4.GF4 AB6 5.FH6 BA5! 6.BC5 FE5 7.CD6 EC5 8.ED4 CB6 9.DE5 FG7! 10.HF8 BC5, a draw.

	Diagram No. 257 (black to move) As in the previous diagram black with precise game make a draw. 1… DC7 2.BA5 FG7!! 3.DC3 FG5 4.FE3 GF6 5.CD4 CD6 6.CE7 FD6 7.AB6 AC5 8.DB6 HG3 9.FH2 GF4 10.EG5 HF4, a draw.

	Diagram No. 258 (black to move) 1… HG5 2.FH6 AB6 3.GF2 DE7 4.FE3 EF6 5.EF4 DE5 6.FD6 FG5 7.HF4 BC5! Draw.

	Diagram No. 259 Black managed to make a draw with precise moves. 1.CD4 EC3 2.BD2 DC5! 3.GH2! FG3! 4.HF4 CD4 5.FG3 HF2 6.EG3 DE3 7.DC3 EG5 8.CD4 GH4 9.GF4 HG5 10.FH6 HG3, a draw.

	Diagram No. 260 1.BC5!! DD2 2.EC1 BA7 3.CD2 AB6 4.DC3 BC5 5.DB6 AC7 6.CD4 CB6 (6… CD6 7.AB4!! Draw.) 7.AB4, a draw.