A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 52

04.06.2025

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. 261 (black to move) Black found a good defense. 1… CB4!! 2.GH4 DE5 3.EF4 EG3 4.HF2 FE5 5.FG3! ED4 6.CE5 BC3 7.DB4 AC3 8.EF6 CB2 9.FG7 BA1 10.GH8 FE7 11.HG7 ED6 12.GF4 AC3 13.FG5 DC5 14.GF6! CD2 15.CE3 AB2 16.EF4 BC1 17.FE5 CB2! Draw.

	Diagram No. 262 White found a beautiful draw. 1.FG3 HF2 2.GE3 BC5 3.BA3 EF6 4.HG3!! HG7 5.GH4 GH6! 6.EF4 FE5 7.HG5 EG3 8.GF6 GF2 9.FE7 DF8 10.BD6 FG1 11.DC7 GH2 12.CB8! FE7 13.BA7 HE5! 14.AB4!! EA1 15.BC5 AH8 16.AB8 EF6 17.AC7, a draw.

	Diagram No. 263 White found a good draw. 1.DE3 BA7 2.CD4! AB4 3.FE5! BA5 4.EG7 HF8 5.DB6 AC5 6.HG5! BC3 7.GF6 AB4 8.GF2 CD2 9.EC1 BC3 10.FE3 CB2 11.AB4 CA3 12.ED4 BA1 13.DE5, a draw.

	Diagram No. 264 Black found a good defense. 1.CB4 EF6! 2.ED4 CE3 3.FD4 HG5 4.BA5 DE5! 5.DC5 CD6! 6.CE7 FD6 7.AB4 GF4!! 8.BC5 DB4 9.AC3 FG3! 10.GH2 GF2 11.EG3 FG5, a draw.

	Diagram No. 265 (black to move) Black found a good draw. 1… FG5 2.HG3 GH4 3.ED2 DE5!! 4.BF4 DE3! 5.FD4 HF2, a draw.