A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 53

02.07.2025

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. 266 Black found a good draw. 1.FG5 CD4!! 2.EC5 GH6 3.CD6 EC5 4.GE7 FD6 5.DE3 DE5 6.EF4 EG3 7.HF2 HG5 8.FE3 GH4 9.EF4 AB4 10.CA5 CD4 11.AB4 HG3! Draw.

	Diagram No. 267 (black to move) Black found an easy draw. 1… AB6!! 2.FG5 FH4 3.BA5 DE5 4.AC7 CB4 5.AC5 ED6 6.CE7 EF4! Draw.

	Diagram No. 268 Black found a great draw. 1.FE5 ED6 2.EG7 HF8 3.HG3 DE5 4.DF6 GE7 5.ED4 ED6 6.FE3 HF2 7.EG1 FE7 8.GF2 EF6 9.FG3 DE5 10.DC5 FG5 11.GH4 GF4!! (Можно 11… EF4?!) 12.CD6 CB6 13.AC7 ED4, a draw.

	Diagram No. 269 White found a great draw. 1.ED6!! CE5 2.EF4 EG3 3.HF4 GH6 4.GF2 BC5 5.DB6 AC7 6.CB4! CD6 7.FE3, a draw.

	Diagram No. 270 Black found a good path to a draw. 1.FE5 DE7!! 2.EF6 GH4!! 3.FD8 HG5! 4.EF4! GE3 5.DF2 BB2 6.FG3, a draw.