A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 54

06.08.2025

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. 271 White found a great draw. 1.FG3! FE3 2.AB6!! CA5 3.BC3 AB6! 4.CA5 ED2 5.AB6 DC1 6.BC7 ED4 7.CE3 CB8 8.GF4 EG3 9.HF4 AB6 10.FG5 BC5 11.GH6 ED4 12.HG5 FH4 13.HG7 ED6 14.GF8 DE5 15.FH6 DC3 16.HG7 ED4 17.GF6 HG3 18.FH4 GH2 19.HF2! Draw.

	Diagram No. 272 Black found a good defending plan. 1.GH4 (If 1.EF4, then CD6 2.ED2 DE3! 3.FB6 HG5 4.FH6 DC5 5.BD4 EH4, draw) 1… FG5 2.HF6 EG7 3.EF4 GF6 4.FE5 FG5 5.EC3 GF4! Draw.

	Diagram No. 273 (black to move) Black found a great draw. 1… ED6!! 2.HG3 HG7 3.CB2 GH6!! 4.BA3 GF4! 5.EE7 DF8 6.FE3 ED4! Draw.

	Diagram No. 274 White managed to find a defense. 1.BA3! CB4! 2.AC5 DB4 3.EF4!! ED6 4.CB2!! HG5! 5.FH6 BA3 6.GH4 AE3 7.HG5!! EF4!! (7… EC5 8.HG7, draw.) 8.GF6 FG1! 9.HG7!! FE3 10.CB4 AC3 11.GF8, draw.

	Diagram No. 275 (black to move) Black found a good path to a draw. 1… GF6 2.BC3 CD6 3.CB2!! GH4 4.EF2! FE5 5.ED4! Draw.