A fragment from the book by Y. Kirillov ‘Искусство защиты’. Part 56

01.10.2025

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. 281 White found a good defence. 1.AB4! GH6 2.DC3! DE7 3.DE5 HG5 4.FH6 DF4 5.FE3 FD2 6.CE1 ED6 7.BA5 BC5 8.HG3! Draw.

	Diagram No. 282 Black managed to find a defence. 1.HG5!! FH4 2.EF2 CD4 3.AB4 HG5!! 4.FH6 DE5! Draw.

	Diagram No. 283 (black to move) White managed to find a defence. 1… AB4 2.CB6 AC5 3.DB6 FG5 4.AC5 GH4 5.CD6 HD4 6.DC7 BD6 7.BA7 DC3 8.AB8 DC5 9.BA7 CB4 10.FE5 CB2 11.ED6 BC3 12.AB6 BC1 13.DC7. Draw.

	Diagram No. 284 (black to move) Black found a good draw. 1… DE7!! 2.BC3 EF6 3.CD2 AB2!! 4.CA1 ED4 5.AB2!! DE3 6.DC3 EG5 7.CD4 DC5 8.DB6 BC7 9.BD8 GH4 10.DG5 HF2 11.GE3 HD2, draw.

	Diagram No. 285 Black found a defending plan. 1.BC5 DB4 2.AC5 GF6 3.GH2! CD6 4.CE7 FD8 5.HG3 HF2 6.EG3 GH4 7.GF4 BC7 8.DE3 CD6 9.ED4 DC7 10.CD2 (If 10.CB2, then CB6 11.BA3 DC5 12.DE5 BA5 13.EF6 CD4 14.FG7 DE3, draw) HG3!! 11.FH2 CB6. Draw.