Member Games - Garry Hewitt

Garry Hewitt is a very good player. Graded at 132 he has to be below his actual playing strength. Play through the game below. Note how Garry takes on a good knight v Bad bishop, doubles his rooks on the only open file before exchanging these advantages for a win of a pawn. Thereafter his rooks dominate and the outside passed pawn proves decisive. Finally there is an instructive finish, which we will examine below the game.

The notes to the game are provided by Garry.

British U140, ?
Hewitt, Garry (132) vs. 111 (111)

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a b c d e f g h 0

(black to move) 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Bg5 c5 5. Nc3 Be7 6. e3 Nc6 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Bb5 Bd7 10. Nxd5 exd5 11. Rc1 cxd4 12. Bxc6 Bxc6 13. Nxd4 Qb4+ 14. Qd2 Qxd2+ 15. Kxd2 Rc8 16. Rc3 Kd7 17. Rhc1 g6 18. b4 a6 19. Nb3 Rc7 20. Nc5+ Kd6 21. Nxb7+ Rxb7 22. Rxc6+ Kd7 23. a3 Ra8 24. Rf6 Ke7 25. Rcc6 a5 26. Rb6 Raa7 27. Kc3 axb4+ 28. Kxb4 Rc7 29. Rfc6 Rd7 30. Ra6 Rab7+ 31. Kc3 Rb1 32. Kc2 Rf1 33. Rf6 h6 34. Rf4 Rc7+ 35. Kd2 Rcc1 36. Ke2 Rfe1+ 37. Kf3 Rc4 38. Raf6 Rxf4+ 39. Rxf4 Rc1 40. h4 f5 41. Ra4 Rc6 42. Ke2 Rc2+ 43. Kf1 Rb2 44. Ra6 Kf7 45. a4 Rb1+ 46. Ke2 Rb2+ 47. Kf3 Rc2 48. g3 Rc4 49. a5 d4 50. exd4 Rxd4 51. Ra8 Ra4 52. a6 Kf6 53. a7 Kf7 54. Rh8

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Options:
	- allow legal moves only;
	- use short algebraic notation;
movement/animation speed: (slow) (fast)
	- show legal moves;

 

Pawn promotion:
	- Queen
	- Rook
	- Bishop
	- Knight

After 54...Rxa7 55.Rh7+ White skewers the rook through the Black king.  This is vital endgame technique and needs to be remembered.

Lets take a look at the simplest form of this ending.



 This position is a book draw, as long as Black keeps his king on one of his 7 safe squares, shown below.

Black can shuffle his king between h7 and g7 and if White tries to advance his king to help the pawn then the Black rook can check from behind to frustrate White's winning chances. The point is that White no longer has his skewer trick, or a tempo gaining check.  So the draw is easy to defend for example:
1.Kf3 Kh7, 2.Ke4 Kg7 3.Kd5 Kh7, 4.Kc6 Kg7, 5.Kb7 Rb1+

Once White moves his king Black can either throw in a few more checks or return his rook to the a-file, there is no way for White to make progress.

From the pure form of these endings we have to try and calculate the difference we may see in an actual game.


here White plays 52.a6 and I would argue that after 52...Kg7 53.a7 we have the book draw.  However, White can increase his winning chances by delaying a7, then his plan should be

• walk his king to Ka7
• use the rook to cover the b-file to block checks
• Move the king to b7
• Advance the a-pawn

This plan is discussed by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht in their Fundamental chess endings.  Frustratingly they provide an advanced drawing technique for Black in the purest form of the position from a composition by J.Vancura in 1924

Black then has checks from the side to save him, but there are some tough-to-find moves in this defence.  Perhaps another time...

 

Options:
	- allow legal moves only;
	- use short algebraic notation;
movement/animation speed: (slow) (fast)
	- show legal moves;

 

Pawn promotion:
	- Queen
	- Rook
	- Bishop
	- Knight