Chess Study by Kosteniuk

Inspired by today's post about W. J. Baird I had a look one more time at my game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the 2008 Paris Open.

During this game I created a very special idea but alas my opponent chose another continuation and at the end I lost that game. I realise now that simply adding a pair of pawns will be enough to make a real nice study out of this game.

So here is the position of my study:


Kosteniuk, 2009 (inspired by the game Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime - Kosteniuk, Alexandra, Paris, 2008)

Black starts and White draws.

(in the original game against Maxime, there were no pawns on the a-file.)

Here is the solution to this study:

1...h1=Q!

The only move for Black here since after 1...Rxc1 2.Qf4+ Kh5 3.Qxh2+ Kg5 4.Qf4+ Kh5 5.Qxf6, White will be better since he will be able to win the pawn on a6 later on and create a very dangerous passed pawn

2.Kd4+! Rxc1

Black even loses after 2. ... Kh5?? since after 3. Qcf4! Rd1+ 4. Kc5 Rc8+ (or Qg1+) White king escapes to d6 5. Kd6 and Black has no defense from Qh8#

3.Qg3+! Kf5

After 3...Kh6 4.Qh3+! Kg7 ( 4...Qxh3 stalemate) 5.Qd7+ Kh6 6.Qh3+ It will be a draw by perpetual check or a stalemate

4.Qh3+ Kf4 5.Qh4+ Kf3

( 5...Qxh4 stalemate)

6.Qh3+ Ke2

( 6...Kf2 7.Qh4+ Kg2 ( if 7. ... Kg1 then 8.Qf2+ Kxf2 stalemate) 8. Qg4 Kf1 9. Qe2+ Kg1 10. Qf2+ Kxf2 stalemate)

7.Qe3+

( 7.Qg2+!? is also possible)
Kd1 8.Qd2+ Kxd2 stalemate

You can watch the chesskillertips video podcast with my game against Vachier-Lagrave in mp4 or flash format on my chesskillertips podcast web-page.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com

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