Vester Wilson (2047)
Don Vandivier (1873)
Motor City Open, Round 7
Warren, November 2003

Notes by Don Vandivier

An interesting endgame game came up in the last round of the 2003 Motor City Open. I had botched my winning chances earlier in this game and now was content to take a draw. However, my opponent was not cooperating. He was indeed 2 pawns up, but oh what terrible pawns they were! Here’s the critical position after White’s move 53.Rb5

Black to Move

Now I really think that Black can draw after 53…Bxd4 54.Rd5+ Kc6 Rxd4. However, I was certain I would not be able to queen my f-pawn and because White has so many pawns the normal rook and pawn vs rook ending may not be valid here, even though all the pawns are tripled. Therefore after a deep think I played:

53.Kd6

Vester pounced on the move with: 54.Nf5+ Forking my king and rook. At this time there were half a dozen spectators watching our game and some of them looked at me with disgust! But I had not missed this move and play continued:

54…Ke6 55.Nxg3 fxg3

And now we have this interesting position:

White to Move

If you study this position you will discover that THERE IS NO WAY THE ROOK CAN STOP THE PAWN (short of losing the rook). The rook can’t go to b8 and then g8 because the bishop covers b8, and it can’t go to b7 and then g7 cause the bishop covers g7. So Vester played:

56.Rb6+

And of course I played:

56…Kf5

Stopping the rook from getting to g5. Play continued:

57.Ra6 g2 58.Ra1 Bd4 59.Kd3 g1Q 60.Rxg1 Bxg1 61.Kc4 Ke6 62.Kb5

Notice how the bishop keeps White’s king from cutting off the Black king!

62…Kd7 63.Ka6 Kc7 ½-½

And there is absolutely nothing White can do because Black’s pieces control the important b6 square. DRAW!