Junior Chess Corner March 2009

The Chess Olympiad which was held in Germany in  November ’08 attracted over two hundred and fifty teams from all over the world.

 Sarah Cormican from Clarinbridge had the honour of playing for Ireland in the women’s event. The diagram above shows the ending of her game in the match against Japan. Sarah is playing Black. Seeing that per passed H pawn in a potential game winner she decided to exchange off to a King and Pawn ending, an idea that won the game. From the diagram play continued ~ 44 — RxD4 ch. 45 RXD4, RXD4 ch. 46 KXD4, H7-H5, 47 Ke3, Kb5. 48 Kf3. (This move, by the Japanese player loses. Kf4 draws). Kc4. 49 Kg3, A4. 50 Kh4, A3, 51 BXA3 BXA3. 52 KxH5, K03 and black wins. If white plays Kf4 on move 48 she captures the rook pawn in one move less and gets back in time to stop the other black pawn queening. Junior players should study this ending closely.