Today Ian Nepomniachtchi (2722), a 20 year old GM from Bryansk Russia, won the Russian Championship in a high pressure Sicilian Najdorf against Sergei Karjakin (2760) with Amageddon rules (6 minutes for White vs 5 for Black who had draw odds). Karjakin missed the game winning move 18. Rg1 and ended up going into a drawing endgame up the exchange. As soon as the pawns were off the board, Nepomniachtchi displaying perfect endgame technique constructed a fortress by marching his king to h1 (light square) and used his dark square bishop to defend against mate. With only 25 seconds left on the clock, the gentleman shook hands and Russia’s next champion was crowned. Video and pgn after the jump.
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Tactics are something most serious players spend a lot of time on when studying, however one of the most useful and overlooked tactical motifs is perpetual check. Perpetual check is what I would consider an “iron clad” draw because there is no mutual agreement to draw the game, with perpetual check you steal your half point back. The diagram to the left shows a simple example. Shuttling the queen back and forth between e8 and h5, white gives checks forever and saves his skin from the back rank mate.
In a recent game on the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) I found myself down on material, short on time and close to resigning. The idea that I could somehow swindle a win was gone and my only chance to avoid a loss was to force a draw somehow. In the following game fragment, my opponent was doing a good job of tossing me up. I desparately try to complicate and hope that he can’t find the best continuation. After the jump, we see the Theory of Infinite Resistance at work.