The fifth match game between Potter and Zukertort, played in London in 1875, saw a dogged struggle. The final position is shown in the diagram below, where the players agreed to a draw after 91 Kb5-c4. William Norwood Potter, an English master, must have reasoned as follows: the protected passed pawn on d4 obliges the White king to stand guard. The passed a- and b-pawns cannot overcome Black’s king on their own, and so a draw is inevitable.
But Potter missed a splendid winning idea, in which the White king makes a heroic charge up the board. An illustrative variation: 91…Kc6 92 b5+ Kb7 93 b6 Ka6 94 Kb4 Kb7 95 Kb5! d3 96 a6+ Kb8 97 Kc6 d2 98 a7+ Ka8 99 Kc7 d1=Q 100 b7+ Kxa7 101 b8=Q+ Kxa6 102 Qb6 mate!
There is no room for error in this kind of operation. For example, in the line above 93 a6+? would throw away the win, and then 93…Kb6 94 Kb4 Ka7 95 Ka5? even loses as White is a tempo behind the pace: 96…d3 97 b6+ Kb8 98 Kb5 d2 99 Kc6 d1=Q
Le Quang Liem–Leinier Dominguez
New in Chess Classic, April 2021
An exciting situation occurred last month (see diagram 2, Black to play). Imagine sweeping away all the f, g and h pawns: the position is then drawn. Black will place pawns on e4 and d3, so that a bolt forward with the White king (as in the previous example) would be too slow. However, if Black plays 39…e4 in the diagram, White has a methodical winning plan, making use of the f2-pawn. First, 40 h5! to fix the kingside pawns, so if Black ever ventures …g7-g6, the response g4-g5! will engineer a decisive passed h-pawn.
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