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Bologan's Chess Academy Vol. 1 - Practical Endgames
35.f4?! This is another move which is hard to understand... White wants to prevent ...f5-f4, but to me the remedy looks worse than the illness.Again, simple move35.Rb1looks better to me.35...Rc8+? It is tempting to keep the passed e-pawn, but this move has serious drawbacks too. First, most exchanges favour the defending side, so taking an passant would be better from the point of view of formal logic. Secondly, now Black's king is not very active - because of the f4-pawn.I think that much better was35...exf3After36.Rf1Ke537.Rxf3Ke438.Rf1Rc8+39.Kb4Rh8!? The same idea - reducing the remaining material!39...f440.b6f341.Kb5Rc242.b7Rb2+43.Kc6Rc2+44.Kb6Rb2+45.Kc7Rc2+46.Kb8f2should be enough for a draw too.40.b6Rxh341.b7Rh8and the f-pawn saves Black.36.Kd5Rc237.b6Rd2+38.Kc6Rc2+39.Kd7Rd2+40.Kc7Rc2+41.Kb8e342.h4! Suddenly, the h-pawn becomes very dangerous as it often queens with a check.Rc4After the game Bologan said that he saw the same line and went for 42...Rc4, also knowing that it should not save the game.Here Jon Speelman, Nigel Short and I considered42...e2However, we soon saw43.h5Rd244.h6However, immediately after the game in a brief postmortem Korchnoi showed an amazing idea:Rd8+44...Rd145.h7which is obviously hopeless for Black.45.Kc7I remember that Bologan suggested45.Ka7Rd146.h7Rxg147.h8Q+Rg7+48.b7but basically both players stopped here, not spotting that aftere1Q49.Qh6+! Black's king is forced to block the 7th rank, so White gets another queen and wins afterKf750.b8QQa5+51.Qa645...Rd146.h7Rxg147.h8Q+Rg7+and Black is fine!43.b7Rxf444.h5e245.Kc7Rc4+46.Kd6Rb447.Kc6This is it - the h-pawn is unstoppable:Rb347...f448.h6f349.h7f250.h8Q+48.h6Rc3+49.Kb6Rb3+50.Kc7Rc3+51.Kd8Rd3+52.Ke8Rb353.h7e1Q+54.Rxe1Kg755.Re7+Kh856.Kd8f457.Kc8f358.b8Q1-0, Korchnoi V.(2624) - Bologan V.(2655), 20- 1-2002 4NCL Birmingham ENG 23- 3-20011–0