
Bellon Lopez,J

Schneider,S Rilton Cup Stockholm SWE 1998
[B+6/B+4]
This is a fascinating position. Despite the bishops of
opposite colors, Black is hard pressed to stop the
White c-pawn from promoting. The pawn at a5 is
under attack, but there is no time to capture it
because the bishop cannot get back to stop the cpawn.
30...Kf7 [ 30...a4 loses to 31.c6 ] 31.Bxa5
Ke8 32.c6 Bd1 33.c7 Kd7 White advances the cpawn
to tie down the enemy king. Black needs to
keep the bishop active to be able to defend the two
weak e-pawns. Since all of White's pawns are on
dark squares, Black has no targets, and therefore no
counterplay. 34.Ke1 Ba4 35.Kd2 Bc6 36.Kc3
Bb7 37.Kd4 Bc6 38.Kc5 Bb7 39.Kb6 The point
of this king journey is simply to free the bishop and
provide support for the advance of the a-pawn. Kc8
40.Bb4 Bd5 41.g4 This insures that Black cannot
try to defend with ...h5, ...g6 and ...Bf5. [ 41.a4
Kd7 42.a5 Kc8 43.a6 Kd7 44.a7 Kc8
doesn't accomplish much. The key to the win lies on
the kingside. White patiently prepares the way. ]
41...Kd7 42.h4 Kc8 43.a4 Kd7 44.a5 Kc8 45.a6
Kd7 The queenside pawns cannot be promoted because Black has all the light squares under control.
However, should the Black king be forced to c8,
White may be able to get the king to d6 and from
there the kingside can be infiltrated. 46.Bf8 g6
47.g5! The pawn at h7 is permanently crippled.
Kc8 48.Bb4 Kd7 49.Ba5 The point of the bishop
maneuver is to defend the pawn at c7 while keeping
d6 open for the king. Kc8 50.Kc5 Kd7 51.Bb6
Ba8 Black has been reduced to shuttling the bishop
between d5 and a8. The a-pawn was kept on the
sixth rank to control b7. White now winds by
deflecting the king from d7. 52.c8Q+! Kxc8
53.Kd6 Bd5 54.Ke7 A highly instructive endgame,
showing the importance of playing both flanks in a
bishops of opposite color endgame.