09 December 2015

Zugzwang

White to move

This position arose in Kamsky -- Lalic, Bad Mergentheim 1989 and was published in Chess Informant 48/393. It is the 125th game published in Informant with the ECO classification C 11 (French Defense, Steinitz variation). Thanks to the Paramount Database, I am working my way through all 588 C 11 games in Informants 1-123.

Kamsky played 36.a4 and Lalic resigned. Both his rook and king are tied down to the defense of the f-pawn in order to restrain White's f- and g-pawns. After 36.a4, the White king is free to march to the kingside, then through a gap between the pawns to snatch d4 and then over to remove Black's a-pawn. Then, White's a-pawn will march unmolested to the promotion square.

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