Blue or Red Pill? XXIV

No more rook and pawn action from Chennai to report. Nothing going on for me at Hampstead this weekend either. Why don't we have another BORP? ?

The closest I came to the prince of endgames was in the last round. We reached a position where the best my opponent (White) could do was end up a rook down in a rook ending.  That's the kind of rook ending I like! He didn't play that way, though. Actually he didn't play any way. Instead he let his clock run for six and a half minutes and when I pointed out his flag had fallen he said, "OK, I resign".

Some people are funny, ain't they?

Whatevs. With that win I finished 3rd-4th (again) with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 bye (again). One point away from first, half a point away from a share of second and some cash, so yet another near miss. Still, given the strength of my opposition on the Sunday I'm not too disappointed.  Particularly since (a) I didn't choke the last round this time and (b) that last-round win was my first ever victory against somebody rated over 200 ECF.







Anyhoo, rook endings.

Up top we have another pair of positions from or inspired by Minev. In both cases Black is to move. In one we see Black about to force a win in Smyslov - Donner, Palma de Mallorca 1967. In the other we have a theoretical draw.

So,