P-252

The following pawn ending teaches a similar “moral”, which is possibly the reason why the once popular variation of the Sicilian Dragon disappeared from tournament play. The diagrammed position arises after:The diagrammed position arises after: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd4 4.Nd4: Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bc4 Bg7 7.Bb3 0-0 8.f3 Nc6 9.Be3 Nd4:10.Bd4: Qa5 11.Qd2 Be6 12.0-0-0 b5 13.Kb1 Rfc8 14. Rhe1 Bb3:15.cb3 b4 16.Nd5 Nd5:17.Bg7: Nc3+ 18.Bc3: bc3 19.bc3 Rc3:20.Re3 Rac8 21.Rc3: Qc3:22.Qc3: Rc3:23.Kb2 Rc7 24.Rc1 Rc1:25.Kc1:. At this point a draw had been agreed in numerous games until Vera Nedeljkovic beat Larisa Volpert in a very impressive style in Belgrade, 1961. The chess world accepted the game as the refutation of the whole line; this was also borne out by W. Unzicker’s annotations in the “Encyclopaedia”. However, Volpert’s passive defence combined with the incomplete Unzicker’s analyses not only did not find the best defensive possibilities for Black but they also failed to find the direct win for White. Since the position is very instructive, we shall examine it in great detail! Black to move loses. In order to offer the toughest resistance possible, Black should know from the very beginning that he must neither permit his opponent to advance both queenside pawns on the fifth rank, nor by the pawn exchange on the queenside simultaneously create a passed pawn thus freeing the path towards the black pawns!

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