From Danish Open 2011

[MostFamousDane]

White to move and draw

[john reade]

Which game is this from?

[MostFamousDane]

Which game is this from?

It is from my game with Bill Dobbins - I was black

[Ingo_Zachos]

this is a very good example of showing how inportant planning is in checkers.

As the great Bent Larsen used to say:
Du Maste Ha en Plan

basis of each plan is the position:

Here the material is even (5 pawns each), and a time count reveals that is 14 to red and 15 to white, which is not telling.

The third thing is what Oldbury called "space", but many chess trainers today call it "structure", which seems even more apt for checkers.

We quickly see that the man on 19 can not be stopped anymore, as 1. ... 31-27 runs into 2.19-23 and the piece is through in a position that looks like a red win, and indeed a deep calculation shows that after 2. ... 27x18, 3. 14x23 white has no time to promote to a king and his pieces on his single corner side become targets very quickly:
A) 3. ... 17-13 (to go for 9-6) 4. 10-15 21-17 (heading to square 10) 5. 23-27 17-14, 6. 1-5!, which shows the helpless state of that pieces, as now thex can't be moved anymore and red wins easily , say 6. ... 30-26, 7. 27-31(K) 26-22, 8. 31-26 22-17, 9. king moves anywhere and it's over and out!

B) 3. ... 17-14 ( to go to 10 and use the pawn on 30 to go to 13 and then 9-6, which looks sensible, but takes 7 extra moves that red can use to bring his king to attack) 4. 10x17 21x14, 5.23-27 30-26, 5. 27-31 26-22, 6. 31-26 22-17, 7.26-22 17-13, 8. 22-17 17-14, 9. 17-14 and we can see that white loses by one move.

So the plan, derived from observations, becomes clear:
A man must advance to 10 to allow a further 9-6.
But this time without the time-consuming exchange by . 1. ...31-27, as it takes longer for red to activate his king from 32 then from 31, and that one move makes a difference, we saw.

So the candidate move is obvioisly 1. ... 30-26 as 1. ... 30-25 takes to much time to go where you want.

let's calculate:

1. ... 30-26, 2. 19-24 26-23 (note that this way also the pawns on 14 and 10 can not freely move anymore !),
3. 24-28 23-19 , 4. 14-18 (or 17-13 followed by 9-6 will secure kings)) 17-13 (idea: 9-6 again) , 5. 10-14 19-15, 6. 18-22 15-10 (in time) and white will promote a few kings, and also his other pawns are not backwards or held, securing a draw.


Nice position to show how to think and how plans and calculations interact.


Greetinx from cloudy Dortmund, Germany

Ingo Zachos