So painful losing a draw endgame

Endgame theory: Lucena Position

I told my students a lot of time to give more attention to endgame theories. One of it is Lucena position. I taught them every central training before MSSM tournament. Here's example of Lucena position in actual game, taken from chessbase. Every serious player need to know this endgame theory.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3483?newsid=3483)

Tal-memorial 2006: (Aronian,L (2741) - Carlsen,M (2698) [E15] was a Queen's Indian with an apparent novelty on move six (Nbd2 by Levon Aronian). On move 23 Magnus Carlsen temporarily sacrificed an exchange, and then went a pawn down on move 33, pinning his hopes on an advance h-pawn against his opponen's less advanced b-pawn. By move 42 the game was about rook and two pawns vs rook and pawn. Magnus defended well and on move 64 he had traded down to a drawn rook and pawn vs rook endgame. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Nc6 6.Nbd2 d5 7.cxd5 Qxd5 8.e4 Nb4 9.Qa4+ Qd7 10.Qxd7+ Nxd7 11.Bxa6 Nxa6 12.0-0 Nf6 13.a3 c5 14.Re1 Be7 15.Ne5 Rc8 16.b4 cxd4 17.Ndf3 Nb8 18.Nxd4 Nfd7 19.Nef3 0-0 20.Bf4 Nc6 21.Rac1 Nxd4 22.Nxd4 g5 23.Nc6 Rxc6 24.Rxc6 gxf4 25.Rc7 Ne5 26.Rxe7 Nf3+ 27.Kf1 Nxe1 28.Kxe1 a5 29.Rb7 axb4 30.axb4 Rd8 31.f3 Rd3 32.Ke2 Rb3 33.Rxb6 Rb2+ 34.Kd3 Rxh2 35.gxf4 h5 36.Rb5 h4 37.Rh5 h3 38.Kd4 Kf8 39.Ke5 Ke7 40.f5 exf5 41.Kxf5 Rb2 42.Rxh3 Rxb4 43.f4 Rb5+ 44.e5 Kf8 45.Rd3 Rb4 46.Kg5 Kg7 47.Rd7 Rb5 48.Kg4 Kf8 49.Kf5 Kg7 50.Ke4 Rb4+ 51.Rd4 Rb1 52.Rd7 Re1+ 53.Kd5 Rd1+ 54.Kc6 Rf1 55.Rd4 Kf8 56.Kd7 Rf2 57.Kd6 Rf1 58.Kd5 Ke7 59.Ra4 f6 60.Ra7+ Kf8 61.Kd6 fxe5 62.Ra8+ Kf7 63.Ra7+ Kf8 64.fxe5 Rd1+ 65.Ke6

Here ... easy draw. Precise play still needed for black but not for white. White need to test all of black knowledge before it become a dead draw.

65...Re1 66.Rf7+ Ke8 67.Rh7 Kf8 68.Rh8+ Kg7 69.Rd8 Ra1 70.Ke7 Ra5 71.e6 Ra7+ 72.Rd7 Ra8 73.Rd6


Everything as gone according to plan, the position is still drawn, but Black must play an accurate move. 73...Ra7+?? That's not it, only 73...Kg6! keeps the draw. 74.Ke8! Now White could force a win – as demonstrated by Alessandro Salvio in the 17th century, but (perhaps falsely) attributed to Luis Ramirez Lucena at the end of the 15th century. Carlsen's memory reached back far enough to understand that he had blundered, and so the Norwegian teenager resigned. 1-0.