FIDE Surveys – Alojzije Jankovic

1

Alojzije Janković:

Figting till the end

Kožul Z. : Brkić A.
Zagreb 2012

Never to give up is very important quality of
every strong chess player. A good trainer
should know how to motivate his student to
always seek for a chance in the game and the
purpose of this survey is to show how many
strong players have failed to do so! In the
recently finished World Cup in Baku,
Karjakin refused to give up. After two losses
in the first two games of the match he was
pushed against the wall, everybody was
giving him a zero chances to recover and
take the match to tie-break. In that
atmosphere even the top players stamina
could easily break under the pressure and
disbelief could become a dominant factor in
player's mind. Karjakin was up to the task
and the result was known, he managed to
win the last two games and in a psyhological
duel in the tie-break he emerged victorious!
Sometimes a body language of your
opponent can make an influence on your
mind that the game is over. That is precisely
what happened in the game Kožul : Brkić
that I witnessed:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cd5
Nd5 6.e4 Nc3 7.bc3 c5 8.Be3 Qa5 9.Qd2 0–
0 10.Rc1 Rd8 11.d5 Nc6 12.h4 e6 13.h5
ed5 14.hg6 hg6 15.Bh6 Bh8 16.Bg5 Rd6
17.Rh8 Kh8 18.Qf4 Qc7

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White surprised his opponent in the opening
and quickly gained a winning position. But
Kožul relaxed too much and has chosen a
“winning“ line starting with:
19.Bf6
The easiest win would be 19.Qh2 Kg7
20.Bf4 and white will be a piece up. After
19...Kg8 20.Qh2
Kožul thought that the game is basically
over, as the bishop on f6 cannot be taken
since the queen on c7 is pinned. Brkić was
aware a few moves before that his position is
lost and that he was outplayed, so he trusted
his opponent and resign the game. If he
wasn't so pessimistic about his position and
has fought till the end, he would have found:

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20...Bh3!!
When suddenly black is in driving seat! 1:0.

FIDE Surveys – Alojzije Jankovic

2

I myself have had a similar experience:

Petrosian T. L. : Janković A.
Plovdiv 2008

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34.Rb8
I was only a slightly worse most of the
game, but then I started to make some
mistakes and this position appeared. I had
only few seconds left on my clock and
thought I cannot stop the promotion so I
resigned. If my brain was ready to fight till
the end I would have seen that I could just
play:
34...Ke7!
With the idea
35.Ra8 Kf6!
and maximum what white can get is to
exchange a-pawn for the b-pawn with a most
likely a draw. 1:0.

Martinović S. : Vocaturo D.
Chur 2010

There are situations where your previous bad
experience can have an influence on your
reasoning.
Grandmaster Martinovic felt the same
problem. He has seen many times the games,
where strong knights are easily winning
against the bad bishops and thought that
following position is the same case:

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45...Nd3
Also, probably his loss of the big advantage
after the opening had an influence of his
decision which was to resign! However:
46.Rb1 Kc5 47.Rd1
and white has nothing to worry about. 0:1.

El Debs F. : Sergienko S.
Prague 2014
A good trainer should be able to teach his
students that sometimes unexpected things
can happen in the games. A chess game is a
duel of two persons, not computers and there
are times when uncommon mistake of your
opponent can give you a chance and very
important is to always try to find a chance
even in a desperate positions!

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FIDE Surveys – Alojzije Jankovic

3

White has a draw in his pocket, but after
34.Qf5 Kg7 35.Qf6 Kh7
he thought, he has found a with forced win.
36.Rf4
But then followed:
36...Qc1 37.Kg2 Qc2 38.Rf2
Black didn't lose the thread and found:

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38...Qf2! 39.Kf2 Rf4! 40.Qf4 Nd3 41.Kf3
Nf4, with a winning position! 0:1.

Tischbierek R. : Wahls M.
Bremen 1998

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25...a5
Common situation is that player, after losing
an opening advantage, starts to think it is
time to force a draw and find some
liquidation sequence. That can lead to a loss
of sense of danger and it is possible to

underestimate opponent's possibilities and
make a blunder in his calculation. Precisely
that was happening in the following game:
White thought he has found a forced draw
starting with:
26.Bd1 Rab8
And after
27.Bb3 Rb3 28.Ra1 Rc8
white has proceed with his plan and played
29.Ra5
But then came a complete surprise for him:
29...Bc3!?
Suddenly white in complete shock resigned!
If he was cool-headed he would surely have
seen that after:
30.Rc2
black can't do much. For example:
30...Ba5
Or 30...Rd8 31.Ra1 with an easy draw.
31.Bd4 Kg8 32.Rc8 0:1.


Von Popiel I. : Marco G.
Monte Carlo 1902

White's last move was:
36.Rd1

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and black resigned, since they both thougt
white wins a piece. Yet the move is mistake:
36...Bg1!
and black is the one who is winning! 1:0.

FIDE Surveys – Alojzije Jankovic

4

Sometimes your opponent makes a move
without thinking that he set up a deadly
threat which you can't stop, but just to play
the best move for him. That happened in the
following game.

Flohr S. : Grob H.
Arosa 1933

Last move of Flohr's opponent was
25...Qb5

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Since it came as a big surprise (as he
obviously have missed that move in his
calculation) Flohr suddenly has thought, that
the move is double attack and that he cannot
stop the mate or a loss of the bishop so he
resigned. Yet, obviuous
26.Kh1
was easily solution to his problem since after
26...Qf1 27.Bg1
White holds all trumps in his position! 0:1.

Even in the adjournment times it was
possible to resign too early.
Next game was adjourned here and White
resigned without resuming.

Arulaid A. : Gurgenidze B.
Lugansk 1956.

It looks that white rook can't stop the
promotion, but in fact the position is draw
since white can harass opponent's king:

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1.Kd6 Kc8
Black king must try to escape to a2 since
nothing is achieved if he goes to the other
side 1...Ke8 2.Ke6 Kf8 3.Kf6.
2.Rc1 Kb7
Or 2...Kd8 3.Rb1.
3.Rb1 Ka6 4.Kc6 Ka5 5.Kc5 Ka4 6.Kc4
Ka3 7.Kc3 Ka2 8.Rf1!
And his king will be just on time to stop the
h-pawn!
8...h5 9.Kd3 h4 10.Ke2 g2 11.Kf2 gf1Q
12.Kf1 1:0.

Capablanca J. R. : Janowski D.
New York 1916

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83.Kd5
Playing a long endgame against a famous
Capablanca wasn't a big fun at all and it's not

FIDE Surveys – Alojzije Jankovic

5

strange that under the influence of such a
strong personality, which Capablanca duly
was, Janowski cracked under the pressure
and resigned. However, later Averbakh has
found a draw for black and maybe if
Janowski was not so negative about his
prospects he could have found it. The
beautiful king march can save the game:
83...Kf4! 84.Bd4 Kf3! 85.b5 Ke2! 86.Kc6
Kd3! 87.Bb6 Bg5 88.Kb7 Kc4! 89.Ka6
Kb3! 90.Bf2 Bd8 91.Be1 Ka4!

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And white can't make a progress!
1:0.