Aronians free lesson on rook endgames

[BeyondCritics]

In round 6 of the "FIDE Candidates Tournament 2016" Aronian won a cute rook endgame against Nakamura (http://worldchess.com/broadcasts/europe ... nt/round-6)
Most experts were very sceptical about the white winning chances from this position on.
[d] 8/5pk1/7p/r3PK2/5P1P/8/2R5/8 w - - 0 62
In the after game press conference Aronian showd a supposedly winning strategy. You can start the live video at 07:08:45.
For your convenience i made a transcript:
[pgn]
[Event "Analysis during after game conference"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.18"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Result "1-0"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/5pk1/7p/r3PK2/5P1P/8/2R5/8 w - - 0 62"]
[WhiteCountry "ARM"]
[BlackCountry "USA"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[WhiteType "human"]
[BlackType "human"]
[WhiteSex "m"]
[BlackSex "m"]
[WhiteFideId "13300474"]
[BlackFideId "2016192"]
[Annotator "Aronian"]

62.h5! Rb5 {waiting} 63.Rc8 {force the rook slowly into d8}
63...Ra5 64.Rd8 Ra4 {he is probably playing this (likely to answer Rd7 Kf8 Kf6?? with Rxf4#!)}
65.Kg4 {start slowly to bring your king to f3, to threatening f5, which is winning on the spot}
65...Rb4 66.Kf3 {now f5 is a big threat (aronian loved giving this lesson...)}
66...Rb3 67.Ke4 Rb1 {and now children...} 68.Rd7! {this is winning, because black can't prevent f5}
68...Rb4 69.Rd4! {and then he gets f5, f6} 1-0
[/pgn]

Without the h-pawns, it is a mere (Lomonosov) table base draw. The position at hand is of theoretical significance, since a straight win in this sort of position is not normal.
Now it is up to you, to support the claim of Aronian or to dispute it. I ampersonally probably not of great help with that, since i am feeling a bit dizzy today.

[Stan Arts]

Clip of the post game interview and where he explains. From 5:20 on.

[zullil]

In round 6 of the "FIDE Candidates Tournament 2016" Aronian won a cute rook endgame against Nakamura (http://worldchess.com/broadcasts/europe ... nt/round-6)
Most experts were very sceptical about the white winning chances from this position on.
[d] 8/5pk1/7p/r3PK2/5P1P/8/2R5/8 w - - 0 62


Without the h-pawns, it is a mere (Lomonosov) table base draw. The position at hand is of theoretical significance, since a straight win in this sort of position is not normal.
Now it is up to you, to support the claim of Aronian or to dispute it. I ampersonally probably not of great help with that, since i am feeling a bit dizzy today.

Stockfish with 6-man endgame tables is skeptical:

Code: Select all

info depth 83 seldepth 104 multipv 1 score cp 129 nodes 51188533998 nps 37597768 hashfull 999 tbhits 184201935 time 1361478 pv c2c4 a5a1 c4c7 a1a4 f5g4 g7g8 h4h5 g8f8 c7d7 f8g8 g4f5 g8f8 d7d6 f8g7 d6c6 a4a7 c6c4 a7a6 c4d4 a6a7 f5g4 a7a5 d4d6 a5a4 g4f5 g7h7 d6d7 h7g8 f5g4 g8f8 d7c7 f8g8 g4f5 g8f8 c7c8 f8g7 f5g4 a4a5 c8c7 a5a4 g4g3 a4a3 g3h4 g7f8 c7c6 f8g7 c6d6 a3a5 d6b6 a5a3 b6b7 a3a4 h4g4 a4a2 b7b6 a2g2 g4f3 g2h2 b6b7 h2h1 b7a7 h1f1 f3e4 f1e1 e4f5 e1e3 a7b7 e3a3 b7b8 a3a5 f5g4 a5a4 b8b6 a4a5 b6c6 a5a4 c6d6 a4a5 d6d7 g7f8 d7b7 a5a4 g4f5 a4a5 b7b6 f8g7 f5g4 a5a4 b6c6 a4d4 g4f5 d4a4

No rise in evaluation since depth 20.

[BeyondCritics]

This search depth is quite impressive. 10 times more nps than mine. Out of curiosity, what kind of machine is this?

Regarding the line given, it first appears that stockfish has no grip (playing f5-g4 and then g4-f5 all the time, but on further inspection of a few lines on my own it seems that stockfish plays the position perfectly. That means that the plan f5-f6 is dangerous for a human, but not a win.

[zullil]

In round 6 of the "FIDE Candidates Tournament 2016" Aronian won a cute rook endgame against Nakamura (http://worldchess.com/broadcasts/europe ... nt/round-6)
Most experts were very sceptical about the white winning chances from this position on.
[d] 8/5pk1/7p/r3PK2/5P1P/8/2R5/8 w - - 0 62
In the after game press conference Aronian showd a supposedly winning strategy. You can start the live video at 07:08:45.
For your convenience i made a transcript:
[pgn]
[Event "Analysis during after game conference"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2016.03.18"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Aronian, Levon"]
[Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"]
[Result "1-0"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "8/5pk1/7p/r3PK2/5P1P/8/2R5/8 w - - 0 62"]
[WhiteCountry "ARM"]
[BlackCountry "USA"]
[WhiteTitle "GM"]
[BlackTitle "GM"]
[WhiteType "human"]
[BlackType "human"]
[WhiteSex "m"]
[BlackSex "m"]
[WhiteFideId "13300474"]
[BlackFideId "2016192"]
[Annotator "Aronian"]

62.h5! Rb5 {waiting} 63.Rc8 {force the rook slowly into d8}
63...Ra5 64.Rd8 Ra4 {he is probably playing this (likely to answer Rd7 Kf8 Kf6?? with Rxf4#!)}
65.Kg4 {start slowly to bring your king to f3, to threatening f5, which is winning on the spot}
65...Rb4 66.Kf3 {now f5 is a big threat (aronian loved giving this lesson...)}
66...Rb3 67.Ke4 Rb1 {and now children...} 68.Rd7! {this is winning, because black can't prevent f5}
68...Rb4 69.Rd4! {and then he gets f5, f6} 1-0
[/pgn]

[d] 8/5pk1/7p/r3PK1P/5P2/8/2R5/8 b - - 0 62
Stockfish thinks this is nonsense. After the stunning 62. h5!, it sees absolutely no progress:

Code: Select all

info depth 85 seldepth 100 multipv 1 score cp -129 nodes 287803279445 nps 49752085 hashfull 976 tbhits 281885105 time 5784748 pv a5a3 c2c8 a3f3 c8c6 f3b3 f5g4 b3b4 c6c7 b4a4 c7c8 a4a5 c8c4 a5a7 g4f5 a7a6 c4c7 a6a4 c7d7 a4a5 d7b7 g7f8 b7b8 f8g7 b8b3 a5a4 f5g4 g7h8 b3b6 h8g7 g4f5 a4c4 b6d6 c4a4 d6c6 a4a7 c6b6 a7a3 b6b7 a3e3 b7d7 e3e2 d7d8 e2h2 f5g4 h2e2 d8d7 e2e1 d7c7 e1g1 g4h3 g1f1 h3g3 f1h1 g3f3 g7f8 f3g4 f8g7 c7a7 h1g1 g4f5 g1e1 a7c7 e1e3 f5g4 g7f8 c7c6 f8g7 c6b6 e3e4 b6b2 e4a4 b2b8 a4c4 b8b7 c4a4 g4f5 g7f8 b7b6 f8g7 b6b2 a4c4 b2d2 c4a4 f5g4 g7g8 d2d8 g8g7 d8d6 a4a5 d6d7 g7f8 d7b7

[zullil]

This search depth is quite impressive. 10 times more nps than mine. Out of curiosity, what kind of machine is this?

Latest Stockfish with 16 GB hash and 16 threads on 16 physical cores.

2 x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v2 @ 2.60GHz

My faster machine is currently busy doing real work.

[BBauer]

After 74. Rd7 we get this position
[d]8/3R1pk1/7p/4PK2/5P1P/8/r7/8 b - - 25 74
Here black blundered with 74. ... Kf8.
Now black is lost.
Conclusion: the position was drawn but black blundered it away. Human chess.
Kind regards
Bernhard

[BeyondCritics]

In the german chess24 news section i do read now Aronian was critized sharply for this performance from emil sutovsky, because of "betraying" the general chess public.
Indeed, when he told me it is a win, i do accidently believed that fully.
I think we should follow the example of Lee Sedol, he made an excellent figure during the alphago match.

[BBauer]

Yeah Lee Sedol was an example. Not only he, but also the press conference.

The Chessbase comment from Klaus Besenthal leads astray too.
The best is to analyze yourself.
Many times I have seen GMs failing on the rook end game, including Carlsen.
Kind regards
Bernhard

[styx]

IM Daniel Rensch is also sceptical: