[Event "U.S. Championship 2023"]
[Site "St Louis"]
[Date "2023.10.12"]
[White "Pourkashiyan, Atousa"]
[Black "Tokhirjonova, Gulrukhbegim"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Annotator "IM Sandeep Sethuraman"]
[Variant "From Position"]
[ECO "?"]
[Opening "?"]
[FEN "8/2p1k3/8/2N1p1pp/1n2P3/2R4P/r5P1/5K2 w - - 0 45"]
[SetUp "1"]
[Source "https://lichess.org/study/b0nfXV2i/FCmSs5TS"]
[Orientation "white"]
{ White is down a pawn in the endgame, but for now there are decent drawing
chances. }
45. Nd3 (45. Nb7! { was the best try for counterplay: } 45... Rc2 46. Rxc2 Nxc2 47. Na5 { The knight endgame would hold surprisingly high drawing chances: } 47... Nd4 48. Kf2 { The knight will find a nice blockade on c4, preventing the king's
advance by tying it down to the e5-pawn. }) 45... Nxd3 46. Rxd3 Ra4 47. Rg3! { Pourkashiyan goes for the most tenacious defense. } (47. Re3? { These
defensive approaches never work. } 47... c5! { Black will march down with the c-pawn,
with help from the king as needed, and White has no chance at survival without
the rook behind the pawn. }) 47... Rxe4 (47... Kf6 48. Rc3 { would make it much
easier to hold. }) 48. Rxg5 h4! { Fixing the white pawns and ensuring the
survival of Black's two passed pawns. This endgame should be winning. } 49. Kf2 Kd6? { Going the wrong way. It seems natural to want to assist the pawns on
their journey, but Black's king is needed to stop White's eventual passer. } (49... Rf4+ 50. Ke3 Ke6! { and now the pawns will start their march. }) 50. g3?? { Very natural to create a passer, but solidity was the best chance. } (50. g4 { would have been stronger to force through a passed pawn. }) 50... hxg3+?? { It's hard to blame the players since this was so natural, but it isn't the
best. } 51. Kxg3 c5 52. Rg8 c4 53. Rc8 Kd5 54. h4 Re3+ 55. Kg2?? { A very
strange choice. The king should be pushed forward to help the pawn. } (55. Kg4! { would have been enough to draw. }) 55... Ra3 { Returning the favor. } (55... e4! { Push your passed pawns! There wasn't a tempo to waste. }) 56. h5 Ra6 57. Kf3 e4+? { Now it's a dead draw } (57... Rd6! { was strongest to prevent
checks from the back. } 58. Ke3 Rh6) 58. Kf4 Rf6+ 59. Ke3 Rf3+ 60. Kd2 Rd3+ 61. Kc2 Rh3 62. Rd8+ Ke5 63. Re8+ Kd4 (63... Kf4! { was the right way forward,
but as we'll see in the game it didn't matter. }) 64. Rd8+ Ke3 65. Rc8?? { The final blunder. } (65. Rh8 { was the only way to draw: } 65... Ke2 66. h6 e3 67. h7 Ke1 68. Re8 { with a fairly simple draw. }) 65... Rxh5 66. Rxc4 Kf3 { and
Tokhirjonova had no trouble converting. } 0-1