[Event "U.S. Championship"] [Site "St Louis"] [Date "2023.10.05"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Tang, Andrew"] [Black "Shankland, Sam"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [WhiteElo "2496"] [WhiteTeam "United States"] [BlackElo "2698"] [BlackTeam "United States"] [Annotator "Davis Zong Jr."] [Variant "From Position"] [ECO "?"] [Opening "?"] [FEN "8/5p2/4k1p1/1P6/3R4/8/2K5/7r b - - 0 42"] [SetUp "1"] [Source "https://lichess.org/study/b0nfXV2i/LBrjtlNL"] [Orientation "white"] { Black would obviously be winning without White's passed b-pawn, but the question is what's the best way to generate counterplay? Supporting the pawn with the king looks natural, but it leads to dangerous pawn races that may favor Black. } 42... Rh5 43. Rb4 Kd7 44. Kd3 Rf5 45. b6! { Instead of trying to promote the pawn, Tang uses this pawn to distract Black's king, the best drawing move in the position. } (45. Ke4? { A natural move like this one allows the pawn to be blockaded one square earlier, which is all the difference. } 45... Kc7 46. b6+ Kb7 47. Rb1 Rf6 48. Ke5 Re6+ 49. Kd5 Rxb6 $19) 45... Kc8 46. b7+ Kb8 { It is imperative that Black's king must take the eighth rank and not the seventh. The rook will also have to travel longer to eliminate the passer, buying White's king valuable time to blockade the kingside. } 47. Ke4! (47. Ke2?? { Even one move too slow would have spoiled the draw. } 47... Re5+ 48. Kf3 Re7 49. Kg4 Rxb7 50. Rf4 Kc8 51. Kg5 Kd8 52. Kf6 Rb5! $19 { The key! Kf6xf7 loses to ...Rb5-f5+, and after Rf4-d4+, with ...Kd8-e8, Black barely gets back to the pawn in time. }) 47... Rc5 48. Kf4 Rc7 49. Kg5 Rxb7 50. Rf4! { Another precise move from Tang, preventing ...Rb7-b5-f5, securing the pawns forever. } 50... Kc8 51. Kf6 Rd7 52. Re4 { The fortress has been established. Black can never play ...Rd7-e7 to bring the king over, and otherwise the king is forever cut off while the rook is forever tied to the f7-pawn. The game was drawn on move 69. } 1/2-1/2