lichess.org
Donate
Photo of Botvinnik

Wikipedia

Instructive bishop endgame win by Botvinnik

Analysis boardChess
From Kotov-Botvinnik, 1955

This week I finished going through the paper book about Botvinnik. This endgame made a lasting impression, but I also noticed that Lichess Stockfish found something that the book author (IM Lakdawala) with Houdini in 2013 overlooked.

First the superb winning part by Botvinnik. White's last move, bishop to c5 was a blunder, now black is winning :

https://lichess.org/study/jl79BbsF/8nb1PJ55#117

Impressive, isn't it ?

Back to what Houdini missed and what Lichess Stockfish saw. Here Botvinnik just played g7g6?? which throws the win, it is a draw now. Stockfish recommends Kg6 or b4b3 and black wins.

https://lichess.org/study/jl79BbsF/8nb1PJ55#96

What do you think ? Is Stockfish right ? And why so ? Can you explain in human readable terms ?