The 15th Gonzaga Classic concluded today; congratulations to David Murray who won the top event, and for the first time.
Apparently there will be no games available from this year’s event, but I’ve reorganized the Gonzaga Classics page here to add details of the top event in all years.
I’ve also added a full tournament report on the Gonzaga Masters 2012, for which all games are available. David Fitzsimons won for the third consecutive year, in what became a four-in-a-row sequence the following year.
The deciding game Bermingham–D. Fitzsimons from the last round showed yet again how difficult queen endings are. The diagram shows the position after White’s 62nd move. After the game continuation 62 … Qxh3 the position is within the range of the Nalimov endgame tablebases, which show that with best play the position is … a draw!
As it was Bermingham was unable to hold the game, due to a single inaccuracy. After 63. Qf2+ Qg2 64. Qh4+ Kg1 65. Qd4+ Kf1 he went astray with 66. Qf4+? after which the black king was eventually able to find safety on h7. Instead either 66. Qd1+ or 66. Qa1+ would have maintained the drawn-with-best-play evaluation.
If after 66. Qf4+ the white king stood on g8, h7, or h8, the position would (apparently) still have been drawn: I assume because the black king would no longer have the bolthole on h7.
But here’s a puzzle to conclude. Returning to the diagrammed position, in which it’s Black to play. Can Black win? Answer (based on the 7-piece Lomonosov tablebases) in a couple of days.
[Update, January 26, 2016: see comment below for solution.]
Kudos to irlchess for carrying the results of the recent Gonzaga tournament. They don’t seem to be easily available anywhere else.