The position was reached after White's 68th move in the game Dreev-Brodsky, from April's Russian Team Championships. It is hard to imagine a much more drawish-looking position. But just 20 moves later, the 2558-rated Grandmaster playing the black pieces was forced to extend his hand in resignation. If you play over the ending below, you will see that White won in perfectly logical fashion - he checked the black king away from his pawn, brought his own king in, took on g7 and then promoted his own h-pawn. "Simples", as they say in the world's most irritating TV commercial.
Needless to say, the game was being played at the modern-day, Kirsan time-limit - 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move. Presumably, by the above stage, Black was down to increment time only. If you are heartless, you may consider that this is still no excuse for Black losing. On the other hand, if you are like me, you will think that the people responsible for these modern time-limits should, in the words of Captain Blackadder, have their tongues beaten wafer-thin with a steak tenderiser and then stapled to the floor with a croquet hoop.
Perhaps it's time to rewrite the lyrics of Melanie's old hit - "Look what they've done to our game, Ma".
