Yesterday, January 18, 2026, a memorial tournament in resemblance of master Valery Evgenievich Safronov was held at the N. A. Nekrasov Library (Moscow) . In the first round, the author of these post was drawn against multiple USSR, World, and European Champion Yuri Korolev. The game was played in the Petrov's Game " variation(1.gh4 fg5 2.f6 e5)After a series of moves, with Black to move, the following position arose. Black played 0...dc7! 1.ed4 dc5 2.d:h4 cb4 3.a:c5 b:b2 4.dc3 b:d4 5.fe3 d:f2 6.e:g3 - a draw.
- 17688103301.png (5.18 KiB) Viewed 170 times
Blacks (A.Fomin) played 0.... dc7 ! 1.ed4 dc5 2.d:h4 c46 3.a:c5 b:b2 4.dc3 b:d4 5.fe3 d:f2 6.e:g3 - draw
The position on the diagram resembles the introduction to the long-known combination idea of the "ladder", which has repeatedly appeared in a number of games of old masters and composers of checkers. For example :
1.ef4 e:e1 2.fg5 h:f4 3.g:g7 f:h6 4.cb2 a:c1 5.gf2 e:g3 7.h:f4 c:g5 8.h:a5 hg5 9.ad2 gh4 10.de1 ab6 11.ef2 ba5 12.fe1x
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At the very end of the tournament, the autopath of this article was faced with more two strong opponents: D. Kolosov and Yu. Ermakov .
D. Kolosov - A. Fomin
1.cb4 hg5 2.gf4 gh6. 3.bc3 de5 4.f:d6 c:e5 5.ef4 e:g3 6.f:h4 gf4 ! The theory only considers the move 6...ba5 etc. 7.ba5 fg7! 8.a:c7 b:d6 9.ab2 fg5 10.h:f6 g:e5 etc.
This game also ended in a draw.
In the final round, the author of this article faced multiple Moscow and Russian champion in draughts-100 Grandmaster Yuri Ermakov. This game between these two longtime blitz also rivals ended in a draw.
Yu. Ermakov (whites) - A. Fomin (blacks)
Final tournament table
There was published before :
FOMIN wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 03:57 *****************************************************************************************
V. Safronov - I. Martynov
USSR Championship
Lugansk, 1973
1. g3-f4 f6-g5 2. c3-b4 b6-c5 3. b2-c3 g5-h4 4. c3-d4 g7-f6 5. d4:b6 c7:c3 6. d2:b4 d8-c7 7. a1-b2 h8-g7 8. b2-c3 c7-b6 9. e1-d2 b6-a5 10. e3-d4 f6-g5 11. d4-e5 g5:e3 12. e5:c7 b8:d6 13. f2: d4 h6-g5 14. g1-f2 g7-f6 15. d2-e3 d6-e5 16. d4-c5 f8-g7?? (Blacks should have played 16…e7-d6 17. c5:e7 f6:d8 = )
More than 35 years ago, the author of this post sent to Mr. Valery Yacheykin to check one of his
variatons on the theme of the final blow from the "h2" cell .
Some time later, an answer came from V. Yacheikin with an indication of I. P. In a response letter V. Ya. gave a marked diagram, the name of the author and two possible solutions of this pisition .
Now there is possible to imagine this idea
in such form.
V. Safronov, correction by A. Fomin
1.f4 g5 2 b6 3.cd4 4.b4 5.d2 6.f2 7.a7 c7 8.g7/h8 g3 9.c5 h2 10.g1 x
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