Another tricky pawn ending

White to play and win. there is only one way to guarantee the win, and white has to be precise with his moves!

A nice (and subtle) pawn endgame study

White to play and win. You have to find the only sequence of moves that is guaranteed to produce a win, and you have to ensure that you find Black's best defence (a stalemate threat), and the way white can overcome this defence.

Rushing ahead with the h-pawn doesn't work, as Black replies axb5, and queen's his own pawn too.

The neat idea is: 1. b6+ to force Black to promote on the a1 square, instead of b1 - but then Black gas a cunning defence: 1. ... Kb8, so that after 2. h4 a5 3. h5 a4 4. h6 a3 5. h7 a2 6. h8=Q a1=Q and white cannot take the queen due to stalemate ... but he can still win!

A wonderful combination - and a great exercise ...

Here is something for Joe down at the local Chess club - an amazing game by Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov. The position reached after 11. ... Bf6 had arisen before in one or two games which had ended in quick draws. Apparently Nezhmetdinov thought for a very long time, and decided not to go for the draw, but sacrificed his queen ... you need to play over this game slowly to appreciate it ...

Its all in the first move ...

OK, it seems obvious that white should move his king to give a discovered check, but which square to move to, and does it really matter? Yes, it does - so choose carefully!



Answer to the last (easy) endgame - a nice 'staircase' manoevre. There have been many variations on this theme in later studies, but this is one of the simplest examples.
1. Qa8 Kg1 2. Qa7+ Kh1 3. Qb7 Kg1 4. Qb6+ Kh1 5. Qc6 Kg1 6. Qc5+ Kh1 7. Qd5 Kg1
8. Qd4+ Kh1 9. Qe4 Kg1 10. Qe3+ Kh1 11. Qf3 Kg1 12. Qf1#

An easy one this time

This one should not take long to solve, but it is quite entertaining if you have never seen the idea before. It was composed by one of my favourite endgame composers: Henri Rinck.

As usual, here is the solution to the previous ending:

1. Rd8+ (nothing else works) Kxd8 2. b7 Rb4! (a neat attempt at preventing promotion by luring the king to a square where the c7 pawn can advance with check, clearing the way for the Black king)
3. Kxb4 c5+ 4. Kb5 (vital to let the c-pawn live!) Kc7 5. Ka6 Kb8 6. Kb6 c4 7. a4 c3 8. a5 c2 9. a6 c1=Q 10. a7 mate (just in time!)

Another neat rook ending

Here is another lightweight ending, as I much prefer endings with few pieces, and even have quite a liking for lightweight endings without pawns (will try to show some of these soon).

White to play and win (as always, there is only one correct way to win)
In this one, white needs to try to promote a pawn, and if you need a hint, he sacrifices his rook, and then black is forced to return the favour (in fact black gets to promote while white doesn't!)

As promised, the solution to the previous ending (see below) is:
1. Kb8 Rb2+ 2. Ka8 Rc2 3. Rf6+ Ka5 4. Kb8 Rb2+ 5. Ka7 Rc2 6. Rf5+ Ka4 7. Kb7 Rb2+ 8. Ka6 Rc2 9. Rf4+ Ka3 10. Kb6 Rb2+ 11. Ka5 Rc2 12. Rf3+ Kb2 13. Rxf2 Rxf2 14. c8=Q

As always, comments are welcome, and I will try to reply if necessary.

Endgame studies

I have always had a real fascination for these, and still believe that the efforts spent in solving them can really pay off in terms of practical chess skills - in particular, they raise awareness of tactical possibilities during a game, they help to improve chess visualisation, and they help with 'imagination' in chess.
Here is an old favourite of mine:

White to play and win - the process involves gradually forcing the Black king down the board, followed by a pin driving the rook off the file. A full solution might appear here later!

Qxd4 in the Sicilian

I Have played this line quite a few times over the years, and I find it truly astonishing how many players as black make the error of playing e7-e5 a few moves later. I have won most of the games I have played as white when black has made that error, and have it off as a bit of a "party-piece". Here is an example from over 20 years ago:

County match

Yesterday I played my second county match for Greater Manchester. Last month I managed a very long and hard-fought draw that I ought to have been able to win, but failed to find a couple of crucial moves in the endgame. It really annoyed me, as the endgame is normally the strongest aspect of my game.

In yesterday's game, I got to play one of my favourite lines against the Sicilian, and was pleased to see that my opponent didn't know the best way to handle it. He mis-calculated early on, and gave me a rather easy win - I just had to be careful and keep up the pressure, but the result was never in doubt.

Chess Progression

I wanted a quicker way to post chess stuff on the web (quicker than the process I have used over at Padgate Chess) so here goes.