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!)