Welcome to this active site. Each week I am going to present to you an endgame position for you to solve or to workout the best continuation. Computer analysis will also be considered. Some of these positions will come from actual historical games. Others will be composed endgame studies, but all the solutions will be relevant to the practical game. The new position will occur each SUNDAY and I will always be pleased to receive POSITIVE feedback about the positions and the analysis and I will try to acknowledge these where relevant.

 

Latvian/Soviet Endgame Composers. The Platov brothers started composing independently of each other but by 1905 they were working as a team. Vasily was the most creative in the composing duo but they both needed each other for their talent to flourish. They were pioneers along with Troitsky, Kubbel and Rinck of a new emerging art form in chess, that of composing endgame studies with its own rules and competitions. Their compositions were of a high order. They built on earlier work but also made new discoveries in the field of endgame theory. They wrote together: 'Selection of Chess Studies' (Sbornik shakhmatnykh etyudov, 1928).

White's winning chances in this ending rely on him retaining his b-pawn. White is threatening to queen the b-pawn and somehow the Black Rook has to prevent this from happening. The endgame study leads to an interesting ladder movement between the White King and Black Rook which culminates in a theoretical ending of QvRP which in this situation is won for White.

A wonderful work of chess art composed nearly a hundred years ago. It needs a powerful chess program with endgame tablebases to appreciate all its intricacies. The Platov brothers at their best !!

1. Cumulative 2003 Prizes: 1st £100 or equivalent, 2nd £50, 3rd £30; 4th £20. (Total Prize Money=£200) Entries limited to 20 solvers. This event will run from 5/1/2003 to 22/12/2003 with a recess in July. Present CUMULATIVE COMPETITION rules apply but note the prizes will go to those participants who climb the ladder the greatest number of times during the year. The relative position of the solver's name on the ladder will decide the allocation of prizes.