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.

 

Czech Endgame Study Composer. Belonged to the first generation of Czech composers; this group contained such luminaries as Richard Reti and Artur Mandler. Composed over 200 studies and won many prizes.

 

Here Hasek has worked on the fortress idea, first put forward by Simkhovitch, and produced a delightful study. White sacrifices his Rook to gain time to bring his King to the centre of the board and set up a stalemate "haven". Even though the enemy Rook succeeds in entering the fortress it has to leave quickly because otherwise it would impose a stalemate situation. It is an unusual type of "positional draw".

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 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.