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 Composer. A brilliant endgame composer and analyst and close friend to Richard Reti whose studies he collected and published in 1931. Author of Studie (Prague, 1970), a collection of his own studies, which has recently been translated into English (see below).

 

The composer builds on an earlier study by Ludwig Amelung, (1842-1909) which is worth knowing because this position is winnable in an ending where the advantage of Rook vs Knight is usually insufficient to win. Happily for White the Black pawns do not complicate the winning process. White's winning idea is to keep the Knight and King in the corner until they are forced to take up a position which will lead to the loss of the Knight..

(If White was careless and allowed the Knight to escape to the centre edge of the board then with accurate play Black could draw. This result would only be possible if the Knight stayed close to the King; if separated it could be corralled and then captured.)

John Beasley has self-published a very nice translation of Artur Mandler's Studie (Prague, 1970) called:

Depth and Beauty: Chess Endgame Studies of Artur Mandler by John Beasley. Details can be found on the BCM website: www.bcmchess.co.uk

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.