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 Grandmaster. Latvia's strongest player in the 1930s. His best result was at Kemeri in 1937, coming equal first with Flohr and Reshevesky ahead of Alekhine, Keres and Fine. During the War years Petrov played in a number of Soviet events and then disappeared from the scene. It was only many years later that his true fate was discovered. He had become a victim of political terror and had died in the Gulag. 

Black has a very cramped position but he has managed to guard the queenside against invasion. The idea of Nxb7-Rxb7-Qa7 forcing the b-pawn home doesn't work because the b8 square is covered by the Black Knight. White now starts operations on the other wing with the plan to force the defending Knight out of position so that it cannot return to it's defensive post at d7. White can then mount a successful breakthrough on the queen's wing. The ending is very instructive and shows the brilliant talent of this ill-fated and forgotten player.

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.