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.

World Champion (1948-57, 1958-1960, 1961-63). Three years after first winning the World Championship Botvinnik had to defend his title against David Bronstein. It was a hard fought clash which produced many exciting games and only one draw < 25 moves. (In marked contrast to a recent WC match). Botvinnik had not taken part in chess competitions since winning the World Championship in 1948. Because of this he was out of form and found it difficult to cope with his brilliant young opponent. But Botvinnik demonstrated his great fighting abilities as he overcame a one point deficit, winning the penultimate game and drawing the final game to thus keep the title. 

Botvinnik was very critical about his lack of form in this match. Even his home analysis which was one of his strong points in his long career was letting him down. This position arose shortly after the adjournament so it must have been covered in his home analysis. Botvinnik played 1...Ke7? 2.Bg7! Nb7? and could only draw the ending. It was Stahlberg, a former World Championship candidate contender himself, who pointed out the winning move 1... Kg6!! Black has a positional plus here because he has the possibility of creating a passer with a g-pawn breakthrough. If Black can play his Knight safely to d4 then the weak pawns at b3 and f3 look vulnerable. But first Black needs to advance his King and reposition the Knight to prepare the g4 push.