Endgame Lab Simplepositions!?
Simplicity is in the eye of the playerwith the clock ticking next to their board. By GMPal Benko
Thismonth we’ll examine endings from
the 2011 FIDE World Chess Cup that was held in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. I’ve paired themwith composed endgames to help show why it can be useful to study compositions. It becomes clear that these so-called “simple positions” are not as easy as they may first appear.
Bishop versus knight and pawn GM Vugar Gashimov (FIDE 2760, AZE) GM Ruslan Ponomariov (FIDE 2764, UKR) World Chess Cup, 2011
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Black to play
This is a theoretical position well worth knowing. 99. ... Kc1! At this stage 99. ... Nb2 would be pre-
mature, as happened in the earlier game Sahajov-Sunye which continued 2. Ke1 Kb1? 3. Kd2. This is the position that Black should plan to reach, but with White to play. Then after 3. ... Kxa1 4. Kc1 the black king can never escape the cor- ner because the knight alone is not able to win a tempo. A similar game was Stein -Dorfman, 1971 that also ended drawn.
100. Kd3 The win ismore difficult after 100. Ke1,
but Horowitz found as early as 1885 that 100. ... Nc5! 101. Ke2 Kb1 102. Kd1 Na4 103. Kd2 Nb2 104. Kc3 Kxa1 105. Kc2 Nd3 wins.
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100. ... Kb1 101. Kd2 Nb2 102. Kc3 Kxa1 103. Kc2 Nd3,White resigned.
Though GM Ponomariov made a fine
attempt and was on the right track, even grandmastersmakemistakes in unfamil- iar territory.
Pal Benko, Version
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Black to play, White draws
1. ... Kf3(!) Drawing is 1. ... h3 2. Kf2 h2 3. Bd5!
or 1. ... Kg3 2. Bh7 h3 3. Be4. 2. Bb3! Delusional is 2. Bf7? h3 3. Be8 Nd3+ 4.
Kf1 Ne5! 5. Kg1 Kg3 6. Bb5 h2+ 7. Kh1 Ng4 8. Bc6 Nf2 mate, or 2. Bc4? Ng2+ 3. Kf1 Ne3+ and wins.
2. ... h3 3. Ba4 Kg2 It is from this point that Sam Loyd
proved a draw in 1960. 4. Bd7!
Paradoxical, but a necessary interme- diate move.
4. ... h2 5. Bc6+ Kg1 6. Bh1! Kxh1 7. Kf2, Draw agreed.
Knight versus two knights and pawn GM David Navara (FIDE 2722, CZE) GM Alexander Moiseenko (FIDE 2715, UKR) World Chess Cup, 2011
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White to play White is a piece up but converting it to
a win is difficult. The key problemis that two knights are unable to delivermate so if Black sacrifices his knight for the pawn then the draw is secured.
58. Kh4? Heading in the wrong direction. The
computer gives 58. Kg3! and indicates mate in 33, given best defense. But who can see so far ahead? A sobermind would look for both sides to quickly start their kings towards the queenside.
58. ... Kf6! It is impossible to stop the black king
from closing in on the pawn. A draw was agreed onmove 72. I dealt with this prob- lem in the following study.
P. Benko, 1991
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White to play and draw
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