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The Practical Endgame / Instruction


Striking Through Passed Pawns


Each month GM Naroditsky will present two problems taken from actual games that illustrate the theme of this month’s column. Your task is to find the best line of play. Problem I should be solveable by a player at roughly a 1500 rating and Problem II by a player roughly at a 2000 rating.


See the solutions on page 71. WHITE TO MOVE WHITE TO MOVE


met with 45. ... Nc2+, and White must accept perpetual with 46. Ka5 Qc7+ 47. Ka6 Qc6+.


45. Ka5 Qxf4 46. Qb1+ Ke3 47. Qe1+ Kf3? Mistakes, one wise human being once re -


ANALYSIS DIAGRAM


computer, I uncovered a long and tenuous path to victory starting with 39. Ke4. All of this goes to show that knight end -


games are often tremendously complex despite the limited material. As I’ve stressed previously, the most prudent course of action is to embrace this complexity, and trust your intuition when you cannot make sense of the complications.


35. a4?! This ruins nothing, but it gives Black an


unnecessary opportunity to prolong the game. 35. Kb4! would have been more accurate.


35. ... Nxg3?! Karavade returns the favor. The repentant


35. ... Kc5 would have held on for a while longer, although 36. Ne4+ Kb6 37. Kb4 is obviously hopeless in the long run.


36. Kb4 h5 37. a5 h4 38. a6 h3 (see diagram top of next column) Without the knights, 39. a7 would decide


the game immediately, but things are less simple in their presence. Apparently, the Turkish grandmaster was so intent on promoting as fast as possible that he temporarily forgot one of the knight’s greatest virtues: it’s ability to stop passed pawns.


39. a7?? Given this position as an exercise, a player


of Esen’s caliber would undoubtedly find 39. Nd1! h2 40. Nf2 in an instant. Black can resign, since 40. ... Ke3 fails to 41. Ng4+ and 40. ... Ne4 is coolly rebuffed by 41. Nh1. It is no coincidence that White had this resource: because of their unique movement, knights can often reach a pawn’s queening square from almost any corner of the board. Make no mistake: in the long run, a king and far- advanced passer will surmount the knight’s blockade, but the knight’s ability to deliver forks (40. ... Ke3 41. Ng4+!) frequently renders such an operation time-consuming. When calculat - ing any knight endgame, never assume that a pawn will simply promote once it has started its march.


39. ... h2 40. a8=Q h1=Q 41. Qa7+ Kd3 42. Qxf7 Qc6!


The key. Black will lose two pawns, but her


excellent piece coordination and lasting initi - ative provides more than enough compensation.


43. Qxg7 Nf5 44. Qg1 Qc4+?! After mounting a heroic (albeit somewhat


lucky) resistance, Karavade begins to lose the thread. This is not a major transgression in itself, but there was no need to go pawn hunting. The straightforward 44. ... Ne3! would have drawn on the spot; 45. Qb1 is strongly


This is the kind of working-class, meat-and- potatoes endgame that will probably never be annotated in a magazine (other than Chess Life!) or featured in an endgame manual. Nonetheless, it offers a tremendously instructive (and quite entertaining) journey into the heart of a com - plex knight endgame. It is my sincere hope that you have now arrived at a fuller understanding of the mysterious, inimitable, straight-shooting, piece that we call the knight.


www.uschess.org 49


marked, rarely stand alone. Karavade evacuates her king out of the danger zone, but gives White a golden opportunity to coordinate his forces and set the b-pawn in motion. Instead, the intrepid 47. ... Kd3! would have maintained equality. Following 48. Qe2+ Kd4 49. Nb5+ Kc5 there is nothing to fear. White must give up the e5-pawn to deal with the threat of … Qb4+, so the time is ripe to sign the scoresheets.


48. Qe2+ Kg3 49. Ne4+ Kh3 50. Qh5+! In addition to centralizing his knight, White


continues to harass the king, forcing Black to cripple her position even further.


50. ... Nh4 An unfortunate necessity, since 50. ... Kg2


enables White to trade queens with 51. Qg5+. 51. Nc5 Kg3 52. b4 Qc1?


This loses on the spot, although Black’s defensive task was unenviable to say the least. Karavade should have tried 52. ... Qe3, but after 53. Ka4! I doubt that the position is salvageable from a human standpoint.


53. Ne4+ Kh3 54. Nf2+ Kg3 55. Qg4+! We die soon!


55. ... Kxf2 56. Qxh4+ Kf3 57. Qf6+, Black resigned.


PROBLEM I: 1500 LEVEL Andre Cheron Study, 1952


PROBLEM II: 2000 LEVEL GM Hikaru Nakamura (FIDE 2786) GM Vladimir Kramnik (FIDE 2793) World Team Championship, 2013


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