PRACTICAL Chess Endings A BASIC GUIDE TO ENDGAME STRATEGY FOR THE BEGINNER AND THE MORE ADVANCED CHESS PLAYER BY Irving Chernev DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. NEW YORK Copyright© 1961 by Irving Chernev. All rights reserved under Pan American and Inter­ national Copyright Conventions. Published in Canada by General Publishing Com­ pany, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario. Published in the United Kingdom by Constable and Company, Ltd., 10 Orange Street, London WC 2. This Dover edition, first published in 1969, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published in 1961 by Simon and Schuster, Inc. Standard Book Number: 486-22208-X Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 69-15362 Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street �ew York, N.Y. 10014 For Aimee and Mel CONTENTS Page The Pawn II The Knight II4 The Bishop I46 The Rook I94 The Queen 257 Variety of Pieces 289 Index of Composers 3I7 Introduction THE BASIC object in the endgame is to pr omote a Pawn, and get a new Queen. An extra Queen on the boar d gives a player a super iority in material which is usually decisive. A good part of this book is devoted to King and Pawn endings, wher e the win is achieved by tur ning a Pawn into a Queen. I agree with Pur dy, who says, " Without knowing something of the ending King and Pawn against King, one cannot call oneself a chess player. " Other sections of the book feature the Knight, the Bishop, the Rook, and the Queen in important roles, either in helping a Pawn become a Queen, or in themselves engineer ing mating combinations. T he terms in all positions ar e " White to play and win." The purpose is to maintain uniformity, so that White's Pawns move up the boar d in all cases. The book is designed to impr ove the skill of the practical player who is inter ested in winning the ending clearly, simply and effi ciently. The dilettante, thoug h, who revels in ar tistry in an ending, has not been neglec ted. Many fine compositions whose chief purpose is to entertain have also been included. Thus, the author hopes, all needs will be served. The Pawn FASCINATED by the subtle strategy to be found in Pawn endings, I have included enough to satisfy the most avid student or the most ardent connoisseur. The latter will revel especially in the splendid endings by Grigoriev. If there is one thing to be learned in Pawn play, it is that the King is a powerful piece. The King must be used aggressively. No. 3 is a basic position in King and Pawn against King. The winning idea is easy enough, but it must be understood. Simple Opposition is illustrated in Po­ sitions No. 3 through 10, No. 13, No. 15 and No. 33. Incidentally, No. 9 and No. 10 show a couple of interesting King wanderings. Distant Opposition (where one King's influence on the other is felt the length of the chessboard) is beautifully demonstrated by Grigoriev in No. 66. Delightful finesses in King and Pawn against King and Pawn endings are found in positions by Moravec No. 19, De Feijter No. 21, Grigoriev No. 23, Duras No. 24 and Grigoriev No. 26. Surprising key moves are those in Dedrle No. 16, Maiselis No. 18, Mandler No. 25, Grigoriev No. 27, Ebersz No. 47, Crum No. 50, Moravec No. 58, and Chekhover No. 68. Impressive enough to qualify as masterpieces are the compositions of CM­ ron No. 44, Grigoriev Nos. 46,No. 53, No. 62, No. 63, No. 69, No. 78, De Feijter No. 93, and IseneggerNo. 94. Piquant play marks the Grigoriev No. 10, Grigoriev No. 59, ReyNo. 61, Grigoriev No. 64, Kupczewski No. 67 and Fontana No. 73. Amusing ideas abound in Grigoriev No. 51, Moravec No. 58, Sackmann No. 82, Horwitz No. 84, Troitzky No. 85, Rinck No. 88, Lapin No. 89, Neumann No. 90, Rinck No. 92 and Moravec No. 97. The theme of Triangulation is neatly illustrated in Nos. 40 and 41. Saavedra No. 101 is of course an old favorite, and could hardly be omitted from an endgame anthology. 11 NO . ] WHITE to play and win PROMOTING the Pawn will win easily for Wh ite. With King and Queen against King, the pr ocess of for cing mate is elementar y. Can the Pawn advance at once, or will it be caught by Black? Let's try moving the Pawn and see: 1 P-R4 2 P-R5 3 P-R6 4 P-R1 5 P-R8 ( Q ) K-B5 K-Q4 K-K3 K-B2 White wins We can thus play out the moves (mentall y, of course) or get the answer by a simple count. The latter method tells us that after four moves the Pawn will stand at R7, and Black's pursuing King at his B2-too late to stop the Pawn from Queening. � 12 N0 . 2 Now if 3 P- R4, K-BS 4 P-R5, KKt4 and Black draws. 3 K-QS ! Cuts Black off a thir d time fr om pursuing the Pawn. WHITE to play and win CHERNEY 1 960 WHITE cann ot win by mer ely advancing the Pawn. A littl e pr ep ar ation is needed. A simple count shows that the Pawn can r each R 7 in four moves, but that the pur suing King, r ushing back along the diagonal, will head it off at Kt2. The play would be : 1 P-R4, K-KS 2 P-R5, K-Q4 3 P-R6, K-B3 4 P-R7, 3. . . K-B6 This gives W hite a last chance to start the Pawn prematurely. If now 4 P-R4, K- Kt5 nails the Pawn down. 4 K-BS! This is decisive! Black's King is shut o ut completely. The continuation (r egardless of anything Black does) will be 5 P-R4, 6 P-RS, 7 PR6, 8 P-R7 and 9 P-R8 (Q) . White wins. K-Kt2 and the Pawn is lost. White must tr y other means : 1 K-BS! This prevents Black from moving along the diagonal to stop the Pawn, and threatens to win by 2 P-R4, 3 P­ R5 etc. 1 . . . K-K6 Black seizes a new diagonal and is ready for this continuation : 2 P-R4, K-QS 3 P-R5, K-B4 4 P-R6, K-Kt3, and he wins the Pawn. 2 K-KS ! Inter fer es with that li ttle idea, and once again thr eatens to win by pushing the Pawn. 2 . . . K-Q6 13 '