Devious Kings
We know that in the endgame the king is a powerful piece. While
it has to be painfully timid in the opening, slipping as quickly
as possible into castling safety, it becomes a gung-ho attacking
force in the endgame, plunging straight into the heart of the
position. Usually. But not always. Take a look at the following
position:
M. Grier, The American Chess World, 1901
White to play and win
Now how do you think the white king should proceed? Clearly it
wants to go to the center and attack the black pawn on d6, which
its black counterpart will tenaciously defend. If you are asked
to predict the path the white king will take to reach its goal
we are assuming that you will trace something like the following:
Looks plausible, doesn't it? Or maybe we need to go around the
pawns and attack from the queenside, something like this:
Of course there is the thing with "distant opposition",
which often forces us to take a devious routes. One can feel it:
somehow in the above position we are going to see the black king
cleverly confronting us with direct opposition on both sides of
the board. It will frustrate our attempts to penetrate via f5,
g5 or h5 by moving to f7, g7 and h7, and if we go to a4 or b4
it will turn up on a6 and b6. You guessed right, none of the above
approaches lead to victory. So how do we proceed?
One way to solve problems like this is to be Garry Kasparov,
or somebody of that calibre. Garry breezes through them at breakfast
with the same ease with which he handles two glasses of juice.
Another way is to consult Fritz. With its table bases (endgame
databases) switched on the program somewhat depressingly announces
mate in 31 – instantaneously, on its first display blip.
As you can see 1.Kf1 is the move to play, after every other move
the game is a draw.
If you think you may actually (perhaps instinctively?) be able
to find this move in an over-the-board game, think about the rest
of the line you will be expected to find. By simply pressing the
space bar (= execute next move) we can make Fritz trace the path
the white king must take to capture the black pawn. Take a deep
breath:
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Yes, we are afraid to say that this is the
path you will have to find if you want to win the game against
the best defence by Black (which Fritz also shows us):
1.Kf1 Ke7 2.Kg2 Kf6 3.Kf2 Ke7 4.Kg3 Kf7
5.Kf3 Ke7 6.Kg4 Kf6 7.Kf4 Kg6 8.Ke4 Kf6 9.Kd4 Ke7 10.Kc3
Kd7 11.Kb4 Kc7 12.Ka5 Kb7 13.Kb5 Kc7 14.Ka6 Kc8 15.Kb6 Kd8
16.Kc6 Ke7 17.Kc7 Kf6 18.Kxd6 and mate in twelve more
moves.
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Click
here to replay the game
On move two, for instance, White may not play Ke1, because then,
as smarty-pants Fritz will immediately tell you, 1...Ke8 secures
the draw for Black. There are only two places where White can
deviate: 8.Ke3 is just as good as 8.Ke4, and 9.Kd3 can be played
instead of 9.Kd4. In every other case either you throw away the
win or you transpose to an earlier position and have to work your
way back to the winning line.
The complexity of such a simple position is quite depressing,
isn't it? But before you run away screaming take a look at the
following study, which includes a knight. It looks equally daunting
at first, but we will explain it all meticulously, and in the
end you will understand exactly how it works.
Jenö Bán, 1st prize, Tipográfia
Tournament 1961
White to play and win
In this position if the white king approaches, Black immediately
picks off the d-pawn: 1.Kg4 Nf6+, or 1.Kh4 Ne7 2.d6 Nf5+. If the
white king retreats with 1.Kh2 then the black king can simply
move over to the d-pawn, while the black knight can defend against
the two white pawns: 1...Kg7 2.Kg1 Kf8 3.d6 Ke8 4.g7 Kd7 5.Kh1
Kxd6; or 2.Kg3 Ne7 3.Kh4 Nxd5 (or even 3...Nxg6+ 4.hxg6 Kxg6=)
4.Kg5 Ne7 5.h6+ Kg8 6.g7 Nd5 and draw.
So fhe first move is fairly obvious: 1.d6 Nf6.
Now comes the depressing part. In order to win the white king
must find the following manoeuvre, which presumable none of us
sees in a flash. Even Fritz needs a number of seconds to get the
general idea. It starts to waffle a bit at the end of the line,
but it wakes long before you actually get to the position and
proceeds to win in unblemished style.
On to the explanation for the mysterious king path. After 1.d6
Nf6 White must move his king to support the d-pawn. But in doing
so it must avoid squares which allow a knight fork on e4, i.e.
g3, f2, d2 and c3 are off limits. It must also avoid squares on
which the knight can capture the white pawn on h5 and then, after
Pd6-d7, check the white king and defend the queening square d8.
So the path is as follows:
In the above position White must play 2.Kh2! Absolutely
nothing else works. Take a look:
- 2.Kh4? Kg7! 3.Kg5 Ne4+ and the d-pawn falls; or 3.Kh3 Nxh5
4.d7 Nf4+ and again it is doomed;
- 2.Kg2 Nxh5 3.d7 Nf4+ 4.Kf3 Ne6 and the position is a draw.
2...Kg7 3.Kg1 Kh6 4.Kf1! White must tread cautiously.
For instance 4.Kf2? Ne4+. 4...Kg7 5.Ke1! Again 5.Ke2? would
be a big mistake: 5...Nxh5 6.d7 Nf4+ 7.Ke3 Ne6 draw.
5...Kh6 6.Kd1 Kg7 7.Kc2 Kh6 8.Kb2! The king still cannot
approach: 8.Kd3 Nxh5 9.d7 Nf4+ 10.Ke4 Ne6 draw; or 8.Kb3 Ne4!
9.d7 Nc5+ draw; or 8.Kc3 and simply 8...Ne4+ draw.
8...Kg7 9.Ka3 Kh6 10.Kb4. Careful: 10.Ka4? Ne4 11.d7 Nc5+
draws. 10...Kg7 11.Kc5 Kf8 12.h6 and now Black can do nothing
about the three pawns on the sixth rank. 1-0.
Click
here to replay all the lines on our Java board
Note that you can click on the notation to follow the
analysis
Finally here's a lovely little study for you to solve. Do not
be discouraged by the nebulous complexity of the previous problems,
this one is much more straightforward.
Dr Kornél Ebersz, Magyar Sakkvilág
1932
White to play and win
It is clear that the black king will try to keep his opponent
away from the pawns: 1.Kb8 Kb6 2.Kc8 Kc6 etc. The question is
how does the white king get by, or how does White otherwise win
the game?
Please do not switch on Fritz, which will simply announce a mate
in an annoyingly large number of moves. This is a study that can
be solved by non-Fritz (and non-Kasparov) human entities.
Here is the
solution.
Frederic Friedel
