Some Knight Endings

After working through the 13 knight endings in Thomas Engqvist, 300 Most Important Chess Positions (2018) over the course of several days, I put together five endings to play with some of my students. Two were from Engqvist and the others were found using ChessBase 17's research feature.

Black to move

From Sulistya,M. -- Slingerland,C., Timisoara 1988

As I beat Stockfish 16 rather easily from this position after forcing an exchange of knights, I hoped my students would do the same. That they did not suggests we might do more work on endings with a pawn majority and no pieces.

Black to move

This one is in Engqvist and from a game I cannot locate in databases: Gebhardt -- Bellman, Levelezes 1996. It is a good one to practice with. Stockfish evaluates Black's advantage as less than a pawn. I was lucky to get a draw with Stockfish 16 while playing Black. Well, not actually luck; I used the takeback feature.

White to move

In Pohjala,H.--Sulskis,S., Jyvaskyla 2013, White missed a chance for equality from this position. Against Stockfish on the iPad, I was able to hold the draw. Maybe I'll see if I can do the same against Stockfish 16 on my computer.

White to move

This position arose in Rossetto,H.--Stein,L., Amsterdam 1964 and Black won after a long struggle. The engine says the position is equal. I have not tested myself against the machine with this one.

Black to move

Black is slightly better and went on to win from this position in Lasker,E.--Nimzowitsch,A., Zurich 1934. Engqvist has this one in his book. Stockfish does not find fault with 35...h5, which all of my students played, but it seems the me that White might have more difficulties if that pawn holds back a bit.