Elementary Technique

Josef Kling and Bernhard Horwitz, Chess Studies, or Endings of Games (London, 1851) was one of the earliest books to emphasize chess endings. It was written in English descriptive notation, so even the presence of a free digital version does not make it particularly accessible to today’s chess players. Happily, Carsten Hansen has brought out a new edition containing the text of the 1851 edition, an expanded edition Horwitz was preparing when he died, and thorough analysis of their work. Hansen’s edition is published as part of his Alexander Game Books Classics series, available through Amazon.

A position in the original 1851 edition will serve as part of my lessons with young chess players this week, as it offers some elementary instruction in techniques that every chess player needs.

Kling and Horwitz note the beginner’s tendency to prematurely push a pawn—something I’ve observed in many hundreds of youth games over the past couple of decades. They note that rooks can be forced off the board, leading to an easily won pawn ending. When I played it against Stockfish, I reached a position that is also reached when playing the first and most elementary position in the book.

After the moves given by Kling and Horwitz, 1.Re3+ Rxe3 2.fxe3, Black is in zugzwang. Black loses because required to move. Were it White’s move, the game would be drawn.

Black to move

2…Kxe3

This move is marginally more testing than 2…Kxg3. In both cases, White will employ the same technique to bring the remaining pawn close to promotion. But, with the g-pawn, there will be stalemate dangers that do not surface while trying to promote the e-pawn.

Here, again, the beginner must learn not to hastily push the pawn. Rather, White’s king must work its way in front of the pawn to control the key squares.

3.Kg2 Ke4 4.Kh3 Kf5 5.Kh4 Kg6

White to move

The beginner’s game begins to improve when they learn to move the king in front of the passed pawn. Such placement is as vital for the defender as for the stronger side. 

6.Kg4 Kf7 7.Kg5 Kg7

Black, seizing the opposition, puts up the most stubborn defense. Now, and only now, White may advance the pawn. In this case, that takes the opposition from Black.

8.g4 Kh7

White to move

Once beginners have learned to curb the tendency to push the pawn too soon, and have learned the concept of gaining the opposition, the next step is to understand that opposition is only a means to an end. Here, taking the opposition fails to make progress. White must perform an outflanking maneuver to gain control of one of the key squares—f7, g7, h7.

9.Kf6 Kh6 10.g4+ Kh7

This is the first position in Kling and Horwitz, Chess Studies.

11.Kf7 Kh8

White to move

Now, White must be wary of the stalemate danger.

12.Kg6

12.g6 would leave Black no legal moves, ending the game with a draw.

12…Kg8 

White to move

13.Kh6

13.Kf6 does not spoil the win, but the game must return to the same position for another opportunity to play the correct move.

13…Kf7

The engine opts for the longest distance to mate. While testing students, I choose 13…Kh8 so they must show that they understand that pushing the pawn works here. 14.g6 Kg8 15.g7 Kf7 16.Kh7.

For my beginning students, we are likely to continue all the way to checkmate.

To Know a Position

Two pawns against one when the stronger side has one that is both passed and protected is generally a win. There are exceptions when the pawns are too close to the edge of the board with one of the pawns (stronger or weaker side) on its starting square. Having a pawn on a rook file also limits the stronger side's chances. The position of the kings often proves critical.

This position, ending no. 107 in Pandolfini's Endgame Course (1988), also arises while playing through examples 8 and 9 in José R. Capablanca, Chess Fundamentals (1921). Josef Kling and Bernhard Horwitz, Chess Studies, or the Endings of Games (1851) presents a study that reaches this position after the first two moves.

White to move

Sacrificing the forward pawn allows White to win Black's pawn after a few moves using opposition and outflanking maneuvers, resulting in a standard position that Bruce Pandolfini covers earlier in the book (endgames 60-62).

The diagram position is important enough in Lev Alburt's view that it appears in Chess Training Pocket Book: 300 Most Important Positions and Ideas (1997). Alburt writes that to become a strong tournament player one needs to know only 12 key pawn endings, promising that the right 12 are in the book (9). A similar position appears in Rashid Ziyatdinov, GM-RAM: Essential Grandmaster Knowledge (2000), but did not make the cut for Thomas Engqvist, 300 Most Important Chess Positions (2018).

Lest there be any doubt about the practical value of understanding how White should play, consider the ending from Polgar,I.--Ciocaltea,V., Baja 1971, which is presented in C.G. Van Perlo, Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics, new, improved and expanded edition (2014).

White to move

54.Kg3

54.Kg5 fails to make progress, Van Perlo notes.

54...Kf7 55.Kf3 Ke7 56.Ke3 Kd7 57.Ke4 Ke6

White to move

Flip the side to move, remove White's f-pawn and place a Black pawn on f6, and the position is identical to one that appeared at the Spokane Chess Club in April 2005 between two of the group's strongest players. Black pushed the unopposed pawn and the game was dead drawn, yet the game continued for many moves more because the weaker side has very little time left on the clock.

58.g5!

"Depriving the black king of some vital squares in the tempo battle" (Van Perlo 25).

58...Kd6 59.f5 Ke7 60.f6+

Now White has a passed pawn.

60...Kf7 61.Ke5 Kf8

We have reached the position at the top of this post.

62.f7

Black resigned.

We can move the initial position right or left, up or down. In most cases, the stronger side has an easy win.  Sacrifice of the forward pawn is the easiest method when the blocked pawn is on the fifth rank, but this fails when the pawn is further back.

Two key positions are analyzed in Johann Berger, Theorie und Praxis der Endspiele (1890), referencing the earlier work of George Walker, A New Treatise on Chess (1841).

No. 483

Das Spiel ist leicht zu gewinnen

It is an easy win, regardless of who has the move, Berger explains.

No. 484

Weiss gewinnt nur mit dem Zuge.

White wins only with the move.

Mark Dvoretsky, Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, 5th ed. (2020) offers one full page of analysis with one winning and two drawing positions, plus a well-known 1921 study by Nikolai Grigoriev earlier in the chapter. Grigoriev's study, "underscore[s] that a system of corresponding squares certainly does not have to always be 'straight line', as with the opposition. Each case demands concrete analysis" (23). Alex Fishbein, King and Pawn Endings (1993) offers two positions, both of which are Grigoriev compositions. Reuben Fine, Basic Chess Endings (1941) has seven diagrams over a little more than three pages. Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht, Fundamental Chess Endings (2001) offer two positions from games, one winning and one drawing. Comparable positions do not appear in Jeremy Silman, Silman's Complete Endgame Course (2007), unfortunately.

Paul Keres, Practical Chess Endings (1974) offers the most thorough discussion with 11 diagrams over six pages. He begins with Berger's no. 483 (see above).

After nine moves in Keres' analysis, the following position is reached.

White to move

"White would spoil everything with 10.b6?" Keres notes (34).

10.Kd5! Kc7 11.Ke6 Kb6 12.Kd6

This outflanking idea is another standard technique.

12...Kb7 13.Kc5

Keres then turns to the most important technique for endgame book authors: shifting the position. Shift everything up on rank and White can no longer win because of the same stalemate threat noted after 10.b6? Shift one square down, and White still wins. Two squares down and it matters who has the move. White must have the move to win.

Moving the position one file to the right and one rank up, White wins, even when Black has the move.

Black to move

1...Kd6 2.Ke4 Ke6 3.Kf4 Kd6 4.Kf5 Kc7 5.Ke6 Kc8

White to move

6.c7!

The pawn must be sacrificed, as we should know from Capablanca and Pandolfini.

Continuing the shift to the right and this time down a rank, Keres sets the kings in a manner optimal for Black. After a few moves, the following position is reached.

White to move

To secure the win, White must use threats of moving to either side of the mass of pawns to perform the opposition and outflanking maneuvers.

6.Kc1!

Working out the rest is good training. Keres book is helpful, too. It was when I reached this position in my reading yesterday morning that I started playing against Stockfish from this position and then many other variations with the same arrangement of pawns across the range of possibilities.

Shift the starting position one rank down and this resource no longer exists for White.

Knowing a position well is knowing an arrangement of pieces that may be, in fact, many hundreds of possible positions. Some of these have arisen in my games in the past and can be expected to do so again. 

Endgame Training

Eight to ten years ago, I played out one hundred pawn endings against the computer. I am now working through the same set of problems a second time. These one hundred problems are the first of three sets made available as PDF files by Michele Deiana at DejaScacchi. The selection contains composed endgame positions with instructive value for practical play. Many of these problems appear in standard endgame books, such as Mark Dvoretsky, Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and Yuri Averbakh, Comprehensive Chess Endings.

Problem 14 in Deiana's collection is a study attributed to Jean-Louis Preti (1856). It is the same as a position that I posted last May, but with colors reversed (see "Three Pawns Problem"). It builds upon technique practiced while solving problem 11, attributed to Josef Kling, presumably from Chess Studies; or Endings of Games by J. Kling and Bernard Horwitz (1851).

White to move

1.Kc2 c4 2.Kc1

Black to move

This position is critical. White will step directly in front of whichever pawn Black moves forward. Soon, all three pawns fall.

2...b3 3.Kb2 d3 4.Kc3

Black to move

This position is the heart of a king versus three pawns. White's king stops all the pawns. However, if the pawns were one square closer to promotion, then one could be promoted to deflect the king from defense of the other's promotion square.

Playing these positions against the computer means playing until checkmate. I checkmated Stockfish 7 on move 24.