FIDE April 2015 - Viacheslav Eingorn

 

Viacheslav Eingorn: Knight endings and Pawn endings: the differen difference ce The sentence “Knight endgames are pawn endgames” is a well known Botwinnik’s formula and (according to Dvoretsky) it means that most techniques of pawn endgames equally apply to knight knight endgames. This comparison is lame. The next few examples demonstrate another nature of such positions in a quite different aspects aspect s  but there is also onе onе common feature which deserves your attention: without knights the result of any selected game ga me could be  predicted easily while with the knights on the board you cannot get clear picture in mind.

was 57...Ne4, e.g. 58.Ke7 Ng3 59.Ne6 Kh7! 60.Kf7 Ne4 61.Nf8 Kh6 62.Ng6 Nc3 63.Ne7 Ne2 64.Ng8 Kh7 65.Nf6 Kh6 66.Nd5 Nd4 67.Ne3 Ne2 68.Ng2 Ng1 69.Kf6 Nf3 70.Kf5 Kg7 and White cannot win. 58.Nb5 Nf6 59.Nc7 Ng8?  Not that way! Here 59...Ne4 60.Ke7 60.Ke7 Ng3 61.Ne6 Kh7 was obligatory. 60.Ne8 Kf8 61.Nf6 Nh6 62.Nd7 Kg7 63.Ke7 Ng8 Also bad for Black is 63...Ng4 64.Nf8 Nf2 65.Ne6 Kh7 66.Kf7 Ne4 67.Ng5 Kh8 68.Kg6. 64.Ke8 Nh6 65.Nf8 Kf6 66.Nh7 Kg7 67.Ng5 Ng4 68.Ke7 Nf2 69.Ne6 Kg8 Or 69...Kh6 70.Kf7 and then 71.Kg8, 72.Ng5, 73.Nf7#. 70.Kf6 Ne4 71.Kg6 Ng3 72.Nd4 Kf8 73.Nf5 Ne2 74.Kg5 1:0.  2) The significance of any passed pawn

 The advantage of king’s position positi on may 1) be not a decisive factor Alburt L. L. : Kholmov R. Daugavpils 1978

XIIIIIIIIY 9 + + + +0 9+ + + m k 0 9 + +Ks np+0 np+0 9+ + +p+p0 9 + s N z P z P0 P0 9+ P+0 0 9 +++++z 9+ + + + 0 xiiiiiiiiy

may be considerably more important Barcza G. : Simagin V. Budapest 1949 

XIIIIIIIIY 9 + + +k+0 9z p + + pp0 p zp0 9 + + + +0 9+ + + + 0 9 +Nz pnz pnz P +0 9+ + + z P 0 9P+ + + z P0 P0 9+ + + m K 0 xiiiiiiiiy

The visible weakness of g3 pawn must not mislead anybody: sitting at the corner Black’s king is threatened with wit h mate or total loss of pawns. 57...Ng8

The knight is a team player and with his next move Black assembles all forces together. 39...Kf7! 40.Ne5? By playing 40.Nb2 Ke6 41.Kg2 Kd5 42.Kf3 White could try to establish the defense, but   he follows another plan. 40...Ke6 41.Nc6 Kd5 42.Na7 d3 43.Kf1  Now the special knight knight technics will be

For now this is one of two suitable continuations. More straightforward line

demonstrated: nothing common with the  pawn endgames!

Without knights: easy win for White. With knights: draw.

FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

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43…Nc3!   43…Nc3!  Black keeps his opponent’s knight away from “d” pawn which is to be crowned. 44.Ke1 Kd4 45.Kd2 Ne4 46.Kc1 Nd6! 47.Kd2 Nc4 48.Kc1 d2 49.Kc2 Ke3 50.Nb5 Na3! 0:1.  3) The extra pawn may be useless in the position with limited material. Kasparov G. : Adams M. Linares 1999

XIIIIIIIIY 9 + + +k+0 9+ + + + 0 9 + + + p0 p z0 9+p+ + + 0 9 + s N + +0 9z P s n + z PP0 PP0 9 K m0 0 9+++++++K0 xiiiiiiiiy Without knights: easy win for White. With knights: draw. Black’s position is difficult but not hopeless.  hopeless.   48...h5? This is the right idea at the t he wrong time! Correct line was 48...Kg7 49.g4 (or 49.Kg2 Kf6 50.Kf3 Ke5 51.Nc6 Kf6 52.Na7 h5 53.Ke3 b4 54.Kd3 h4 55.g4 Nd5 56.ab4 Nf4 57.Ke3 Nh3) Kf6 50.Kg3 Ke5 (driving White’s knight away from attacking at tacking  position) 51.Nc6 Kf6 52.Nb4 52.Nb4 (52.Na7 h5=) h5. 49.h4? Returning the favor. Black could cou ld face insoluble problems in case of 49.Kg2! Kf7 50.Kf3 Kf6 51.Ke3 and 52.Kd3. 49...Kf7 50.Kh3 Kf6 51.g4 hg4 52.Kg4 Kg6 After the pawn exchange Black holds; however, to do so he must play this ending  perfectly! 53.h5 Kh7 From the pure human view it looks safer to to keep the king out of the t he corner (53...Kf ( 53...Kf6 6 FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

54.Kh4 Kf7 55.Kg5 Ne4), but so far Black B lack has a choice. 54.Kh4 Kg8 Dangerous but still possible! Here Her e 54...Kh6 55.Nf5 Kh7 56.Nd6 Kh6 57.Kg4 Nd5! 58.Nb5 Ne3 59.Kf4 Nc4 60.a4 Kh5 was the last human alternative. 55.h6 Kh7 56.Kh5 Ne4? Sad story. Black had to be consistent: 56...Kh8!! 57.Kg6 Kg8 58.h7 Kh8. 57.Nb5 Nf6 58.Kg5 Ne4 59.Kf5 Nc5 60.Ke5 Kh6 It will be very usefull to compare in details this situation with the final position in the comment to 54-th move. Now White White is on the top! 61.Kd4! Na6  Or 61...Na4 62.Nc3 Nb2 63.Nd1! (typical deflecting sacrifice) Nd1 64.a4. The black knight cannot fight alone against the all White’s army. army. 62.Kd5 Kg6 63.Nd4 Kf6 64.Kd6 Kf7 65.Ne6 1:0.  4) The evident positional advantage may be not sufficient for win. Lasker E. : Nimzowitsch A. Zuerich 1934

XIIIIIIIIY 9 + + +k+0 9z pp+ + +p0 pp+ 9 + + + +0 9+ + + + 0 9 + s nP+ +0 nP+ 9+ + + + 0 9Pz P + + +0 9+K+ + s N 0 xiiiiiiiiy Without knights: easy win for Black. With knights: Black stands better. Here we shall look at the “evergreen” “evergreen”   classics. Black has a distant passed pawn and Nimzowitsch’s play in this t his ending is close to perfection. But could he win against

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the best defense of his opponent? Not  proven. 35...Kf7 36.Kc1 Kf6 37.Kd2 Ke5 38.Ke3 h5 39.a3 Immediate 39.Nh3 and then 39…Ne6 (39…  Nc2 40.Kf3 Kb4? 41.Nf4) 41.Nf4) 40.Nf2 Nf4 41.Kf3 (or 41.Nd1) looks more logical. There was no reason to touch the queenside  pawn without necessity. 39...a5 40.Nh3 Nc2?! This is the discipline violation: Black’s knight departs to the cake walk instead of following his general order: 40...Ne6 41.Nf2  Nf4. 41.Kd3 Ne1 42.Ke2 Ng2 43.Kf3 Nh4 44.Ke3 Ng6 45.Ng5?! Oh, those willful knights! White misses a convenient chance to exchange pawns after 45.b4!? ab4 (45...a4 46.Ng1!) 46.ab4. 45...Kf6 46.Nh7 Kg7 47.Ng5 Kf6 48.Nh7 Ke7 49.Ng5 Ne5 Black is in a hurry to recover r ecover his control of the important square e5. Probably he did not like the variation variat ion 49...a4 50.Nf3 Kd6 Kd6 51.b3! ab3 52.Nd2 Ne5 53.Nb3. 50.Kd4 Kd6 51.Nh3?! Here the move 51.b3 was called for: it is very unsafe for White to stand still st ill and allow his opponent to fix queenside without w ithout any pawn exchange! 51...a4 52.Nf4 h4 53.Nh3

XIIIIIIIIY 9 + + + +0 9+p+ + + 0

53…b6 54.Nf4 b5 55.Nh3?!  55.Nh3?!  Of course, the t he good king’s move 55.Kc3 (Dvoretsky) was better. But (surprisingly enough and very instructively for us!) even after making that weaker choice Lasker all the same keeps the possibility of resistance. 55...Nc6 56.Ke3?  Now White’s defense collapses. collapses. The only  possible way was 56.Kc3 Ke5 Ke5 57.Kd3, and then after 57…Na5 58.Ng1! Kf4 59.e5 Kf5 60.e6 Nc6 61.Kd2! (but not 61.Kc3? Kf6, getting in zugzwang) Black will be still wide of the mark. Let me draw your attention to the final final position of this var iation: iation: it’s a nice example of distant chess peace’s cooperation. 56...Kc5 57.Kd3 b4! 58.ab4 This exchange saves the queenside but opens the route for Black’s king.  king.  58…K b4 b4 59.Kc2 Nd4 60.Kb1 Ne6 61.Ka2 Kc4 62.Ka3 Kd4 63.Ka4 Ke4 64.b4 Kf3 65.b5 Kg2 0:1.  Conclusion Maybe the more meticulous met iculous observer will notice more distinctions between pawn and knight endings but it hardly matters. matt ers. The key word is “may be”, so we have reasons to modify the Botvinnik’s formula as next: “Knight endgames may be pawn endgames”. e ndgames”. It means that most techniques of pawn endgames equally apply to knight knight endgames  but there is no guarantee of the same result. result.

9 ks 9+++m n+++0 0 9p+ KP+ K mP+ p0 p z0 9z P + + +N0 9 z P + + +0 9+ + + + 0 xiiiiiiiiy Black has made progress and now the simple line 53…Nc6 54.Kd3 53…Nc6 54.Kd3 (54.Kc4 Ke5) Kc5 looks strong. Nevertheless, after 55.Ng1! Ne5 56.Kc3 b5 57.b3! White holds on the verge of catastrophe. Nimzowitsch tries to get an extra tempo for move …b5. …b5. FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

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