Endgame Study One

Today's position is a common one that occurs rather frequently in even-matched games. White is up a pawn in a King+Lone Pawn vs. King Endgame. Black can no longer outright win the game, and it seems as though if White can protect the pawn and turn it into a Queen, he should win, right? Let's take a look.

EITHER Side to Move DRAWS!

I know... I know... Some of you have been in this position and won as White. It's especially easy to do when White has the move, but it still requires Black to play inaccurately. We'll start the proof of this drawing evaluation assuming White to move.

White has to pick a side of the pawn to move to, because stepping backwards to c2 would immediately draw the game because Black would simply take the pawn. So, for our purposes, White will move his king to the right.

1.Kd3 Kc6. If you are forced to step away from a pawn in a position like this, it is a good general practice to always step straight back. Black cannot go to the side with 1.Kd3 Kb4?(bad move) 2.Kd4 and now Black can't get back in front of White's pawn, and he will queen. Back to the real analysis. 2.Kd4 Kd6. This move by Black keeps his King in front, and within reach, of White's pawn. It also prevents White from stepping his own King in front of his pawn. 3.c5+ Kc6. Black immediately steps back in front of White's pawn, any other move could potentially become disastrous. This move also forces White's next move. 4.Kc4(the only move that saves the pawn) Kc7. Again Black is applying the fundamentals, simply stepping back from the pawn. 5.Kd5 Kd7. Black remains adamant about keeping White's King from getting ahead of his pawn. 6.c6+ Kc7. Again forcing the White King to return behind the pawn if he want's to keep it. 7.Kc5 Kc8. By now you should see a trend. KEEP STEPPING BACKWARDS. 8.Kd6 Kd8. Still blocking out the King. 9.c7+ Kc8 Now the game is completely a draw. If White's King moves away from the pawn, Black simply takes it, and the game is drawn. What happens when White continues to defend the pawn? 9.Kc6. The game is drawn! Black is not in checkmate, but has no legal moves, therefore, he is in Stalemate, and the game is a tie.

Black to move in the original position is a stalemate for exactly the same reason. 1...Kd6. Stepping backwards for the draw! 2.Kd4 Kd6. Another take-home point. When White's King makes an attempt to get around his pawn, Black NEEDS to step directly in front of him. There is a tricky concept called Opposition, where you are trying to keep the other King from advancing forward, and for this drawing technique to work, Black needs to keep it, meaning he needs to stunt the White King from moving forward as much as possible. The rest of this is just a copy-cat version of the White-to-Move version. 3.c5+ Kc6 4.Kc4 Kc7 5.Kd5 Kd7 6.c6+ Kc7 7.Kc5 Kc8 8.Kd6 Kd8 9.c7+ Kc8 10.Kc6 Stalemate. This is the sort of knowledge that will frustrate the hell out of somebody thinking they have a won game.

Algebraic Notation for Dummies

This blog is to help me analyse my games, hopefully so I can find my mistakes. It's also up here for other people to learn from my mistakes, and my brilliancies (I have them on occasion), to help them get better. I will also be posting random problems that I find in my books that have tactical and strategic learning value, so those that want to learn more about how to play the game of chess better have the resources to do so.

ANYWAY, Before any of my newer posts will make sense, I need to go over a quick primer for algebraic notation. Algebraic notation is the way chess games are recorded. There are a few others, but they fall short of algebraic notation because they can be quite confusing at times. Even with algebraic notation making it much easier to follow along in games, it is highly recommended, if you are reviewing my analysis, to have a chess board or a chess game on your computer, so you can follow along. In the event you're using a program on your computer, make sure you set it to two HUMAN players, otherwise it won't let you take back moves if you follow into some of my sub-variations. For now, the diagrams should suffice.

The chess board is composed of 64 squares. Each square is designated by a letter and a number. The letters tell us how far to the left or right the square is ('a' being the far left, 'h' being the far right, from WHITE's side of the board). All chess diagrams are done with White on the bottom, so if you are viewing this game from Black's point of view on a real chess board, remember that 'h' will be on your left and 'a' will be on your right.

Numbers designate how far up the board a square is. White's "Home Row," where his pieces sit behind his pawns, is the 1st rank. Black's Home Row will be the 8th rank.

That's the algebraic layout of the chess board. The peice moving is designated by a letter as well. B for Bishop, N for Knight, R for Rook, Q for Queen, and K for King. Pawns are not given letters, and their moves are designated by the square they land on. For example, in the diagram above, If White made his first move, moving his King's Pawn out two from e2 to e4, in elongated format this would be e2-e4, but most chess books and almost all analysis is done in shorthand form, or simply 1.e4. If Black were to reply with symmetry, moving his own King's Pawn out two from e7 to e5, the move would be annotated 1...e5. The "..." is to signify that it's Black's move. This is most often used if there is a break in analysis, or if we are comparing multiple options for Black. In a game, both moves are annotated next to each other, with White's move naturally always coming first, i.e. 1.e4 e5. In many positions you will see here, and elsewhere in chess books and analysis, I will have the move order up to the point of the diagram listed in full. For instance, I'll have a diagram of a position I played against the King's Indian Defense, and preceding the diagram will be the move order, for example, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6, with the diagram to follow. Until you are proficient with keeping track of long move orders like this in your head, it's advisable to have another board to follow along.

The next diagram should suffice to show you how we annotate captures, checks, and mates.

In this diagram, it's White to move. He has several options to capture the Black bishop on e4. Any piece capturing another is denoted by the symbol for the piece, and 'x,' and the square on which the capture was made. For example, 1.Qxe4, 1.Bxe4, 1.Rxe4. If the Knight captures, it also puts the King in check, which is denoted by a '+' at the end of the move, i.e. 1.Nxe4+. When reading this move, it would be "Queen takes on e4," or "Knight takes on e4, check." There are no one-move mates in this position, but a mate is denoted by a '#' at the end of the move. There is a way to mate the Black King in this position (there are actually several), but for our purposes, I'll show you the simplest to do. Despite capturing and putting the King in check, there is a safer way to do it that does not risk a strange stalemate. The simple 1.Rxe4 is good enough, and after 1...Kf5(the move doesn't really matter at this point), we would continue 2.Qd5+ Kf6 3.Re6+ Kf7 4.Qd7+ Kf8 5.Re8#. Given this rudimentary knowledge of how to read algebraic notation, you should be able to follow on with any of my other posts, but if you need any more instruction on the subject, please feel free to email me at cityofashes@chess.com