Wednesday, October 22, 2014

More Chess! A Cool Endgame

Take a look at this chess game I recently played. By this point in the endgame, I (white) am down two pawns worth of material, and my only major piece is a knight versus my opponent's bishop:






I start pressuring black's a-pawn with my knight. Given how much closer my king is to this pawn than black's king, I should be able to capture it with my two attacking pieces and reduce black's material advantage.

Black responds by advancing his pawn out of immediate threat.

Kd3 seals off the important b2 square from the black bishop. I move my king towards the a-file, and by Kb4 I expose the pawn to capture.


Black advances his d-pawn, an interesting counter that prevents me from taking his a-pawn. Doing so guarantees that either black is able to promote his d-pawn or I lose my knight. With my knight initially pinned, my king would be unable to defend two areas at once.

I instead switch my pressure on to the d-pawn, which similarly cannot be defended given the proximity of my two attacking pieces.

After Kxd2, black is only up one pawn. Nevertheless, he retains both a material and strategic advantage, with his king and bishop on more threatening squares.


Black moves Bb5+ and advances his king. At this point, I see a combination that will have my knight forking his f-pawn and h-pawn: Kf2 / Kg4+ / Kg5.


Black responds with f6, which zones out my knight from a retreat back to the g5 or f6 squares after I capture his h-pawn. While it effectively relegates my knight to the sidelines, this move is actually helps turn the tide in my favor in a major, major way.

After black's Bg3 threat to my f-pawn, I respond with Kxf6! With this move, I've guaranteed the promotion of my h-pawn. Crucially, the bishop is boxed in by my pawn at g4 and by his own pawn (moved earlier in response to my knight fork) at g6.

Unable to prevent my promotion, black captures my f-pawn and advances his own e-pawn.



My pawn is promoted to a queen, and I now gain the lead. But it's not over yet. Black advances his two pawns and threatens a promotion of his own.

Qh3 is an immediate fork to black's a-pawn and f-pawn. Black chooses the lesser of two evils and gives up his a-pawn.

I follow up the next few moves by using my queen to pressure black into a weaker position– with his king retreated back and his bishop pinned.



Time to close it out. I advance my a-pawn for another promotion. After moving his king to free his bishop from the pin, Bd4 tries to defend against my advancing pawn at the a7 square.

I advance my pawn again. Black, with no good options left, chooses a pretty bad one in Kf4.

Qd6+ forks his king and bishop, and black is forced into Be5 or else lose his bishop. My pawn promotion is now completely uncontested, but I see a quicker win.

With black's pieces boxing in his king, the combination of Qh6+ / Qh3+ / and Qh4# secures the checkmate.

Here's the full endgame: