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If the white distant passed pawn were shifted one rank back, a very different position would arise! White wins since after eliminating the black distant passed pawn Black’s king will not be able to control the key-square b7 in time. For all similar positions a universal rule holds: White always wins provided his […]
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When the enemy king is far and there is no possibility of directly attacking its pawns, sometimes the win may be achieved by a pawn sacrifice in order to enable a quicker penetration of the king. A nice example on the theme is shown in a study by G. Mattison, 1929.
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In more complex pawn endings sometimes it is important to know whether two isolated passed pawns can win without the support of the king. In this situation we are helped out by the rule of the “common square”, formulated by A. Studenecki in 1939. The “common square” is a square the length of the […]
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If we move the pawns one rank back, they will not be able to win without the support of the king. But if the white king is far, the pawns will perish since they will not be able to defend each other. The common square ends on the seventh rank. This means that the […]
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The original S. Walles’s study reveals that the win is also occasionally possible if the white king has not yet managed to get in front of its passed pawn. The point of Walles’s idea is that by means of the tempo-move:
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A somewhat more complex case arose in the game Pomar – Cuartas, Olot, 1974, pointing out yet another weakness of the doubled pawns. At first sight it might appear that Black to move loses since White is threatening to force zugzwang by a roundabout manoeuvre. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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In a similar entertaining way Black saved the game in the game Nikolajevski -Taimanov, USSR Championship, 1957. Black’s position looks hopeless since the loss of the c-pawn is inevitable. However, Taimanov spotted a hidden stalemate possibility. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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Among tactical motifs also the defence by stalemate deserves attention. In tournament play two exceptionally interesting cases have been registered. The first arose in the game Chigorin -Tarrasch, Ostende, 1905. Only in a post-mortem did Geza Maroczy discover a brilliant defence by stalemate. White to play draws! ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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Very often in tournament play we run across positions where each side has three pawns on the same wing. As a rule, these positions should be within drawing limits, but there are many exceptions. One of the most unusual is the case of breakthrough. White to play wins thanks to a breakthrough. By sacrificing two […]
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A very instructive study on the theme of breakthrough was composed by Godes and Averbakh in 1955. It appears that White is hopelessly lost since the black king is too near his pawns, whilst the white king is tied down due to the “outside” passed pawn. However, White to move wins thanks to an […]
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