There are many chess players with ELO rating under 2000 around the world who would like to increase their chess capabilities. And reach the level of 2000 ELO points. Just like me. This blog is exactly for them.
In this type of endings the goal of the stronger side is to reach a draw. But if you play knight vs. pawn ending and your opponent has a pawn on a-column or h-column then you can get into serious troubles sometimes.
Let’s look at some examples:
[FEN "8/P1n5/8/8/2K5/8/2k5/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Kc5 Kc3 2.Kc6 Na8 3.Kb7 (and white wins)
But this position is a draw:
[FEN "8/8/5n1P/8/5K2/8/5k2/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Kf5 Nh7 2.Kg6 Nf8+ 3.Kg7 Ne6+ 4.Kf7 Ng5+ 5.Kg6 Ne6 6.h7 Nf8+ (and Nxh7 in the next move)
This position is also a draw:
[FEN "8/1P1n4/8/8/3K4/8/3k4/8 w - - 0 1"]
1.Kd5 Kd3 (black’s king can stay almost whereever. It is not necessary to involve him into fight.) 2.Kd6 Nb8 3.Kc7 Na6+ (now the knight can move to a safe square – compare with the first diagram!) 4.Kb6 Nb8 (draw)
So how is it possible to win this type of ending if you are the side with a pawn? The answer lies in the situation when the opponent’s knight does not have access to the promoting square. See this example:
November 5th, 2009 at 10:04 am
white can win
November 5th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Thanks for showing us these endings.
One wrong move in the ending is normally
all you get,no time to recover.