UMBC, room ECS 023, 4-28-99
Notes by David Joyner. (No claim to completeness.)
Theme: Decoying the rival king to a bad square.
The king should pursue multiple goals on the board in choosing his route. Possible goals include:
- support of passed pawn,
- entering the “square of the passed pawn”,
- deflection of the rival king,
- decoying the king to an unfavorable position.
Position 8.1: From Shepard-Townsend, England 1969.
In Forsyth notation:
8/1p4p1/8/4p3/1PP1K1k1/8/8/8
Black to move. White wins.
1 … Kg5 2 Kxe5 Kh4 3 c5 g5 4 b5 g4 5 Kf4 g3 6 Kf3 Kh3 7 c6 bxc6 8 bxc6 g2 9 c7 g1=Q
10 c8=Q+ Kh4 11 Qh8+ Kg5 12 Qg8+ and white skewers the black queen. 1 … Kh4 2 c5 g5 3 b5 g4 4 c6 bxc6 5 bxc6 g3 6 Kf3 e4+! 7 Kg2 e3 8 Kf3 and white wins.
Position 8.2: Study by Grigoriev, 1928a
In Forsyth notation:
8/8/1p2K3/8/8/8/k5P1/8
White to play and win.
1 Kd5 Ka3 2 Kc4 Ka4 3 g4 b5+ 4. Kd3 Ka3 5 g5 b4 6 g6 b2 7 g7 b2 8 Kc2! Ka3
9 g8=Q+ and white wins. Against 1 Kd5 b4 2 Kc5 Kb3 white wins.
Position 8.3: Study by Grigoriev, 1928b
In Forsyth notation:
8/8/1p6/8/k7/3K4/5P2/8
White to move and win.
1 f4 Kb5 draws. Instead, white must block black’s king away from the square of the passed pawn: 1 Kd4 b5 2 f4 b4 3 f5 b3 4 Kc3 Ka3 5 f6 b2 6 f7 b1=Q 7 f8=Q+ Ka4 8 Qa8+ and 9 Qb8+ skewers the black queen.
Position 8.4: Study by Grigoriev, 1928c
In Forsyth notation:
8/8/1p6/8/8/4K2P1/k7/8
(Typo in Forsyth notation? Black king is one square over in diagram.)
White to play and win.
1. g4 b5 2 g5 b4 3 g6 b3 4 g7 b2 draw. 1. Kc3 Ka3 2 Kc4 Ka4 3 g4 b5+ 4 Kd3 b4 5 g5 b3 6 g6 Ka3 7 g7 b2 8 Kc2 Ka2 9 g8=Q+ and white wins.
Position 8.5: From Najdorf-Vinueza, 1941.
In Forsyth notation:
8/8/8/5p2/1P5k/3K4/8/8
Black to play. Draw.
1 … f4 2 Ke2 and white wins. 1 … Kh3 2 b5 f4 3 Ke4 Kg3 4 b6 f3 5 b7 f2 6 b8=Q+ Kg2 draw.
Position 8.6: From Ljubovic-Brown, Amsterdam, 1972.
In Forsyth notation:
8/5p2/2k5/K7/8/1P6/8/8
Black to play and win.
The actual game ended in a draw. 1 … Kd5 2 b4 f5 3 b5 f4 4 b6 Kc6 5 Ka6 and black wins.
Position 8.7: From Obuhovski-Grabchevski, Dubna, 1971.
In Forsyth notation:
8/6p1/8/6p1/1K4k1/8/2P5/8
White to play and win.
1 … Kf3 2 c4 Ke4 3 c5 Kd5 4 Kb5 and white wins. 1 … Kf5 2 Kc3 draws. 1 … Kf4 2 Kc3 Ke3! and black wins. 1 … Kf4 2 c4 g4 3 c5 Ke5 4 Kb5 g3 and black decoys the white king to b6.
Position 8.8: Study of Benko, 1973.
In Forsyth notation:
8/4p3/8/2K5/8/6k1/P7/8
White to play and win.
1 a4 e5 2 a5 e4 3 Kd4 and the king decoys the black king to f3, winning as before. 1 Kd5 Kf4 2 a4 e5 3 a5 e4 etc.
Position 8.9: Study of Moravec, 1957.
In Forsyth notation:
2k5/p7/8/4P3/8/7K/8/8
White to play. Draw.
1 Kg4 a5 2 Kf5 a4 3 Kg6 a3 4 e6 a2 5 e7 draw. 1 Kg4 a5 2 Kf5 Kd8 3 Ke6 Ke8 4 Kd5! draw.
Position 8.10: Part of a Votava study, 1954.
In Forsyth notation:
8/2p5/8/3K4/k7/8/7P/8
Black to play. Draw.
1 … Kb4 2 Kc6 Kc4 3 b4 Kd4 draw. 1 … Kb5 2 h4 c5 3 h3 c4 4 Kd4 Kb4 5 h6 c3 6 Kd3 Kb3 7 h7 c2 8 Kd2 Kb2 9 h8=Q+ and white wins.
Position 11.11: From Schlechter-Marco, Vienna, 1893.
Shlechter was later a world champion contender of Em. Lasker.
In Forsyth notation:
8/1K6/8/3p4/2k5/P7/8/8
White to play and draw.
1 a4 Kb4 2 Kb6 decoying and drawing as usual.
Position 8.12: Study of Grigoriev, 1933.
In Forsyth notation:
8/5K1p/8/8/8/8/1P6/7k
White to play and win.
1. Kf6 h5 2. Kg5 Kg2 3. b4 Kg3 4. b5 h4 5. b6 h3 6. b7 h2 7. b8=Q+ Kg2 8. Qb2+ Kg1 9. Qc1+ Kg2 10. Qd2+ Kg1 11. Qe1+ Kg2 12. Qe2+ Kg1 13. Kg4 h1=Q 14. Kg3 and mate next.
Position 8.13: From Lasker-Tarrasch, St Petersberg, 1914.
In Forsyth notation:
8/6K1/8/ppp2k2/8/1P6/1P5P/8
White to play and draw.
1 h4 Kg4 2 Kg6! Kxh4 3 Kf5 Kg3 4 Ke4 Kf2 5 Kd5 Ke3 6 Kxc5 Kd3 7 Kxb5 Kc2 8 Kxa5 Kxb3 draws. 1 h4 Kg4 Kf6? c4 3 bxc4 bxc4 4 Ke5 c3! (creating a “mollificient pawn”) 5 bxc3 a4 and black wins.
Position 8.14: From Albin-Hodges, New York, 1891.
Albin was a strong Rumanian chess master.
In Forsyth notation:
7k/p7/1p3p2/8/3P4/PP3K2/8/8
White to play and win.
1 Ke4 Kg8 2 Kd5 Kg7? 3 Ke6 Kg6 4 d5 f5 5 Ke5 (decoying the black king to a bad square) Kg5
6 d5 f4 7 d6 f3 8 d7 f2 9 d8=Q+ and white wins. 1 Ke4 Kg8 2 Kd5 Kf7 3 Kd6! f5 4 Ke5 and white wins.
Yet Another Mathblog 