The Chess Mind

Thanks to JC's comment to my Olympics round-up post, I became acquainted with the fascinating game Cheparinov-Kazhgaleyev. Cheparinov was winning the endgame quite convincingly (by an approximate margin of +5 as the computer sees things), but then the wheels came off. His 47th move was a slight inaccuracy, his 48th a big error, and his natural 52nd move threw away the win once and for all. Or at least, it would have, had his opponent not decided to resign a move later!



It's Black to move, and instead of resigning, he can hold a draw beginning with the mutually forced 53...Rd7 54.Bxd7 Bxd7 55.Rf8 b4. It's a great exercise if you want to try to work things out for yourself; if not, or if you're curious to test your findings with mine, then have a look here. There are some exceptionally beautiful lines, so I hope you'll have a look.

It's White to move and win, but you might need a hint to solve this amusing 1936 study by former world chess champion Vassily Smyslov. Do what you can, and when you're ready for that hint or to see the solution, keep clicking "Show" until you get there.

In rook endings, we "all" know the Lucena and Philidor positions*, and many of us know the Karstedt drawing idea as well. But Vancura's drawing idea? That ending is less well-known than the three aforementioned techniques; deservedly so, due to its relative infrequency. But seldom isn't never, and Carlsen was able to use it a few days ago to save a rook ending against Ivanchuk despite a two pawn deficit.

It's a really beautiful idea, and even if it never shows up in your games, there's an aesthetic payoff. There's also an instructional one, because the principles underlying it apply to many other rook endings. So you have good reason to check out my ChessVideos show for this week: you'll learn a new technique, some general principles of rook endings, and some interesting moments in the Carlsen-Ivanchuk ending prior to the Vancura draw. As always, the show is free, available on demand and requires no special software.


* Regarding the allegedly universal knowledge of the Philidor Position draw, stay tuned for next week's ChessVideos show.

The U.S. Chess Federation's monthly catalog magazine, Chess Life, seems to have less content every year, but I'm glad that Soltis's and Benko's columns have survived to the present time. Benko's endgame columns are consistently solid, and he also offers a showcase for established and aspiring study composers in his "Benko's Baffler" sub-column. This month, he presents two that were composed in honor of his 80th birthday; one from Israeli composer Yochanan Afek (whose work recently appeared on this blog) and one from Georgian composer Velimir Kalandadze. Here it is:


White to play and draw

Studies, as opposed to problems, are supposed to be "gamelike", and speaking for myself I see interlocking tripled g-pawns in my games all the time. (Or not.) The queen on h4 is also rather suspicious, which suggests that this is a study that will have a humorous payoff. The drawing motif isn't especially original (if I'm familiar with the idea as a casual fan of endgame studies, it can't be very original) and the intro is also familiar from some old rook vs. two pawn studies, but maybe the originality lies in the conjunction. (The solution isn't unique, either - White has a transpositional choice at one moment; this too is an aesthetic blemish.) In any case it's entertaining, accessible, and eminently solvable.

The solution is here, but if you'd like a hint or two, click below.