King and Pawn Endings: Exercise #1
Solving king and pawn endings is among the best exercises available to a chess player.
For starters, the reduced material makes calculating everything in one's mind relatively easy, even when the variations are extremely long. Second, pawn endings are fundamental, so skill in solving studies is very likely to translate into improving one's playing skill in a pretty direct fashion. And finally, they're just plain interesting! (At least I think so, and I hope some of the exercises I present will leave you feeling the same way if you don't already.)
Here's the first one:
From an actual game, Black to move (and draw). (Solution tomorrow; quasi-hat tip: Chess Today-1936)
For starters, the reduced material makes calculating everything in one's mind relatively easy, even when the variations are extremely long. Second, pawn endings are fundamental, so skill in solving studies is very likely to translate into improving one's playing skill in a pretty direct fashion. And finally, they're just plain interesting! (At least I think so, and I hope some of the exercises I present will leave you feeling the same way if you don't already.)
Here's the first one:
From an actual game, Black to move (and draw). (Solution tomorrow; quasi-hat tip: Chess Today-1936)
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Saturday February 25, 2006 at 6:37pm