Endgame Studies 13

G. Zakhodyakin, 1931
G. Zakhodyakin, 1931

White to play and win

Black's knight is very poorly placed and it's clear that white needs to win the knight in order to win. The only problem is that the knight can move out of the corner so white has to look deeper.

1.Kc5 Nc7 2.Kd6 Ne8+ 3.Ke7!

3.Kd7? This was my first intention in order to keep control of c7 but now black has a sneaky draw. 3...Ng7 4.Bg6 Kg8 5.Ke7 Kh8 6.Kf7 Nf5! 7.Bxf5 Stalemate

3...Ng7

3...Nc7 4.Kf7 Nd5 now white wins by pushing the g-pawn: 5.g6 +-

4.Bg6 Kg8 5.Bf7+! Kh7 6.Kf6 Kh8 7.Ke5! Kh7 8.Ke4!

White wants to move their king to g4 in order to control the h5-square. After that, white can push g6 and force black into giving up their knight - but only with the black king on h8, so white has to lose a tempo.

8...Kh8 9.Kf4 Kh7 10.Kg4 Kh8 11.g6!

This was the point behind white's king manoeuvre. Now black has to give up the knight and white wins easily.