Endgame Studies 7

Alexey Troitzky, 1896
Alexey Troitzky, 1896

White to play and win

This study is all about the difference between the white knight and the black bishop. There are only a few pawns left on the board but the bishop is restricted by the f6-pawn and this allows the white knight to dominate.

1.Nd4!

Threatening a fork on e6 and the knight is immune because the a-pawn will promote: 1...Kxd4 2.a6 Bf8 3.a7

1...Bh6

1...Bh8 2.Nf5! The difference between the knight and the bishop is clear. White can now simply pick up the h3-pawn and promote their h-pawn. For example: 2...Kb5 3.Kg3 Kxa5 4.Kxh3 Kb6 5.Kg4 Kc6 6.Kh5 Kd5 7.Kg6 Ke5 8.h4 Ke4 9.h5 Ke5 10.h6 Kf4 11.h7 Ke5 12.Nh6 f5 13.Nf7+ Kd4 14.Nxh8

2.Kf3!

This puts black into Zugzwang since the bishop has no safe square despite having 7 legal moves!


Black to play

2...Bg5

2...f5 3.Ke2! f4 4.Kf3! Now black has to move the bishop or take the king

3.Ne6+ Kb5 4.Nxg5 fxg5 5.Kg3 Kxa5


White to play

6.Kxh3!

This is the only winning move since going after the g5-pawn first allows black's king to come to the corner in time

6...Kb6 7.Kg4 Kc7 8.Kxg5 Kd7 9.Kg6 Ke7 10.Kg7 Ke6 11.h4 Kf5 12.h5

And white promotes