Endgame Corner

Bishop vs Knight
Part I
It is very surprising, that Bishop and Knight and are of almost equal strength on an 8x8 board as they move in completely different ways. The Knight is a short range piece. When it moves, it loses contact with all (!!) the squares it controlled before and the colour of the square it occupies changes with each move. The Bishop is a long range piece, which can visit only half of the squares of the board. So depending on the given pawn structure, it can dominate the Knight in an open position with play on both wings or look like an overgrown pawn, if the pawns are blocked on squares of the same colour and it has very limited scope. In the first part of my discussion I will look at positions, in which the player with the Knight is behind on material and tries to set up a fortress on squares opposite to the Bishop's colour: 5.01 L.Gutman (2533) - K.Mller (2513) German Ch, Heringsdorf 2000 =/= White can't make any meaningful progress so Gutman decided to call it a day after 53.Kf3 Nd5 The next fortress shows a curious special case:

Endgame Corner
Karsten Mller

5.02 C.Cohrs (2205) - W.Gerstner (2400) Dresden 1999 /= 46...Nd1 47.Kf3 Kf6 48.Bc8 Nc3 49.Ke3 Nxa2 50.Kd4 Nc3 51.Kc5 Na2 52.Bd7 In the next example Black has even better chances than White due to her more active King:

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5.03 R.Borer (2015) - A.Frank Elista ol (Women) 1998 /= 53...Kb4! 54.Ke3 (54.Bc6 Kc5=) 54...Nc4+ (54...Nb7!? was worth trying e.g. 55.Be8 Nc5 56.Kd2 [56.Bc6? is bad as the pawn ending after 56...Nxa4 57.Bxa4? Kxa4 58.Kd2 Kb4 59.Kd3 Kb3 is lost.] 56...Ne6 [56...Nxe4+ 57.Ke3 Nc5 58.Bc6=] 57.Bb5 Nf4 58.Bf1 Kxa4 59.Kc3 Ka5 and Black is slightly better) 55.Kd3 and a draw was agreed as the pawn ending after 55...Nb2+ 56.Kc2 Nxa4 57.Bxa4 Kxa4 58.Kc3 Kb5 59.Kb3 is equal. The most powerful weapon to break such fortresses is zugzwang. The next two examples demonstrate this: 5.04 P.Leko (2701) - A.Khalifman (2628) Budapest 2000 +/52.Bd7 10 If Black's Knight on c7 were a Bishop, the position would be dead drawn as Black wouldn't fall into zugzwang.

5.05 S.Ivanov (2538) - J.van der Wiel (2544) 15th EUCup final, Bugojno 1999 +/59.Bd7 and van der Wiel resigned as he has no move after 59...Ng7 60.Kh6+Sometimes the Bishop dominates the Knight:

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5.06 M.Socko (2438) - K.Lerner (2588) MK Cafe Cup-A Koszalin 1999 -/+ 53.Kd4 (The pawn ending after 53.Nf3 Bxf3 54.Kxf3 is lost: 54...Ke6 55.Ke3 Kd5 56.Kd3 d6+) 53...Kf6 54.Kc5 g5 55.fxg5+ Kxg5 56.Kd6 (56.Kb6 f4 57.gxf4+ Kxh4 58.Kxa6 Kg4+ [Hecht in ChessBase Magazin 73]) 56...f4 01 I want to end the discussion with a very complicated example: 5.07 H. Berliner in The System +/ Without the g-pawns, the position is dead drawn, but with them White can break through by a well-timed sacrifice of the e-pawn: 1.Bh4 Nf4+ 2.Kc5 (After 2.Ke4?! Ne6 3.Be1? Black's king gets to a more active position with 3...Kc6! making a win extremely difficult, if not impossible.) 2...Ne6+ (2...Nd3+ 3.Kd4 Nf4 4.Bg3 Ne2+ 5.Kd5 Nxg3 6.e6+ Kd8 7.Kc6 Ne4 8.e7+ Ke8 9.d7+ Kxe7 10.Kc7+-) 3.Kb6 Nd4 (3...g5 4.Bg3 Nd8 5.Bh2 Ne6 6.Kb5 Nd8 7.Kc5 Ne6+ 8.Kd5 Nd8 9.Bg1 Ne6 10.Be3+-) 4.Bf2 Ne6 (4...Nf3 5.Bg3 Ng5 6.Bf4 Ne6 7.Bh2+- see the main line) 5.Bg3 Nd4 6.Kc5 Ne6+ 7.Kd5 Nd8 8.Bf4 Ne6 9.Bh2 Nd8 now the appropriate time for e6+ has come: 10.e6+! Nxe6 11.Ke5 g5 (11...Ng5 12.Kf6 Nf3 13.Bf4 g5 14.Be5+-) 12.Kf6 Nd4 13.Be5 Ne6 14.Kf5 Nc5 15.Kxg5 Ke6 16.Bh2 Kf7 17.Kf5 Nd7 18.Be5+-

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Exercises (Solutions next month) E5.01 Gambit Tiger 1.0 - Deep Fritz Computer Chess Match Tournament Cadaques 2001 How to assess the position with Black to move?

E5.02 K.van der Weide (2434) J.Nilssen (2326) Politiken Cup Copenhagen 1999 Van der Weide found a way to defend his position. Can you do the same?

E5.03 V.Potkin (2470) - V.Milov (2604) Linares Anibal open 2001 Did Potkin manage to storm Milovs barricades? (White is to move)

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Solutions to last month exercises E4.01 V.Georgiev (2538) - K.Mller (2527), Hamburg 2000 White can indeed win: 73.Bb5 Qf7 74.Kh5 Ke7 (74...Qxg6+ 75.Kxg6 Kg8 76.Kh6 Bb7 77.Be1 Bc8 78.Be8 Bb7 79.Bg6 Nf8 80.Kxg5+-) 75.Kh6 Qxg6+ 76.Kxg6 Nf8+ 77.Kxg5 Kf7 78.Kh6 Ng6 79.Be1 Ne7 80.g4 Ng6 81.Be8+ Kxe8 82.Kxg6 Ba6 83.g5 Be2 84.Kh7 Bg4 85.g6 Bf5 86.Kg7 (86.Bxb4 wins as well.) 86...Ke7 87.Bh4+ Ke8 88.Bg5 10 E4.02 G.Meins (2465) - S.Reschke (2390), German Bundesliga 1997 In the game Reschke missed the mate with 57...Kc6! and played instead 57...Re6+? The game ended in a draw several moves later. 58.Rc1+ Kd7 59.Ra1 f6#

E4.03 J.Hjartarson (2605) - S.Sulskis (2510), FIDE-Wch Groningen 1997 30.Re7? allowed Black to save himself in a spectacular way. (30.Re8+ Kg7 31.Re7 Nxa2+ 32.Kxa2 Rh2+ 33.Ka1 b3 34.Rexf7+ Kh6 35.R7f2+- [Tsesarsky in ChessBase Magazin 63]; 30.a5 Ne2+ [30...Nxa2+ 31.Kxa2 Rh2+ 32.Kb3 Rb2+ 33.Ka4+] 31.Kxb4 Nxd4 32.a6+[Hjartarson]) 30...Nxa2+! 31.Kxa2 Rh2+ 32.Kb1 (32.Kb3?? Rb2#) 32...b3 33.Rb7 Rb2+ 34.Ka1 Ra2+ 35.Kb1 Sources: The System, Hans Berliner, GAMBIT 1999 ChessBase MEGABASE 2001 ChessBase Magazin Nos.63, 73 Copyright 2001 Karsten Mller. All rights reserved.
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