Ambar Chatterjee
Fascinating Endgames

Learning chess can be fun. Many talented beginners quickly develop a grasp of key squares pieces can reach and start seeing 3 or 4 moves ahead. At this point of chess learning, what is most fascinating are combinations – middle game skirmishes where you see a little further than the opponent. If the combination involves a sacrifice, it gives still more pleasure and you begin to discover why some moves have been called beautiful. Games of Paul Morphy and Tal make a great impression.

But when I was learning chess, I became more fascinated with the endgame, starting from the elementary mates and going on to the more difficult basic endgames. I would get to see Ruben Fine’s Basic Chess Endings much later. The only book I owned for the moment was Fred Reinfeld’s Chess in a Nutshell.

CHECKMATE WITH BISHOP AND KNIGHT

There were 2 pages devoted to checkmate by Bishop and Knight in Reinfeld’s book, and it was described as the hardest of all basic checkmates. The procedure was given as: 1. The lone King must be driven to the side of the board, 2. The lone King must be forced into a corner square of the same colour as those the Bishop travels on, 3. King Bishop and Knight then co-operate to force checkmate. But he gave only one example (Position 1), adding, "The fact that White’s King is already on a side row facilitates the checkmating process". The solution given to this position in 11 moves was relatively easy.

Position 1

But when I tried out the mating process starting from a position where White’s King is near the centre, I found that White when being forced towards the edge of the board can run towards the wrong corner (a1 or h8) and the position would be like Position 1 shifted two files to the left. How to proceed from Position 2? This was not explained in the book, so I tried it on my own.

Position 2

Position 3 was reached.

Now here I was totally foxed. After taking the trouble to force White’s King to the edge of the board, here he appears to have escaped. He may now run towards the centre or escape to the other "wrong" corner h8.

I tried Position 3 off and on for several months and gave up, thinking there might be some improvement on the previous move, but I could find no way to force the White King into h1.

In those days there were no resources I could turn to. I asked many senior players and they all said it was a rather difficult mate and could not help me with specific moves. After a long time, I met up with Mr. M.R. Wahi who at the time was Delhi Champion. My brother and I used to go to his house to play quick games over a cup of tea. One day, we asked him about checkmate with Bishop and Knight. He said, "Yes, its mate, but it can take 33 or 36 moves. Let me show you." He quickly arranged Position 2 adding, "You will find that you will be able to reach this position. And if you can solve this, then you can checkmate from any starting position." I agreed and told him I would defend as White. The moves were played and Position 3 was reached, at which point I smiled and said confidently, "You see White has escaped! He will come back to the centre or reach h8". Wahi replied, "No. The trick is in the next move".

Position 4 has been reached

Now Mr. Wahi rubbed his fingers along the diagonal f5 – h3 and the diagonal f4 – g3. “You see”, he said, “I have controlled, two adjacent diagonals, thereby cutting off the White King from escaping”. The rest was easy, the main variation being:

What fascinated me was not the particular moves 4…Ne2 followed by 5…Be6, but the logic of adjacent diagonals. When you are trying to checkmate with a Rook, the basic principle is that you can cut-off the King. When a Rook controls a rank or file, it is a Great Wall of China – the opposing King cannot cross the wall. But a Bishop, controlling a diagonal does not create a wall. A bishop controls squares only of one colour. The opposing King can go through the diagonal using squares of the other colour. If you have to checkmate with 2 Bishops then again, the process can be described in terms of creating a wall. To create a wall with two Bishops, control two adjacent diagonals. In Position-5 below, White can’t get across the wall created by two diagonals.

I have not described the process of how to force the King from the centre of the board into the edge, or wrong corner. I did not find this particularly difficult.

Basic Chess Endings, by Reuben Fine deals with this in 1 page mentioning, "In an unfavourable position the mate may require as many as 34 moves". He gives the position below and shows how White can force a position similar to Position 2.

He also considers the position similar to Position 2 as basic and goes on to show mate in 19 further moves. The move similar to Ne2 at the critical point is given without an exclamation mark and there is no mention of what it achieves. Delétang’s Triangle Method is mentioned in Om Prakash’s accompanying article. Although this triangle method was known in 1780 and published by Daniel Delétang in 1923, it finds no mention in Fine’s 1941 treatise. Similarly, the Knight’s "W manoeuvre" of Philidor (published in 1777) is not mentioned by Fine.

It is interesting to observe that Fine was nearly correct when he wrote, "Mate in 33" for the position above. In those days with no engines, no table-bases, it would have been difficult to find and verify the shortest mate. Setting up the position today in an endgame table-base with Black to move shows "Lose in 32".

Omprakash’s subsequent article will give you more details, including Delétang’s Triangle Method, with which I am not familiar.

For a modern discussion of this fascinating elementary mate, refer to the Wikipedia article.

QUEEN VERSUS PAWN ON THE 7th RANK

One day, while watching some games of the Delhi Championship 1968 being played at the Kerala Club, Connaught Place, I observed a game where Position-7 could have been reached, but White played differently at an earlier stage and lost. After the game, I was asking why White didn’t play into Position-7 where a-pawn and King draws against K+Q as is well known.

Most of the people watching were silent. There was a sports reporter from Statesman newspaper present, who was chess knowledgeable. He told me that Black (to move) wins in this position. I couldn’t believe it at first, because I had read that Rook or Bishop pawn on the 7^th rank draws against K+Q. Later I learnt that there are a number of exceptional positions where K+Q wins against a 7^th rank Rook or Bishop pawn, in some cases even when the Black King is far away as in Positions 8 and 9.

Try to solve these three positions on your own without engine or table-base help. But if you give up, then you can simply point your browser to the Nalimov tablebase site.