Study of the year

STUDY OF THE YEAR

 


 

 

The sub-committee for endgame studies, reporting to FIDE’s Permanent Commission for Chess Composition (the PCCC), announces its selection of a study of the year for each of the years 1998, 1999 and 2000.

 

Study of the year 1998

Boris Gusev &

Karen Sumbatyan

1st/2nd Prize

Moscow Town 1998

Ka8 Bh5 Na1 Pb5 - Ka4 Rd2

White to play and win    4+2

To win White must promote his pawn, but his knight, which he can ill afford to part with, is in peril, especially from Black’s king. It is not so simple.

 

 

Study of the year 1999

 

Nikolai Kralin

Prize

“Magadan-60 AT” 1999

Kf3 Bg3 Pa6 d6 e4 h4 - Kh3 Bh1 Pa7 e5 f5 g2 g5 h5

White to play and win     6+8

White can easily deal with Black’s threat to promote on g1, but Black also has threats to mobilise his dark pawn phalanx, against which White has ‘only’ his advanced d-pawn. Can the blocked pawn on a6 play a part?

 

 

Study of the year 2000

 

Yochanan Afek

1st/2nd Prize

Kralin-55 JT2000

Ka8 Re3 Bc8 Pb6 - Ka4 Qe8 Pe4

White to play and win    4+3

In this case, although Black has only one active piece, that piece is the queen, while White’s men are for the moment passively placed — apart from the pawn on b6… 

 

 

 

Solutions

 

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