By IM Timothy Taylor

Before I start this article, I want to take a moment to thank all the chessplayers who have come up to me in tournaments, or sent me emails, saying very kind things about my True Combat articles. Let me just say that I appreciate the good words!

Now for a memory: years ago, when I lived in New York, I had an adjourned game against the late IM Michael Valvo. I took my pocket chess set to a Po'Boy's chicken establishment, and while I did get grease all over the pieces, I also found a forced win! I had a Bishop vs. a Knight, pawns on both sides, and I found a way to sacrifice the Bishop, which led to a position where his Knight had to fight against a single pawn – but it was a rook pawn!

I'll never forget the final position:

TAYLOR - VALVO

Although it's Black to move, and he is a piece up, the Knight is absolutely helpless against the RP, and so my opponent resigned.

From that time onward, I’ve always looked for opportunities to use a single pawn on the rim to defeat a Knight!

Note that to win a similar position, only a RP works! For example, if I had a knight-pawn (moving all the pieces to the left one square) we get this:

 Here Black draws with 1…Ne3! as 2.g7 allows …Nf5 with a subsequent fork on h6. Trying to keep the Knight out also fails to win: 2.Kf6 (2.Ke6 Ng4 with the idea …Nh6 and draws) 2…Nd5+ and now 3.Kf7 repeats the position, while all other moves allow the Knight to reach g8 or sac itself for the pawn.

By the way, I checked the above analysis by using the tablebases mentioned in my last article – thanks to all readers who referred me to that helpful site (http://www.lokasoft.nl/tbweb.htm).

This reminds me of a further point about adjournments: In the old days, I enjoyed adjournments such as the Valvo game (and the wonderful chapter “In the Interval” in Lev Polugayevsky’s masterpiece, Grandmaster Preparation) but I can’t see any reason to have adjournments now, in the computer age.

The most recent tournament I played in, The Sands Regency Reno Western States Open, was the first tournament I’ve seen in a long while that required adjournments. The games were adjourned after six hours, and so very often the positions were endgames with limited material. In other words, let’s say a difficult five-piece ending occurred as in Taylor-Kallio (from True Combat in the Ending 3). Furthermore, let’s say one player has a laptop with internet access, the other doesn’t. During the interval, the first player goes online, checks the lokasoft tablebase, and comes back to the resumption of the game with a forced win or draw memorized! Meanwhile, his opponent, without that resource, faces a severe disadvantage.

There’s no way around it: the one session game is the only fair human test!

But now let’s get back to Knights and RPs. As you can see from the two diagrams above, having a RP vs. a Knight is a huge advantage compared to any other pawn. The Knight simply runs out of squares on the edge of the board. Furthermore, since a Knight cannot gain or lose a tempo, even if it temporarily blocks the RP, it can often be zugzwanged or driven away from the key squares.

With this general background in mind, let’s revisit one of my previous True Combat games.

Walter Wittmann (IM, Austria) - Timothy Taylor (IM, USA)

First Saturday International, November 2003, Budapest

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.0-0-0 Bd7 10.Kb1 Rc8 11.Nb3 a6 12.Na4 b5 13.Nb6 Rb8 14.Nxd7 Qxd7 15.Bh6 Rfc8 16.Bxg7 Kxg7 17.h4 Ne5 18.Bd3 Nc4 19.Qe1 e5 20.g3 Qa7 21.Rh2 a5 22.Nc1 a4 23.Bxc4 bxc4 24.c3 a3 25.b4 cxb3 26.axb3 Rc6 27.Ka2 Rbc8 28.c4 Rb8 29.Qc3 h5 30.Rhd2 Qc5 31.Rc2 Rcb6 32.Re2 Qc8 33.Red2 Qh3 34.Rg1 Nd7 35.Nd3 Rxb3 36.Qxb3 Rxb3 37.Kxb3 Nb6 38.Ra2 Nxc4 39.Nb4 Qe6 40.Nd5 Qc8 41.Rgg2 Qc5 42.Rgc2 Qb5+ 43.Nb4 Ne3 44.Rc3 Nf1 45.f4 Qb6 46.fxe5 dxe5 47.Rf3 Qg1 48.Raf2 Nxg3 49.Rxf7+ Kh6 50.Rf8 Nf5 51.Ra2 Nd4+ 52.Kxa3 Qe3+ 53.Ka4 Qb3+ 54.Ka5 Qc4 55.Ka4

At this point I gave the following note: “White commits hara-kiri just when I was hoping for 55.Rb8 Qa2+!! and Black’s latently passed h-pawn will win the ensuing ending!” The game finished with:

55…Qb5+ 56.Ka3 Qa5+, 0-1.

But let’s go back to the position (Wittman-Taylor variation) if White had played 55.Rb8.

Black sets up a winning ending as given in my note above:

55…Qxa2+!! 56.Nxa2 Nc6+

At this point White has to take stock of the position and look for his best defense. He is entering a pure Knight ending, with one pawn less.

As I see it, he has three main defensive possibilities:

A) Attack Black’s Knight with his King, and hope his extra piece can stave off Black’s kingside advance.

B) Attack the BP on e5, and hope to get counterplay by creating his own passed pawn.

C) Return to the kingside immediately with his Knight, without committing his King.

Let’s examine these tries in order.

Variation A: White attacks the BN

This variation turns out to be the worst of the three, because White will only have his Knight vs. the deadly RP, and we have already learned what a mismatch this is.

Black wins as follows:

57.Kb6 Nxb8 58.Kc7 g5!

Black is utterly unconcerned about the fate of his Knight: it is the Black KRP that will decide the battle.

59.hxg5+

Just as bad or worse is the immediate 59.Kxb8 gxh4 (two RPs!) 60.Nc3 h3 61.Nd1 h2 62.Nf2 Kg5 and wins.

59…Kxg5 60.Kxb8

Switching plans doesn’t help: 60.Nc1 h4 61.Nd3 h3 62.Nxe5 Kf4! 63.Nd3+ Kg3 and Black comes first.

60…h4 61.Nc3 h3 62.Nd1 h2 63.Nf2 Kf4

And Black wins the queening race by a chessic mile.

Variation B: White attacks the Black e pawn.

Since the Black Knight is clearly poisoned, as seen above, White might try to create his own passed pawn, and go immediately for the Black e-pawn. However, we will soon see that this fails to a timely Knight sacrifice on Black’s part: the point being that pawns are much more important than Knights in this kind of ending!

Black wins as follows:

57.Kb6 Nxb8 58.Kc5

White’s idea.

58…g5!

The thematic blow.

59.Kd6 Nd7!!

A COMMON THEME

Decisive!

This surprising but logical move, defending the key pawn, leaves White utterly without resource. The first player can only resign or choose his path to defeat.

60.hxg5+

Or 60.Kxd7 gxh4 61.Nc3 h3 62.Nd1 h2 63.Nf2 Kg5 64.Ke6 Kf4, curtains.

60…Kxg5 61.Kxd7 h4 62.Nc3 h3 63.Nd1 h2 64.Nf2 Kf4, and wins.

Variation C: White immediately defends with his Knight.

This is by far White’s best chance, and Black has to play accurately to win. The point is that Black’s RP is so dangerous that any wasted King moves on White’s part (in this context, we have to define as “wasted” even moves that capture a whole Knight!) allow the Black KRP to romp home.

By returning with his Knight first, White sets some problems – but still, Black wins as follows.

57.Kb5

Best: White realizes that going after the Black Knight is fatal, and so gives his King an alternate defensive route on the f1-a6 diagonal.

57…Nxb8 58.Nc1

Again the best defense: White maneuvers his Knight to d3, where it both attacks the Black e pawn and is ready to defend h1 via Nf2.

The immediate King retreat fails: 58.Kc4 g5 59.hxg5+ Kxg5 60.Kd3 Kf4 and Black’s dominant King position plus passed pawn equals decisive advantage.

58…g5 59.hxg5+

Forced, as otherwise two RPs win easily, e.g., 59.Nd3 gxh4 60.Nxe5 h3 61.Nf3 Nd7! and wins, as 61.e5, 61.Kc4, or 61.Kc6 all lose to 61…Ne5 (check), and other moves allow …Ne5 anyway, followed by …Kg5, and Black wins the White Knight for starters.

59…Kxg5 60.Nd3 Nd7!

Black has to be careful: the immediate push of the RP doesn’t win here, e.g. 60…h4? 61.Nxe5 h3 62.Nf3+ Kf4 63.Nh2 Kg3 64.Nf1+ Kg2 65.Ne3+ and White has just enough wiggle room to draw.

The important lesson of this line is that, for the RP and King to defeat a Knight, the pawn must be able to make it to the seventh rank (as in variations A and B).

61.Kc6

White has no choice, as any Knight move allows …Kf4 and Black will win by means of material advantage.

61…h4!

The familiar theme.

62.Kxd7

Or 62.Nf2 Nf6, winning for Black.

62…h3 63.Nxe5 Kf4 64.Nd3+ Kg3

And Black wins, or, if you insist – according to the lokasoft tablebase, it is Mate in 21!

So it appears that no matter what White does, he is lost in the Wittman-Taylor variation, in every case due to the deadly passed Black KRP.

Let’s recap: A Knight finds it very difficult to defend against a RP, and in fact, has no resources at all (unless his own King is near) if the enemy pawn reaches the seventh rank, supported by the King.

The Knight can defend against a RP, even without it’s own King, if it can stop the pawn at the sixth rank.

And finally, pawns may be much more important than pieces in the ending: in all three key variations, Black wins by sacrificing a Knight!

P.S. To all of you who have been itching to send me an email, saying that instead of the beautiful Queen sacrifice that launches this variation (55… Qa2+) Black could win prosaically with 55… Nc6+, I say: “You’re right! But that simple win of material would not be nearly so entertaining!”