Temposchlucker

In the previous post we got a rookending and we defined the goals both sides should try to reach. Continuing the pursuit of the goals was rather straightforward and white had to give up his rook to prevent promotion of the kingside passer. But then I encountered the following position: diagram 1 Black to move. Here you have to be very carefull, the minutest slip means a draw here. First we have to redefine the goals of both sides. The goal for white is pretty obvious: The pawn must promote and the white king must keep the road to promotion clear. White needs at least 7 moves for that. Black must conquer the pawn. The most logical place is to intercept the pawn is at g8, which is allready under attack by the rook. This means that the rook is already standing well, this means that the black king must head for h7 or f7. h7 can be reached in 8 moves while f7 can be reached in 5 moves. The following moves the main goals continue to be the same for both sides, but tactically e...

In the previous post I mentioned certain ommisions in my pattern database, mainly in the endgame. My main goal is to learn to apply logic to the chessgame, I might as well combine this with endgames. Mr. Z gave me a quite interesting position: . . . . Black to move. This is a win for black, but it is easy to go astray when you play this out against a chess engine. Can we find the moves by applying logic? What is going on in the position? If you think away the rooks, the remaining pawn endgame is an easy win for black. Black has a pawn more at the kingside, which he has to transform into a passer. When white takes the passer with his king, black can eat away the white pawns on the queenside. So white has to avoid the exchange of rooks. This limits the freedom of move of the white rook a bit. The natural targets are the bases of the pawn chains, i.e. h7, b7, a7 and g2, c3, a3. The natural attackers are the rooks. The kings have to prevent the invasion of ...