04 September, 2010

Endgames 5 ( Study 1 )

A famous endgame study, and one of the first by Richard Réti, published in Kagan's Neuste Schachnachrichten in 1921. This was a  chess magazine, published by Bernhard Kagan in Berlin from 1921 to 1932.

Bernhard Kagan was a German chess player, but better known as an organiser, editor and publisher.

You can see 3 games of his here, which match the three in my database, so these are probably the best known of his from a 1902 match versus Heinrich Wolf, which he lost 4,5 - 0,5.  Considering that Wolf was estimated to be in, or close to, the top 10 in the world at the time and Kagan somewhere near the bottom of the top 100, that's not too bad !

At the time, the key players were names such as Lasker, Maróczy, Janowski, Schlecter, Tarrasch, Chigorin, as well as Pillsbury and Atkins, so both were in good company.

However, back to the endgame. The idea is straightforward ( after thinking about it ) , and the first move is also easy to work out, its what happens after that is intriguing.

I have to admit, that in blitz, as White I would probably lose !

Note it is a drawing endgame for White and not a winning one.

White to move and draw
7K/8/k1P5/7p/8/8/8/8 w - - 

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