Lesson 11 by Master Igor Epshteyn

UMBC, room ECS 023, 4-28-99

Notes by David Joyner. (No claim to completeness. See class notes)

Theme: Decoying the rival king to a bad square.

The king should pursue multiple goals on the board in choosing his route. Possible goals include:

Position 11.1: From Shepard-Townsend, England 1969.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/1p4p1/8/4p3/1PP1K1k1/8/8/8








Black to move. White wins.


1 ... Kg5 2 Kxe5 Kh4 3 c5 g5 4 b5 g4 5 Kf4 g3 6 Kf3 Kh3 7 c6 bxc6 8 bxc6 g2 9 c7 g1=Q 10 c8=Q+ Kh4 11 Qh8+ Kg5 12 Qg8+ and white skewers the black queen.

1 ... Kh4 2 c5 g5 3 b5 g4 4 c6 bxc6 5 bxc6 g3 6 Kf3 e4+! 7 Kg2 e3 8 Kf3 and white wins.

Position 11.2: Study by Grigoriev, 1928a

In Forsyth notation: 

8/8/1p2K3/8/8/8/k5P1/8








White to play and win.


1 Kd5 Ka3 2 Kc4 Ka4 3 g4 b5+ 4. Kd3 Ka3 5 g5 b4 6 g6 b2 7 g7 b2 8 Kc2! Ka3 9 g8=Q+ and white wins.

Against 1 Kd5 b4 2 Kc5 Kb3 white wins.

Position 11.3: Study by Grigoriev, 1928b

In Forsyth notation: 

8/8/1p6/8/k7/3K4/5P2/8








White to move and win.

1 f4 Kb5 draws.

Instead, white must block black's king away from the square of the passed pawn: 1 Kd4 b5 2 f4 b4 3 f5 b3 4 Kc3 Ka3 5 f6 b2 6 f7 b1=Q 7 f8=Q+ Ka4 8 Qa8+ and 9 Qb8+ skewers the black queen.

Position 11.4: Study by Grigoriev, 1928c

In Forsyth notation: 

8/8/1p6/8/8/4K2P1/k7/8








White to play and win.

1. g4 b5 2 g5 b4 3 g6 b3 4 g7 b2 draw.

1. Kc3 Ka3 2 Kc4 Ka4 3 g4 b5+ 4 Kd3 b4 5 g5 b3 6 g6 Ka3 7 g7 b2 8 Kc2 Ka2 9 g8=Q+ and white wins.

Position 11.5: From Najdorf-Vinueza, 1941.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/8/8/5p2/1P5k/3K4/8/8








Black to play. Draw.

1 ... f4 2 Ke2 and white wins.

1 ... Kh3 2 b5 f4 3 Ke4 Kg3 4 b6 f3 5 b7 f2 6 b8=Q+ Kg2 draw.

Position 11.6: From Ljubovic-Brown, Amsterdam, 1972. (See Position 8.15.)

In Forsyth notation: 

8/5p2/2k5/K7/8/1P6/8/8








Black to play and win.

The actual game ended in a draw. 1 ... Kd5 2 b4 f5 3 b5 f4 4 b6 Kc6 5 Ka6 and black wins.

Position 11.7: From Obuhovski-Grabchevski, Dubna, 1971.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/6p1/8/6p1/1K4k1/8/2P5/8








White to play and win.

1 ... Kf3 2 c4 Ke4 3 c5 Kd5 4 Kb5 and white wins.

1 ... Kf5 2 Kc3 draws.

1 ... Kf4 2 Kc3 Ke3! and black wins.

1 ... Kf4 2 c4 g4 3 c5 Ke5 4 Kb5 g3 and black decoys the white king to b6.

Position 11.8: Study of Benko, 1973.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/4p3/8/2K5/8/6k1/P7/8








White to play and win.

1 a4 e5 2 a5 e4 3 Kd4 and the king decoys the black king to f3, winning as before.

1 Kd5 Kf4 2 a4 e5 3 a5 e4 etc.

Position 11.9: Study of Moravec, 1957.

In Forsyth notation: 

2k5/p7/8/4P3/8/7K/8/8








White to play. Draw.

1 Kg4 a5 2 Kf5 a4 3 Kg6 a3 4 e6 a2 5 e7 draw.

1 Kg4 a5 2 Kf5 Kd8 3 Ke6 Ke8 4 Kd5! draw.

Position 11.10: Part of a Votava study, 1954.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/2p5/8/3K4/k7/8/7P/8








Black to play. Draw.

1 ... Kb4 2 Kc6 Kc4 3 b4 Kd4 draw.

1 ... Kb5 2 h4 c5 3 h3 c4 4 Kd4 Kb4 5 h6 c3 6 Kd3 Kb3 7 h7 c2 8 Kd2 Kb2 9 h8=Q+ and white wins.

Position 11.11: From Schlechter-Marco, Vienna, 1893.

Shlechter was later a world champion contender of Em. Lasker.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/1K6/8/3p4/2k5/P7/8/8








White to play and draw.

1 a4 Kb4 2 Kb6 decoying and drawing as usual.

Position 11.12: Study of Grigoriev, 1933.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/5K1p/8/8/8/8/1P6/7k








White to play and win.

1. Kf6 h5 2. Kg5 Kg2 3. b4 Kg3 4. b5 h4 5. b6 h3 6. b7 h2 7. b8=Q+ Kg2 8. Qb2+ Kg1 9. Qc1+ Kg2 10. Qd2+ Kg1 11. Qe1+ Kg2 12. Qe2+ Kg1 13. Kg4 h1=Q 14. Kg3 and mate next.

Position 11.13: From Lasker-Tarrasch, St Petersberg, 1914.

In Forsyth notation: 

8/6K1/8/ppp2k2/8/1P6/1P5P/8








White to play and draw.

1 h4 Kg4 2 Kg6! Kxh4 3 Kf5 Kg3 4 Ke4 Kf2 5 Kd5 Ke3 6 Kxc5 Kd3 7 Kxb5 Kc2 8 Kxa5 Kxb3.

1 h4 Kg4 Kf6? c4 3 bxc4 bxc4 4 Ke5 c3! (creating a "mollificient pawn") 5 bxc3 a4 and black wins.

Position 11.14: From Albin-Hodges, New York, 1891.

Albin was a strong Rumanian chess master.

In Forsyth notation: 

7k/p7/1p3p2/8/3P4/PP3K2/8/8








White to play and win.

1 Ke4 Kg8 2 Kd5 Kg7? 3 Ke6 Kg6 4 d5 f5 5 Ke5 (decoying the black king to a bad square) Kg5 6 d5 f4 7 d6 f3 8 d7 f2 9 d8=Q+ and white wins.

1 Ke4 Kg8 2 Kd5 Kf7 3 Kd6! f5 4 Ke5 and white wins.

HTML by David Joyner. Last modified 5-6-99. Used freeware recorder by Jack Woodbury (woodbury@escape.ca) for diagrams.