14th January 2024.

A fifth study of mine has been published.

 

(Addendum 7th February 2024: The study received a commendation by judge Alexander Stavrietsky. However, the start position in the award file is incorrect. I will try to get that changed.

Addendum 12th October 2024: I think that the correction is given in Seven Chess Notes no. 218, page 7, though the text is unclear to me and a reference to no. 217 is given.)

 

White to move and win.

 

Thomas Niessen

Seven Chess Notes 2023, issue 215. Commendation.

 

The same material as no. 1, and I can reveal that there is a third study by me with NP vs PP.

1. Nc3!. The natural 1. Kd2? makes a nice try: 1.. e3+! 2. Nxe3 Ke4 3. Nc4 Kd5! (3... Kd4? 4. Nd6 Kc5 5. Nc8 +- ) 4. Kd3 (4. Kc3 Kc5 5. Kb3 Kb5 6. Kc3 Kc5 = ) 4... Kc5 5. Kc3 Kb5 6. Kd4 Kc6 7. Ke4 Kc5 =.

1.. Kf4 (1.. e3 2. Kc2 e2 3. Kd2 +-) (1.. Ke3 2. Nb5 Kd3 3. Nd6 e3 4. Kd1 Kd4 5. N:b7+-) 2. Kd2 Kf5 (2.. Ke5 3. Ke3 Kd6 4.Kxe4 Kc6 5. Nd5 Kc5 6. Ke5 +-) 3. Nb5 Ke5 4. Kc3 Kd5 5. Na7 Kc5 6. Nc8 Kd5 7. Kb4 Kd4 8. Ne7 (8. Nd6 Kd5 9. Nc8 is waste of time.) 8... e3 (8.. Ke5 9. Kc4 Kd6 10. Nc8+ Ke5 11. Na7! +-) 9. Nf5+ Ke4 10. Nxe3 Kxe3 11. Kc5 1-0

 

 

The knight's journey in the mainline.

 

And that is what the judge wrote:

"As in some other studies of this competition, the white knight became the hero on the chessboard. The maneuver of this figure deep into the enemy's rear is interesting."

 

Like no. 1 the mainline shows an appealing knight tour.

 

The draw in the try is related to a position that appeared in the 13th match game between Zukertort and Blackburne (and not the other way around as some books claim, see BCM 1881 vol I p 286) in 1881. Here it is nicely introduced by a pawn sac.

 

I really like the combination of motifs. And as already noted elsewhere: If a study is suitable for an endgame textbook, that makes me particularly happy.