Welcome to this active site. Each week I am going to present to you an endgame position for you to solve or to workout the best continuation. Computer analysis will also be considered. Some of these positions will come from actual historical games. Others will be composed endgame studies, but all the solutions will be relevant to the practical game. The new position will occur each SUNDAY and I will always be pleased to receive POSITIVE feedback about the positions and the analysis and I will try to acknowledge these where relevant.

Soviet Grandmaster, Former FIDE World Champion. Unfortunately Karpov has twice won the FIDE title by default but his results have shown him a great player fitting for a world champion. In his golden period he had a phenomenal streak of wins against the strongest players in the world. Karpov's mastery of the ending is modelled on that of Capablanca, his chess hero.

This position comes from the 14th game of their World Championship Match. White has full compensation for the exchange in the form of two powerful passed pawns. Also the Black Rooks cannot cooperate actively. Once the Bishop gets to d6 White has a won game.

This game was concluded on the Sunday August 20th, the same day that the 13th game finished. Korchnoi had to concede defeat twice that day so it was a red letter day for Karpov. The match had a cliffhanger finish with Karpov winning the 32nd game taking the score to 6-5 to keep his title.

Important Notice: The last position for cumulative 2002 will appear on Sunday 22nd December. I am then taking a short break and will be back on Sunday January 5th with the first position of the 2003 cumulative competition.

The winners of the 2002 cumulative competition will be announced early in the New Year.

1. Cumulative 2002 Prizes: 1st £100 or equivalent, 2nd £50, 3rd £30; 4th £20. (Total Prize Money=£200) Entries limited to 20 solvers. This event will run from 6/1/2002 to 22/12/2002 with a recess in July. Present CUMULATIVE COMPETITION rules apply but note the prizes will go to those participants who climb the ladder the greatest number of times during the year. The relative position of the solver's name on the ladder will decide the allocation of prizes.

2. Endgame Solving Tournaments 2002. They will be directed at new or intermediate solvers and will not be too difficult. No money prizes but a book prize for the highest placed newcomer. Events will take place at Easter, Summer and Christmas each consisting of 5 positions to solve. Present strict rules will apply; no computer analysis.