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, World Championship Candidate. He won the Soviet Championship twice: in 1955 he tied with Smyslov, then defeated him in the play-off. Again he won it in 1979 at the age of 54. The closest he came to the World Championship was in 1962 when he was equal second with Keres in the Candidates tournament, half a point behind Petrosian. 

The ending of two minor pieces against a Rook can be difficult to assess even when the latter has pawn superiority which in this case is two pawns more. It often comes down to the relative mobility of the pieces. Black has a well placed Rook against White's uncoordinated pieces which can attack White's weak pawns. The accumulation of these advantages gives Black a winning ending. The following are the actual moves played in the game:

1. Cumulative 2003 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 5/1/2003 to 22/12/2003 with a recess in July. Present 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.