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.

World Champion from 1927-35, 37-46. He was a genius at chess and many rate him as one of the greatest players of all time. In his best years he stood head and shoulders above his rivals. In the great international tournament at Bled in 1931 Alekhine showed his class by outdistancing the second prize winner by five and a half points !! For all his faults he made a lasting contribution to the World of Chess. He was a brilliant annotator and has left a collection of beautiful games.

Kostich has played the middlegame badly and now finds himself a pawn down. Alekhine simplifies the position by exchanging some pieces to reach a won RBP vs RNP ending in which his extra outside passed pawn will decide the game. 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.