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.

Hungarian International Master. At his best he was of grandmaster strength and in later life played a key role in the development of chess in Australia. National Champion of Hungary in 1931, 1936 and played for Hungary in three Olympiads, 1931, 1933, and 1935. Just before the Second World War he emigrated to Australia and became the strongest player there winning the national championship a number of times. His brother was Endre Steiner (1901-1944) who was also a very strong player.

The game this position is taken from is of some historical interest. It is the first meeting of these young masters who later would both emigrate to Australia and become close friends. In fact they would work as editors on the same Australian chess magazine.

Goldstein went into this ending thinking he could draw because of the level material and opposite-coloured bishops. But his young opponent played cleverly to reach this winning position. Notice how all of Black's pawns end up on light squares so making his Bishop next to useless. White has more space and his pieces are far more active than his opponents. But his key advantage lies in the fact that he can create a powerful passed pawn on the kingside.

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.