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.

Estonian and Soviet Grandmaster. World Championship Candidate. Keres burst on the international scene leading Estonia in the Olympiad at Warsaw 1935. No one there was in any doubt that a new megastar had arrived. Keres became a Soviet citizen due to Estonia becoming part of the USSR during World War II. He won the Soviet Championship three times: 1947, 1950 and 1951 and was runner up in the Candidate tournaments of 1953, 1956 and 1962. Paul Keres was one of the greatest players in chess history, but sadly he was never destined to play a match for the World Championship.

  

Although in the game Keres had the dark pieces the ending above is represented with him having the light pieces. The colours have been reversed. White has a passed b-pawn but the way through is blocked by the enemy King. White makes an advanced point for his Rook at "g7" by advancing his h-pawn, so that he can take control of the 7th rank. The whole ending is very instructive and drew the admiration of tournament victor Botvinnik who wrote a definitive account of the tournament. 

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.