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.

  

To activate the King is one of the golden rules of the endgame but it always has to be done with great care. I remember many years ago witnessing a famous Grandmaster taking his King to the centre of the board only to be mated ignominiously by two Rooks. (Tiredness is a great leveller in practical play).

Although Black is material up White shows that the enemy Monarch is in a precarious position. The King is in a kind of prison made up of pawns and there is no escape.

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.