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.

International Grandmaster. World Championship Candidate. Endgame Study Composer. Won the Hungarian Championship in 1948 at the age of 20. Later settled in the USA where he won the American Open a record eight times. His selfless sacrifice of his place in the Interzonal at Palma de Mallorca (1970) made way for Bobby Fischer's successful 1972 challenge for the World Title. Revised Reuben Fine's classic endgame text: Basic Chess Endings (2003).

If there was no White pawn at "f5" which meant the Knight was against a lone passed b-pawn then Black could draw this ending. The general rule for these type of endings is if he can get his Knight back to guard any square on the queening file ahead of the pawn which in this case is the b-file then Black draws. If the Knight is too far away from the passed pawn, a saving idea is to threaten a check to fork the new Queen and King. In the above position the situation is complicated by the presence of the White pawn at "f5" which restricts Black's defensive possibilities. The Knight finds itself overworked tackling two passed pawns. White has to play accurately in order to achieve what at first may appear to be a relatively simple win.

Benko's greatest contribution to the endgame is as reviser of Reuben Fine's brilliant classic Basic Chess Ending (Revised by Benko 2003). It is unfortunate that in the new edition acknowledgement is omitted of the help and support of Fine's friend, Fred Reinfeld. It is also to be regretted that this otherwise excellent book still does not have an index.