Lesson 4 - Knight vs. Pawn Endgame - 21 Days To Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld

4/29/2015 Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame — 21 Days to Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld.
com
Endgames Package Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame
Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame
28% Endgame Training Completed
This is a sort of endgame in which the defending side should [almost] never lose. But for mostly psychological
reasons, that is not the case. I will show you 4 examples that cover everything you need to know about elementary
knight endgames involving a single passed pawn.
Main idea in this endgame:
1. Defending side needs to capture the pawn to secure the draw, even if they need to give up the knight.
2. Attacking side needs to save the pawn and to safely promote it to win the game.
Take a look at the following positions to understand how to efficiently defend against a passed pawn with a
knight:
Knight in Front of the Passed Pawn
http://www.thechessworld.com/supercharge/endgamepackage/42/ 1/13
4/29/2015 Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame — 21 Days to Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld.com
Look at the following position, the black's knight

is in front of the passed pawn. White wants to
promote the pawn, but first he needs to drive the
knight away with his king. And this is an
impossible task as we will shortly see. 1. c7
Chasing the knight away. f7 2. c6 d2
Meanwhile black can walk his king closer to the
action. 3. d5 d3 4. e6 Chasing the
knight away once more. d8+ Knight can just
return to the d8 square in front of the pawn.
5. e7 c6+ 6. d6 d8 7. c7
f7 = And as we see, white is not capable to
drive the knight away from covering the d8. This
position is drawn.
Knight in Front of the Rook Pawn
Now let's look at a more tricky position, namely

when the knight is guarding the passed rook pawn
from promoting. 1. g6 White sticks to the
original plan. The plan is to chase the knight
away from the pawn to ensure safe promotion.
f8+ 2. g7 Driving the knight away from
guarding h7.
If 2. f7 black's knight just returns back

to h7 h7 =
2... e6+ Winning the tempo to relocate the

knight to g5. 3. g8
If white plays 3. f6 f8 black's knight

goes back on f8 to keep an eye on h7.
3... g5 = Guarding the h7 once again. White

cannot drive the knight away from the pawn and
Knight in Front of the Pawn on 7th Rank
In this position black's knight cannot defend the

promotion square, due to the lack of space for
maneuvering. 1. g7 White will capture the
knight. The black's idea is to give it up in the
right way. e6 Black's idea is to trap the
white's king in the corner and to achieve the draw
by stalemate.
1... g6 ?? This would be a blunder, since

black helps white to stay away from the
corner and the game is lost. 2. xg6
e7 3. h8=Q Winning.
2. xh8 f7 = White has no legal moves, thus

it is a stalemate and the game is drawn.
Royal Fork upon Promotion
In this position it seems like the white is winning

since both the black's king and knight are far
away from the action. However, black has a little
trick that can save the day. 1. e7 b5 ! The
key move of the position, setting up the fork.
If black is not careful enough it can cost him

the game 1... e4 ? 2. e6 ! Now there
is no forking trick and black loses.
If white makes a mistake of their own

2. e8=Q ? d6+ the game is drawn.
2... c5+ 3. f6 e4+ 4. e5 There

are no more tricks and black can resign
here.
2. e8=Q
If white decides to chase the knight away
Conclusions:
1. When you’re defending the promotion square with a knight the plan is to maneuver staying away from the
opponent’s king while keeping eye on the promotion square.
2. If the knight is trapped in the corner it cannot effectively defend the promotion square. The plan in this
case is to allow the knight to be captured by the opponent’s king, while relocating your own king closer to
the pawn. Then you need to trap the opponent’s king in front of the pawn and achieve a draw by stalemate.
3. If the passed pawn cannot be stopped by any conventional means you can buy yourself an extra move to
allow promotion and then fork the king and queen.
Endgame Trainer
Instructions:
Practice the following endgame position against the computer until you are confident that you can play it
correctly in actual game. Take your time and go through the exercise more than once if needed to fully understand
the material. If you have any difficulties please refer to the lesson above.
Hide Practice Position 1
White to move and draw:

Great Job! That's it for today. You can move to the next lesson!
Next Lesson
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2015 21 Days to Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld com . - All Rights Reserved

Lesson 4 - Knight vs. Pawn Endgame - 21 Days To Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld

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4/29/2015 Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame — 21 Days to Supercharge Your Chess by TheChessWorld.

Endgames Package Lesson 4: Knight vs. Pawn Endgame

Main idea in this endgame:

Knight in Front of the Passed Pawn

Look at the following position, the black's knight

Knight in Front of the Rook Pawn

Now let's look at a more tricky position, namely

If 2. f7 black's knight just returns back

2... e6+ Winning the tempo to relocate the

If white plays 3. f6 f8 black's knight

3... g5 = Guarding the h7 once again. White

Knight in Front of the Pawn on 7th Rank

In this position black's knight cannot defend the

1... g6 ?? This would be a blunder, since

2. xh8 f7 = White has no legal moves, thus

Royal Fork upon Promotion

In this position it seems like the white is winning

If black is not careful enough it can cost him

If white makes a mistake of their own

2... c5+ 3. f6 e4+ 4. e5 There

If white decides to chase the knight away

Hide Practice Position 1

White to move and draw:

Hide Practice Position 2

White to move and draw:

Hide Practice Position 3

White to move and draw:

Hide Practice Position 4

White to move and draw:

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