Endgame Corner

Bishop vs Knight
Part I
It is very surprising, that Bishop and Knight and are of almost equal strength on
an 8x8 board as they move in completely different ways. The Knight is a short
range piece. When it moves, it loses contact with all (!!) the squares it
controlled before and the colour of the square it occupies changes with each
move. The Bishop is a long range piece, which can visit only half of the
squares of the board. So depending on the given pawn structure, it can
dominate the Knight in an open position with play on both wings or look like
an overgrown pawn, if the pawns are blocked on squares of the same colour
and it has very limited scope. In the first part of my discussion I will look at
Endgame positions, in which the player with the Knight is behind on material and tries to
set up a fortress on squares opposite to the Bishop's colour:
Corner 5.01 L.Gutman (2533) - K.Müller
(2513) German Ch, Heringsdorf 2000
=/=
Karsten Müller White can't make any meaningful
progress so Gutman decided to call it a
day after 53.Kf3 Nd5 ½–½
The next fortress shows a curious special
case:

5.02 C.Cohrs (2205) - W.Gerstner

(2400) Dresden 1999 /=
46...Nd1 47.Kf3 Kf6 48.Bc8 Nc3
49.Ke3 Nxa2 50.Kd4 Nc3 51.Kc5 Na2
52.Bd7 ½–½
In the next example Black has even
better chances than White due to her
more active King:

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Endgame Corner

5.03 R.Borer (2015) - A.Frank Elista ol

(Women) 1998 /=
53...Kb4! 54.Ke3 (54.Bc6 Kc5=)
54...Nc4+ (54...Nb7!? was worth trying
e.g. 55.Be8 Nc5 56.Kd2 [56.Bc6? is bad
as the pawn ending after 56...Nxa4
57.Bxa4? Kxa4 58.Kd2 Kb4 59.Kd3
Kb3 is lost.] 56...Ne6 [56...Nxe4+
57.Ke3 Nc5 58.Bc6=] 57.Bb5 Nf4
58.Bf1 Kxa4 59.Kc3 Ka5 and Black is
slightly better) 55.Kd3 and a draw was
agreed as the pawn ending after
55...Nb2+ 56.Kc2 Nxa4 57.Bxa4 Kxa4 58.Kc3 Kb5 59.Kb3 is equal.
The most powerful weapon to break such fortresses is zugzwang. The next
two examples demonstrate this:
5.04 P.Leko (2701) - A.Khalifman
(2628) Budapest 2000 +/-
52.Bd7 1–0 If Black's Knight on c7 were
a Bishop, the position would be dead
drawn as Black wouldn't fall into
zugzwang.

5.05 S.Ivanov (2538) - J.van der Wiel

(2544) 15th EUCup final, Bugojno 1999
+/-
59.Bd7 and van der Wiel resigned as he
has no move after 59...Ng7 60.Kh6+-
Sometimes the Bishop dominates the
Knight:

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Endgame Corner

5.06 M.Socko (2438) - K.Lerner (2588)

MK Cafe Cup-A Koszalin 1999 -/+
53.Kd4 (The pawn ending after 53.Nf3
Bxf3 54.Kxf3 is lost: 54...Ke6 55.Ke3
Kd5 56.Kd3 d6–+) 53...Kf6 54.Kc5 g5
55.fxg5+ Kxg5 56.Kd6 (56.Kb6 f4
57.gxf4+ Kxh4 58.Kxa6 Kg4–+ [Hecht
in ChessBase Magazin 73]) 56...f4 0–1
I want to end the discussion with a very
complicated example:

5.07 H. Berliner in The System +/

Without the g-pawns, the position is
dead drawn, but with them White can
break through by a well-timed sacrifice
of the e-pawn: 1.Bh4 Nf4+ 2.Kc5 (After
2.Ke4?! Ne6 3.Be1? Black's king gets to
a more active position with 3...Kc6!
making a win extremely difficult, if not
impossible.) 2...Ne6+ (2...Nd3+ 3.Kd4
Nf4 4.Bg3 Ne2+ 5.Kd5 Nxg3 6.e6+ Kd8
7.Kc6 Ne4 8.e7+ Ke8 9.d7+ Kxe7
10.Kc7+-) 3.Kb6 Nd4 (3...g5 4.Bg3 Nd8
5.Bh2 Ne6 6.Kb5 Nd8 7.Kc5 Ne6+ 8.Kd5 Nd8 9.Bg1 Ne6 10.Be3+-) 4.Bf2
Ne6 (4...Nf3 5.Bg3 Ng5 6.Bf4 Ne6 7.Bh2+- see the main line) 5.Bg3 Nd4
6.Kc5 Ne6+ 7.Kd5 Nd8 8.Bf4 Ne6 9.Bh2 Nd8
now the appropriate time for e6+ has
come: 10.e6+! Nxe6 11.Ke5 g5
(11...Ng5 12.Kf6 Nf3 13.Bf4 g5
14.Be5+-) 12.Kf6 Nd4 13.Be5 Ne6
14.Kf5 Nc5 15.Kxg5 Ke6 16.Bh2 Kf7
17.Kf5 Nd7 18.Be5+-

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Endgame Corner

Exercises (Solutions next month)

E5.01 Gambit Tiger 1.0 - Deep Fritz
Computer Chess Match Tournament
Cadaques 2001
How to assess the position with Black to
move?

E5.02 K.van der Weide (2434) -

J.Nilssen (2326) Politiken Cup
Copenhagen 1999
Van der Weide found a way to defend
his position. Can you do the same?

E5.03 V.Potkin (2470) - V.Milov

(2604) Linares Anibal open 2001
Did Potkin manage to storm Milov’s
barricades? (White is to move)

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Endgame Corner

Solutions to last month exercises

E4.01 V.Georgiev (2538) - K.Müller
(2527), Hamburg 2000

White can indeed win: 73.Bb5 Qf7

74.Kh5 Ke7 (74...Qxg6+ 75.Kxg6 Kg8
76.Kh6 Bb7 77.Be1 Bc8 78.Be8 Bb7
79.Bg6 Nf8 80.Kxg5+-) 75.Kh6 Qxg6+
76.Kxg6 Nf8+ 77.Kxg5 Kf7 78.Kh6
Ng6 79.Be1 Ne7 80.g4 Ng6 81.Be8+
Kxe8 82.Kxg6 Ba6 83.g5 Be2 84.Kh7
Bg4 85.g6 Bf5 86.Kg7 (86.Bxb4 wins as
well.) 86...Ke7 87.Bh4+ Ke8 88.Bg5
1–0
E4.02 G.Meins (2465) - S.Reschke
(2390), German Bundesliga 1997
In the game Reschke missed the mate
with 57...Kc6! and played instead
57...Re6+? The game ended in a draw
several moves later. 58.Rc1+ Kd7
59.Ra1 f6#

E4.03 J.Hjartarson (2605) - S.Sulskis

(2510), FIDE-Wch Groningen 1997
30.Re7? allowed Black to save himself
in a spectacular way. (30.Re8+ Kg7
31.Re7 Nxa2+ 32.Kxa2 Rh2+ 33.Ka1 b3
34.Rexf7+ Kh6 35.R7f2+- [Tsesarsky in
ChessBase Magazin 63]; 30.a5 Ne2+
[30...Nxa2+ 31.Kxa2 Rh2+ 32.Kb3
Rb2+ 33.Ka4+] 31.Kxb4 Nxd4 32.a6+-
[Hjartarson]) 30...Nxa2+! 31.Kxa2
Rh2+ 32.Kb1 (32.Kb3?? Rb2#) 32...b3
33.Rb7 Rb2+ 34.Ka1 Ra2+ 35.Kb1
½–½

Sources:
The System, Hans Berliner, GAMBIT 1999
ChessBase MEGABASE 2001
ChessBase Magazin Nos.63, 73
Copyright 2001 Karsten Müller. All rights reserved.

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Endgame Corner

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