Chess lessons › Good chess habits
Solving endgame studies
A study has one exact solution: list the defender’s resources, then look for the quiet move or the surprise.
The idea
List the defender’s resources, then look past the checks.
- The rook on e4 has a whole open board to run on.
- Nd2 attacks it, and no other move wins.
- The bishop and the other knight take its squares until a fork wins it.
In a game: When the obvious checks fail, look for a quiet move that takes squares away.
How the lesson begins
An endgame study is a composed position where White must win or draw by an exact line. Solving them trains calculation: you know a solution exists, so you keep looking until you find it.
A method: list what the defender can do (checks, captures, stalemate, a piece that runs), then look at every check and capture of your own, and then at the quiet moves.
This study is by Henri Rinck, published in La Stratégie in 1920. White to move and win, with two knights and a bishop against a rook.
Find the move
White to move and win. Only one move does it. Find it.
A hint
Attack the rook with a knight, from a square where it is safe.
Show the answer
1. Nd2
Nd2. The knight attacks the rook on e4 and starts to take its squares away. The tablebase, a list of the perfect result of every ending with few pieces, says every other move draws.
In numbers
Positions to practise
13 positions in the study, every result proved by the tablebase: 10 are wins and 3 draws for the side to move, with best play on both sides.