Last week you were asked to analyse 43… Rxg2+.

White wins by a single tempo after 44. Kf3 Rd2 45. Kxf4 Rd4+! 46. Kf3 Rxd6 47. Ra6! Ke6 48. Rxd6+ Kxd6 49. Kf4 Kc5 50. Kxf5 Kxb5 51. Kg5 Kc6 52. Kh6 Kd7 53. Kxh7 Ke7 54. Kg7.

The ability to visualise long forcing lines of this nature is an important chess skill (no, I don’t possess this skill myself). An excellent knowledge of pawn endings is also vital for chess success: without this you won’t know whether and when to trade pieces. The chess world is very different now from 50+ years ago, when league games would be adjudicated at move 30 and weekend congress games at move 40.

This position was from a game between Steve Giddins and James Plaskett (Hastings 1997). The Lasker Method, by Gerard Welling and Steve Giddins, will be reviewed shortly on British Chess News.