Learning from chess studies
How much can you learn from a chess study or problem? Not to improve your
solving skills, but for your over-the-board tournament play? Many chess
players are suspicious, believing that outlandish positions and tricky solutions
are of little use to their general skills. But many studies are quite useful
and solving them will show you ideas and manoeuvres that will be genuinely
useful in your practical play.
This, incidentally, is also true of endgame databases: trying to win a
won position against the perfect defence of a computer, or watching it win
such a position itself, will involve seeing a lot of preposterous moves.
Watch, for instance, the computer force the defending king away
from the back rank to win a queen vs rook endgame. But quite often you will
encounter moves the like of which you have never seen before. And during
a tournament game you may hit upon a situation that requires exactly that
kind of move.
But back to studies. Here is a prize-winner we spotted in the July edition
of the British magazine CHESS,
which we ask you to explore for yourself. Note that the composer is not
our dear friend Pal Benko – there is a one-letter difference to the
author, who also hails from Hungary.
Pal Benno, 1st Prize , Magyar Sakkvilag 2006

White to play and win
A brief look at the position brings a few key factors to light: Black,
who has an overwhelming force, is restricted to moving his queen back and
forth between a8 and b8, since any other move will lead to immediate Ra7
mate. But how can White profit from this, and make any progress, enough
to actually win?
One idea might occur to you: if the black queen is was on b7, White could
check on the sixth rank, forcing the black king to a5, and then attack with
the rook from a1 or a2. But of course the white king needs to be out of
the way and safe from refuting checks by the black queen. But how to do
this? The correct path is convoluted and subtle, but the only way to win.
Well, here's the deal: you, dear readers, are invited to try to solve the
above problem by yourselves, ideally first with just a chess board and pieces,
then together with a chess engine of your choice. You will find a surprisingly
complex manoeuvre is required to execute the above plan, and finding all
the subtlties will do absolutely no harm to your general playing strength
in over the board chess.
In the original page we had made use of a new JavaScript PGN player that
allowed you to solve the Benno study, with machine support, directly in
your browser. We had given you just the starting positions and told you
how you could move pieces around on the player, just like you do with ChessBase
or Fritz. You could also click the "maximize" button on the right
below the board to make the player fill your browser window (click it again
or press ESC to return to normal size).

All this works in any game we publish. You can click on the little fan
symbol in the middle, which will start an engine in your browser, and you
can use that to analyse the position while entering moves. Click again to
stop the engine.

Below the notation you have additional functions: "PGN" give
you the current version of the game or games to store on your local computer,
the cloud symbol will store it in your cloud database (assuming you have
a ChessBase Account.
There are also additional functions to promote, delete or cut lines, and
and the edit functions Undo and Redo. All of these are available when you
analyze games on the newspage in your browser.
Hopefully you were able to work out the subtle manoeuvres required to solve
the Benno study. Here is a full didactic explanation, provided by our premium
chess teacher IM Sagar Shah. Note that you can check any lines or ideas
on the JavaScript board. "But why not ..." becomes a question
you can answer by simply entering the move and watching how the engine reacts.
1.Bd4 Qb8+ 2.Kh1! 2.Kg2?? Qg8+ 3.Rg7 Qd5+ 4.Kf1 Qxd4-+ 2.Kh3 Qc8+ 3.Kg3 3.Kh2 Qc2+-+ 3...Qg8+ 4.Rg7 Qb8+ 5.Kg2 Qa8+ 2...Qa8+ 3.Kg1 Qg8+ 3...Qb8 4.Rg7 Qb8 5.Kg2 5.Kf2 Qf4+!-+ 5...Qa8+ 6.Kf2 Qb8 6...Qf8+ 7.Ke3 Qe8+ 8.Kd2 7.Ke3 Qe8+ 7...Qa8 8.Kd2!+- 8.Kd3 Qb8 8...Qa8 9.Rf7!+- 9.Rg6+! 9.Kc2 Qh2+= 9...Ka5 9...Kb7 10.Rb6++- 10.Rg1! Ka6 11.Rg7 Qa8 12.Rf7! Qb8 13.Kc2! Qa8 13...Qh2+ 14.Bf2+- 14.Kb2 Qg2+ 15.Bf2! Qa8 16.Rh7! Qb8 17.Bd4 Qa8 18.Ka1! Qb8 19.Rh6+! Ka5 20.Rh8! Qb7 21.Rh2! Ka6 22.Ra2# 1–0
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Benno,P | - | White to play and win | - | 1–0 | 2006 | | 1.p Magyar Sakkvilág | |
Please, wait...
Why is this problem so difficult to solve?
- You need to think long term – that you have to get your king
to a1.
- You need to have excellent tactical vision of drawing the black queen
to b7 and then threatening a mate from a2.
If you have both these qualities then you are surely on your way to becoming
a very strong player. If you weren't able to solve this problem correctly,
do not worry. It is only by trying that you can get better. Learn the patterns,
store them in your mind. Keep doing this always and one day you will have
enough in your arsenal to solve such positions correctly. After all there
only 64 squares and 32 pieces on the chess board!