Study of the month: An impossible move

An impossible move

By Siegfried Hornecker

We have seen in the first installment of this column how powerful pawns are. Indeed the value of a pawn is said to increase considerably, already when it reaches the sixth rank. If several pawns work together, miracles can happen that would otherwise not be possible, such as in two game fragments, one more famous and the other less, but both astonishing.

In the second case, I was unable to trace a full game, but it is most likely not fabricated.

But is there anything a pawn cannot do? Well, there is a rule that forbids pawns from moving backwards, but what if I would tell you that even this restriction does not need to apply always in the magical world of chess?

This will be a controversial entry, at least for the study experts. In a recent issue of the British magazine "eg" I have proved this study to be unsound after the critical point, owing to a dual it has. But as this is aimed at players mostly, at people who will enjoy an incredible combination even if there was another way to win, and as the first 17 moves are correct, I believe that the idea behind this study makes it worthy to be seen. You have seen a pawn promote to a queen, possibly even to a knight – in fact, some very famous games (as two examples you can look up I will only name Suat Atalik vs. Tony Miles, 1993; Runau vs Schmidt, Germany 1972) end with that way. You will be aware that a pawn can promote to a bishop or rook as well. But what if a pawn's promotion is only a disguise to hide its inability to make an otherwise impossible move? What if a pawn needs to make just one step to win, but that step... is backwards? s

The curious position sees White in constant danger of Black's "Siegfried rook" ideas, which is the term for a piece that sacrifices itself in every way possible, stemming from the German Ring Cycle (Der Ring der Nibelungen, to be precise), not to be confused with Tolkien's other Ring saga. The only way to break through Black's defense is by threatening a checkmate, which is possible only with a knight on b7 or c6, so the first move promotes accordingly.

David Gurgenidze (b. 1953) and Velimir Kalandadze (b. 1935) are two prolific chess composers from Georgia. Together with the late Iuri Akobia (1937-2014) and Gia Nadareishvili (1921-1991), probably among others, they shaped study composition in Georgia, making malyutki (studies with five or less pieces) and studies with the material of kings, rooks and pawns two staples of the country. Akobia was a radio communications engineer, Gurgenidze works in the Georgian Chess Federation, Kalandadze is a former engineer. Nadareishvili was a renown psychiatrist in a hospital in Tbilisi. Nadareishvili (1980) and Gurgenidze (1990) received the title of “Grandmaster for Chess Composition”.

Before we close this episode, we would like to take the opportunity to invite readers to ask Siegfried Hornecker questions about chess composition in an upcoming IAMA on Reddit, on 12th March 2017, 19:00h European time (1 p.m. EST).

About the author Siegfried Hornecker (*1986) is a German chess composer and member of the World Federation for Chess Composition, subcommitee for endgame studies. His autobiographical book "Weltenfern" (in English only) can be found on the ARVES website. He will present an interesting endgame study with detailed explanation each month.