Karsten Müller's Endgame Dictionary: The "Knight Check Shadow"

by Karsten Müller
1/14/2022 – There are so many endgame terms that Karsten Müller decided to gather them in a slowly growing "Endgame Dictionary", in which he explains these terms with short videos and practical examples. This time, Karsten explains what a "Knight Check Shadow" is. Admittedly, at first glance this is an unusual and somewhat unwieldy term, but it helps to explain and to remember an important endgame motif.
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"Knight Check Shadow" (in German "Springerschachschatten") is a term that describes the situation when a king and a knight are on the same diagonal and the king is two squares away from the knight. This is a good position for the king who dominates the knight - after all, the knight needs at least three moves to give a check.

In the following video Karstens shows how useful it is to know this concept.

 
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"Knight check shadow" (in German "Springerschachschatten") is a term that describes the situation when a king and a knight are on the same diagonal and the king is two squares away from the knight. This is a good position for the king who dominates the knight - and in this situation the knight needs at least three moves to give a check. The following fragment from a Karpov game shows how useful it is to know this pattern. 84.Rf3+! Kg4 84...Kg2 85.Rc3 Na5 86.Kd5+- (Karpov in Informator 46/38) 85.Rd3! Kg5 85...Nb2 86.Rd2+- (Karpov) 86.Kd5 Nb6+ 86...Nb2 87.Rd4 Kf5 88.Kc6 Ke5 89.Kc5! Ke6 90.Kb4 Kf5 91.Kb3! Ke5 92.Kc3+- (Karpov) 87.Ke5 Nc4+ 88.Ke4 Nb6 89.Rd8 Nc4 90.Rd4 Nb6 91.Ke5 Nc8 92.Ke6 Na7 93.Kd7 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karpov,A2725Ftacnik,L25901–01988A30Thessaloniki (ol)

Karsten Müller's Endgame Dictionary: The Umbrella

Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.

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