White to Play
Published in Chess Puzzles
Knowing your king and pawn endings can make a huge difference. Here, Tartakower, as Black, transposed into a drawn ending against Yates when he could have won. He had even given up his queen for a rook to get into this position. Yates didn’t overlook what Dr. T didn’t think of.
1.Kb2 Kc4 2.Ka3 b2 3.Ka2! What Black had assumed would happen was the immediate capture by White, but White took a closer look 3.Kxb2 Kxb4 4.Kb1 Kb3 5.Ka1 b4 6.Kb1 Ka3 7.Ka1 (7.Kc2 b3+) 7...b3 8.Kb1 b2 and the immediate capture loses because Black got the opposition on Kxb4, while if he loses a move with 3.Ka2, White wins the opposition and draws 3...Kxb4 4.Kxb2 A valuable lesson because even a grandmaster forgot the importance of opposition.
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