FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

1

Viacheslav Eingorn:

Knight endings and Pawn
endings: the difference

The sentence “Knight endgames are pawn
endgames” is a well known Botwinnik’s
formula and (according to Dvoretsky) it
means that most techniques of pawn
endgames equally apply to knight endgames.
This comparison is lame. The next few
examples demonstrate another nature of
such positions in a quite different aspects
but there is also onе common feature which
deserves your attention: without knights the
result of any selected game could be
predicted easily while with the knights on
the board you cannot get clear picture in
mind.

1) The advantage of king’s position may
be not a decisive factor

Alburt L. : Kholmov R.
Daugavpils 1978

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Without knights: easy win for White.
With knights: draw.

The visible weakness of g3 pawn must not
mislead anybody: sitting at the corner
Black’s king is threatened with mate or total
loss of pawns.
57...Ng8
For now this is one of two suitable
continuations. More straightforward line

was 57...Ne4, e.g. 58.Ke7 Ng3 59.Ne6 Kh7!
60.Kf7 Ne4 61.Nf8 Kh6 62.Ng6 Nc3
63.Ne7 Ne2 64.Ng8 Kh7 65.Nf6 Kh6
66.Nd5 Nd4 67.Ne3 Ne2 68.Ng2 Ng1
69.Kf6 Nf3 70.Kf5 Kg7 and White cannot
win.
58.Nb5 Nf6 59.Nc7 Ng8?
Not that way! Here 59...Ne4 60.Ke7 Ng3
61.Ne6 Kh7 was obligatory.
60.Ne8 Kf8 61.Nf6 Nh6 62.Nd7 Kg7
63.Ke7 Ng8
Also bad for Black is 63...Ng4 64.Nf8 Nf2
65.Ne6 Kh7 66.Kf7 Ne4 67.Ng5 Kh8
68.Kg6.
64.Ke8 Nh6 65.Nf8 Kf6 66.Nh7 Kg7
67.Ng5 Ng4 68.Ke7 Nf2 69.Ne6 Kg8
Or 69...Kh6 70.Kf7 and then 71.Kg8,
72.Ng5, 73.Nf7#.
70.Kf6 Ne4 71.Kg6 Ng3 72.Nd4 Kf8
73.Nf5 Ne2 74.Kg5 1:0.

2) The significance of any passed pawn
may be considerably more important

Barcza G. : Simagin V.
Budapest 1949

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The knight is a team player and with his
next move Black assembles all forces
together.
39...Kf7! 40.Ne5?
By playing 40.Nb2 Ke6 41.Kg2 Kd5 42.Kf3
White could try to establish the defense, but
he follows another plan.
40...Ke6 41.Nc6 Kd5 42.Na7 d3 43.Kf1
Now the special knight technics will be
demonstrated: nothing common with the
pawn endgames!

FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

2

43…Nc3!
Black keeps his opponent’s knight away
from “d” pawn which is to be crowned.
44.Ke1 Kd4 45.Kd2 Ne4 46.Kc1 Nd6!
47.Kd2 Nc4 48.Kc1 d2 49.Kc2 Ke3 50.Nb5
Na3! 0:1.

3) The extra pawn may be useless in the
position with limited material.

Kasparov G. : Adams M.
Linares 1999

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Without knights: easy win for White.
With knights: draw.

Black’s position is difficult but not hopeless.
48...h5?
This is the right idea at the wrong time!
Correct line was 48...Kg7 49.g4 (or 49.Kg2
Kf6 50.Kf3 Ke5 51.Nc6 Kf6 52.Na7 h5
53.Ke3 b4 54.Kd3 h4 55.g4 Nd5 56.ab4 Nf4
57.Ke3 Nh3) Kf6 50.Kg3 Ke5 (driving
White’s knight away from attacking
position) 51.Nc6 Kf6 52.Nb4 (52.Na7 h5=)
h5.
49.h4?
Returning the favor. Black could face
insoluble problems in case of 49.Kg2! Kf7
50.Kf3 Kf6 51.Ke3 and 52.Kd3.
49...Kf7 50.Kh3 Kf6 51.g4 hg4 52.Kg4
Kg6
After the pawn exchange Black holds;
however, to do so he must play this ending
perfectly!
53.h5 Kh7
From the pure human view it looks safer to
keep the king out of the corner (53...Kf6

54.Kh4 Kf7 55.Kg5 Ne4), but so far Black
has a choice.
54.Kh4 Kg8
Dangerous but still possible! Here 54...Kh6
55.Nf5 Kh7 56.Nd6 Kh6 57.Kg4 Nd5!
58.Nb5 Ne3 59.Kf4 Nc4 60.a4 Kh5 was the
last human alternative.
55.h6 Kh7 56.Kh5 Ne4?
Sad story. Black had to be consistent:
56...Kh8!! 57.Kg6 Kg8 58.h7 Kh8.
57.Nb5 Nf6 58.Kg5 Ne4 59.Kf5 Nc5
60.Ke5 Kh6
It will be very usefull to compare in details
this situation with the final position in the
comment to 54-th move. Now White is on
the top!
61.Kd4! Na6
Or 61...Na4 62.Nc3 Nb2 63.Nd1! (typical
deflecting sacrifice) Nd1 64.a4. The black
knight cannot fight alone against the all
White’s army.
62.Kd5 Kg6 63.Nd4 Kf6 64.Kd6 Kf7
65.Ne6 1:0.

4) The evident positional advantage may
be not sufficient for win.

Lasker E. : Nimzowitsch A.
Zuerich 1934

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Without knights: easy win for Black.
With knights: Black stands better.

Here we shall look at the “evergreen”
classics. Black has a distant passed pawn
and Nimzowitsch’s play in this ending is
close to perfection. But could he win against

FIDE Surveys - Viacheslav Eingorn

3

the best defense of his opponent? Not
proven.
35...Kf7 36.Kc1 Kf6 37.Kd2 Ke5 38.Ke3
h5 39.a3
Immediate 39.Nh3 and then 39…Ne6 (39…
Nc2 40.Kf3 Kb4? 41.Nf4) 40.Nf2 Nf4
41.Kf3 (or 41.Nd1) looks more logical.
There was no reason to touch the queenside
pawn without necessity.
39...a5 40.Nh3 Nc2?!
This is the discipline violation: Black’s
knight departs to the cake walk instead of
following his general order: 40...Ne6 41.Nf2
Nf4.
41.Kd3 Ne1 42.Ke2 Ng2 43.Kf3 Nh4
44.Ke3 Ng6 45.Ng5?!
Oh, those willful knights! White misses a
convenient chance to exchange pawns
after 45.b4!? ab4 (45...a4 46.Ng1!) 46.ab4.
45...Kf6 46.Nh7 Kg7 47.Ng5 Kf6 48.Nh7
Ke7 49.Ng5 Ne5
Black is in a hurry to recover his control of
the important square e5. Probably he did not
like the variation 49...a4 50.Nf3 Kd6 51.b3!
ab3 52.Nd2 Ne5 53.Nb3.
50.Kd4 Kd6 51.Nh3?!
Here the move 51.b3 was called for: it is
very unsafe for White to stand still and
allow his opponent to fix queenside without
any pawn exchange!
51...a4 52.Nf4 h4 53.Nh3

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Black has made progress and now the
simple line 53…Nc6 54.Kd3 (54.Kc4 Ke5)
Kc5 looks strong. Nevertheless, after
55.Ng1! Ne5 56.Kc3 b5 57.b3! White holds
on the verge of catastrophe. Nimzowitsch
tries to get an extra tempo for move …b5.

53…b6 54.Nf4 b5 55.Nh3?!
Of course, the good king’s move 55.Kc3
(Dvoretsky) was better. But (surprisingly
enough and very instructively for us!) even
after making that weaker choice Lasker all
the same keeps the possibility of resistance.
55...Nc6 56.Ke3?
Now White’s defense collapses. The only
possible way was 56.Kc3 Ke5 57.Kd3, and
then after 57…Na5 58.Ng1! Kf4 59.e5 Kf5
60.e6 Nc6 61.Kd2! (but not 61.Kc3? Kf6,
getting in zugzwang) Black will be still wide
of the mark. Let me draw your attention to
the final position of this variation: it’s a
nice example of distant chess peace’s
cooperation.
56...Kc5 57.Kd3 b4! 58.ab4
This exchange saves the queenside but
opens the route for Black’s king.
58…Kb4 59.Kc2 Nd4 60.Kb1 Ne6 61.Ka2
Kc4 62.Ka3 Kd4 63.Ka4 Ke4 64.b4 Kf3
65.b5 Kg2 0:1.

Conclusion
Maybe the more meticulous observer will
notice more distinctions between pawn and
knight endings but it hardly matters. The key
word is “may be”, so we have reasons to
modify the Botvinnik’s formula as next:
“Knight endgames may be pawn endgames”.
It means that most techniques of pawn
endgames equally apply to knight endgames
but there is no guarantee of the same result.