Knights of the square table !

This thread is dedicated to those funny moving horseys!
To show the hidden resources of this tricky pieces, show your favorite studies/problems where the knight is the star.
Better still : positions with only K, pawns, and knights.

Here is one of my favorite studies (short, but pretty hard)



White to play and win (Halberstadt)

For those not familiar with studies : there's no number of move to mate since you just have to find the forced way to a clear win (for instance here getting the pawn to queen could be an idea...provided it's not taken next move we consider it a trivial win so no need to continue)

Also : in studies, it's important that there is only ONE way to victory : here the 2 first moves are truly amazing, especially when you consider they are the ONLY way to victory.

Little hint :

In fact i realize that in this study, the real star is not the knight !
But still it's a "knight only" study... knight barriers are better illustrations of the knight power. or under-promotions.

Here is a simpler study where the knight does all the work :
White to play and DRAW (not win!)

And here a nice one where the solution is not so hard to find. The intersting point is to understand why depite the symetry, there's only 1 solution !
(hint : knowing your basic theoretical endgames helps)



White to play and win

Originally posted by shorbock
This thread is dedicated to those funny moving horseys!
To show the hidden resources of this tricky pieces, show your favorite studies/problems where the knight is the star.
Better still : positions with only K, pawns, and knights.

Here is one of my favorite studies (short, but pretty hard)


[fen]4N3/3nP3/1k6/8/1K6/8/8/8 w[/fen]
White to play an ...[text shortened]... first moves are truly amazing, especially when you consider they are the ONLY way to victory.

Originally posted by shorbock
This thread is dedicated to those funny moving horseys!
To show the hidden resources of this tricky pieces, show your favorite studies/problems where the knight is the star.
Better still : positions with only K, pawns, and knights.

Here is one of my favorite studies (short, but pretty hard)


[fen]4N3/3nP3/1k6/8/1K6/8/8/8 w[/fen]
White to play an ...[text shortened]... first moves are truly amazing, especially when you consider they are the ONLY way to victory.

No , it's a bit (wel in fact much) harder than that !
1.Nc7? Nf6 2.Nd5+ Nxd5+ WITH CHECK !
so of course this is the basic idea of the study : how to make this line work?
(2 moves to find then it's clear)

Originally posted by gambit05
1. Nc7

Originally posted by shorbock
This thread is dedicated to those funny moving horseys!
To show the hidden resources of this tricky pieces, show your favorite studies/problems where the knight is the star.
Better still : positions with only K, pawns, and knights.

Here is one of my favorite studies (short, but pretty hard)


[fen]4N3/3nP3/1k6/8/1K6/8/8/8 w[/fen]
White to play an ...[text shortened]... first moves are truly amazing, especially when you consider they are the ONLY way to victory.

Originally posted by wormwood
I have never seen this, but it's not very hard. 🙂

Originally posted by shorbock
No , it's a bit (wel in fact much) harder than that !
1.Nc7? Nf6 2.Nd5+ Nxd5+ WITH CHECK !
so of course this is the basic idea of the study : how to make this line work?
(2 moves to find then it's clear)

Originally posted by wormwood
ah, you're absolutely right, once again I spoke too soon. 🙂



edit: I think approaching horisontally does the trick. black king can't follow unless black knight moves, and if it moves it's all over.

Originally posted by wormwood
ah, you're absolutely right, once again I spoke too soon. 🙂



edit: I think approaching horisontally does the trick. black king can't follow unless black knight moves, and if it moves it's all over.

Ng7

Remember the clue about the first couple of moves
being odd and surprising.

Think of two odd and surprising moves that look like they
achive nothing. (no more help). It is hard. I had to be shown.

Originally posted by ImperatorGT
Ng7