Chess: In Endgame, Knight Overpowers Bishop

IN ENDGAME, KNIGHT OVERPOWERS BISHOP

Muskogee Daily Phoenix, OK
Jan 23 2014

By Eric Morrow Chess Corner The Muskogee Phoenix Thu Jan 23, 2014,
06:19 PM CST

The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands began
Jan. 10 and will finish Sunday.

Levon Aronian of Armenia, whose player rating is the second-highest
in the world, has led throughout the tournament.

In the fourth round, Aronian defeated the United States’ best player,
Hikaru Nakamura, whose world ranking is No. 3.

This week’s position is from their game. Aronian is white; Nakamura,
black. Aronian wins by taking his knight on a tour of the position.

With this hint in mind, please try to find white’s winning moves
and plan.

The players have entered a knight versus bishop endgame.

White’s pawns are all on squares whose color is opposite that of
black’s bishop. This makes white’s pawns safe. But black’s pawns are
not safe from white’s knight, which can land on any color of square.

This highlights the weakness of a bishop in a knight versus bishop
endgame.

Aronian exploits this by moving his knight to g7, threatening black’s
h5 pawn. This forces the h5 pawn to h4.

White’s knight hops back to f5, again threatening black’s h4 pawn.

Black defends the pawn by moving its bishop to e1.

Now Aronian maneuvered his knight to e3. The e3 square is a launching
pad for the c4 square. From c4, the knight and white king combine to
capture black’s a5 pawn.

Nakamura was helpless against this attack. He moved his king to e6
and Aronian moved his knight to c4.

Nakamura resigned. After Aronian captures black’s a5 pawn, white’s
passed pawn on a4 will be decisive.

The lesson this week is that in a knight versus bishop endgame,
the knight’s ability to occupy squares of either color often decides
the outcome.

In this game from the world’s best, we saw a knight go on tour and
visit both dark and light squares on its way to the critical square.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress