In closing our little adventure into miniature endgames, it seems appropriate that the last one involves the knights. There is always something interesting about knights. One characteristic of the two knights as a pair is that, with no other pieces or pawns on the board, they can’t force checkmate. That makes this position a good deal of fun as all the Black rook has to do is give itself up for that White pawn and it’s a draw. The rook can zoom all over the place, so you had better figure out a way to safely escort that pawn to b8 and promotion to a queen!

Solution:

The composer’s (Kopac, 1974) solution has a certain sense of humor about it. The king marches down the board, loses a knight, and then marches up the board the way it came and wins. 1.b7 Rh6+ 2.Kc5 Rh5+ 3.Kc4 Rh4+ 4.Kc3 Rh3+ 5.Ng3 Rxg3+ 6.Kc4 Rg4+ 7.Kc5 Rg5+ 8.Kc6 White could have gone wrong with 2.Kd5 Rb6; or 2.Kd7 Rb6; or 2.Ng6 Rxg6+ 3.Kb5 Rg2; however, there is a prosaic win with 2.Kc7 which does give the study a flaw. Still, we like the down and up king march.

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