Welcome to the 2nd installment of chess summer school at arcamax.com. In the coming weeks, we’re going to be concentrating on the basics of chess, mostly in the endgame, where people are weaker. This week is about bishop and pawn endings where simple positions offer great challenges. Please do the previous puzzle before doing this one. Here it is Black to move. He lost an almost mirror image of this position in the last puzzle. Can Black draw here?

Solution:

There are some interesting differences with the previous puzzle. Black can draw here. 1...Bd8 2.e8=N [2.e8=Q stalemate; 2.e8=R stalemate; 2.e8=B Ba5 and the mate can’t be forced.] 2...Bh4 [ You can’t just go anywhere with the bishop: 2...Ba5 3.Nd6+ Kb8 4.Nb7+] 3.Bc7 Be7 4.Ng7 Bd8 5.Bf4 Bc7 and White can make no progress. It’s a draw.

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.