Summer chess school lesson 18. This ending seems to have a definite plan for Black: somehow figure out a way to use the outside pawn majority, which is not going to be easy. However, Black gives us a lesson in alertness. No matter what big strategic plan you may have in mind, sometimes alertness will save you a lot of time. Is your "alert-o-meter" on? This actually happened between Mitkov and Azmaiparashvili at the Moscow Olympiad in 1994.

1...h6!! [and the game is over!! Did you catch it??] 2.b4 [White sees it, but it's too late.] 2...Kd6 [The rook is trapped and lost.] 3.Kd4 Rc8 4.c4 c5+ 5.bxc5+ bxc5+ 0–1

Send questions and comments to PTamburro@aol.com.