Fortress in A Corner
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
Perhaps the most common type of fortress, often seen in endgames with only a few pieces on the board, is where the defending king is able to take refuge in a corner of the board and cannot be chased away or checkmated by the superior side. These two diagrams furnish two classic examples. In both cases, Black simply shuffles his king between a8 and the available square adjacent to a8 (a7, b7, or b8, depending on the position of the white king and pawn). White has no way to dislodge Black's king, and can do no better than a draw by stalemate or some other means.
Note that the bishop and wrong rook pawn ending (i.e. where the pawn is a rook pawn whose promotion square is the color opposite to that of the bishop) at right is a draw even if the pawn is on the seventh rank or further back on the a-file. Heading for a bishop and wrong rook pawn ending is a fairly common drawing resource available to the inferior side (Müller & Pajeken 2008:183).
The knight and rook pawn position at right, however, is only a draw if White's pawn is already on the seventh rank, making this drawing resource available to the defender much less frequently. White wins if the pawn is not yet on the seventh rank and is protected by the knight from behind. With the pawn on the seventh rank, Black has a stalemate defense with his king in the corner (Müller & Pajeken 2008:189).
Serper vs. Nakamura
|
Serper vs. Nakamura
|
A fortress is often achieved by a sacrifice, such as of a piece for a pawn. In the game between Grigory Serper and Hikaru Nakamura, in the 2004 U.S. Chess Championship, White would lose after 1. Nd1 Kc4 or 1. Nh1 Be5 or 1. Ng4 Bg7. Instead he played 1. Nxe4! Kxe4 2.Kf1! heading for h1. After another 10 moves the position in the second diagram was reached. Black has no way of forcing White's king away from the corner, so he played 12... Kf2 and after 13. h4 gxh4 the game was drawn by stalemate.
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
The back-rank defense in some rook and pawn versus rook endgames is another type of fortress in a corner (see diagram at left). The defender perches his king on the pawn's queening square, and keeps his rook on the back rank (on the "long side" of the king, not, e.g., on h8 in the diagram position) to guard against horizontal checks. If 1.Rg7+ in the diagram position, Black heads into the corner with 1...Kh8! Note that this defense works only against rook pawns and knight pawns (Mednis 1982:15–17).
Seirawan, 2003| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
In the ending of a rook versus a bishop, the defender can form a fortress in the "safe" corner—the corner that is not of the color on which the bishop resides (see diagram). White must release the potential stalemate, but he cannot improve his position (Seirawan 2003:200–201).
- 1. Rc3 Ba2
- 2. Rc2 Bb3
- 3. Rc7 Bg8
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | ||
| 8 | 8 | ||||||||
| 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 6 | 6 | ||||||||
| 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
In this position from de la Villa, White draws if his king does not leave the corner. It is also a draw if the bishop is on the other color, so it is not a case of the wrong bishop (de la Villa 2008:25).
Read more about this topic: Fortress (chess)
Famous quotes containing the words fortress and/or corner:
“a fortress against ideas and against the
Shuddering insidious shock of the theory-vendors
The little sardine men crammed in a monster toy
Who tilt their aggregate beast against our crumbling Troy.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
“At this very moment,... the most frightful horrors are taking place in every corner of the world. People are being crushed, slashed, disembowelled, mangled; their dead bodies rot and their eyes decay with the rest. Screams of pain and fear go pulsing through the air at the rate of eleven hundred feet per second. After travelling for three seconds they are perfectly inaudible. These are distressing facts; but do we enjoy life any the less because of them? Most certainly we do not.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)