Purpose
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Yuri Averbakh pointed out that the opposition is a means to an end; the end is penetration to a key square (Averbakh 1987:5). This can be a square in front of a pawn, so the king can lead it to the queening square, or into a critical zone to win an enemy blocked pawn. In the diagram on the right, White should play 1. Kc5; taking the opposition by 1. Ke4 draws.
The second position shows a simpler example. If White takes the opposition with 1. Ke6 he makes no progress. The winning move is 1. Kc7 (see king and pawn versus king endgame).
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Read more about this topic: Opposition (chess)
Famous quotes containing the word purpose:
“The purpose of punishment is to improve those who do the punishing—that is the final recourse of those who support punishment.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation’s final law—
Though Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed—”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)