Spare Tempo
Burgess| 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 spare tempo in an endgame is when a player has a pawn move that does not essentially change the position but it loses a tempo to put the opponent in zugzwang. In this position, if only the queenside pieces were considered, it would be an instance of reciprocal zugzwang - the player to move would lose. In the full position, White has two spare tempos (f2-f3 and h2-h3) whereas Black has only one (f7-f6), so White has a spare tempo. By using these moves he can force Black into a fatal zugzwang:
- 1. h3 f6
- 2. f3
and any move Black makes will lose.
If the black pawn was on h7 instead of h6, White and Black would have an equal number of spare tempos, so the player to move would lose (Burgess 2009:533).
Read more about this topic: Tempo (chess)
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