Losing Chess Problems and Studies

This page is under construction!

Introduction

The source for almost all problems here has been:

"Published material on endgame theory and endgame studies in Losing Chess"

collected and kindly provided by John Beasley. All compositions have been then checked for solutions with the Losing Chess program 'Wizard' (download new demo!).

To solve some of the problems you may have to learn elementary endgame tables first.
Unless otherwise stated, White is to play and win.

So far, only solutions of easy problems and problems by Fabrice Liardet are there, I will put the rest of solutions soon. (However, if you badly need a certain solution - just e-mail me and I will send it to you!)

If no solution is given, you can see it by dragging your mouse under the problem!
 


Simple ones 
H. Klüver, Chess Amateur 1923
Diagram 1s
   1.a8N! Kxa4 2.Nb6! ...
T.R.Dawson, Deutsches Wochenschach 1925
Diagram 2s
1.Rb2! Bxb2 2.Rh8! Bxh8 3.e4 ...
P.H. Törngren, Tidskrift för Schack 1929
Diagram 3s
 1.h3! a5 2.h4 a4 3.h5 a3 4.h6 a2 5.h7 a2R! 6.h8B!!...
  1. White  Ph4,f2   Black  Pf7,h6      (Klüver, H. 1934)
    2. 1.h5! f6 2.f4! or 1...f5 2.f3!
  2. White  Pa7   Black  Kf3, Bh1      (Fabel, K. and Klüver, H. 1947)
    3. 1.a8K! Ke4(or Bg2) 2.Kb7! Kf3(or Bh1) 3.Kc6 ... wins
  3. White  Kf3   Black  Kd7, Qc8    (Fabel, K. and Klüver, H. 1947)
    4. (1.Kg4? or 1.Kf4? - 1...Qa6! draw) 1.Ke4! Qd8 2. Kd4!! - zugzwang
  4. White  Rc4, Nb4(or Nb2)   Black  Bg5        (Niemann, J. 1948)
    5. (with Nb4)1.Rc1! Bxc1 2.Na2!  and (with Nb2) 1.Rh4! Bxh4 2.Nc4!
  5. White  Pa7   Black  Nb4,c4        (Mortensen, J. 1960)
    6. (1.a7K? Nb6!! 2.Kb8 Na8! 3.Kxa8 Nd5!!) 1.a8B!! Nd3! 2.Bc6! Nc1 3.Bd5! Nd3 4.Bxc4 wins
  6. White  Ba8, Pb7   Black  Bb6, Nd8, Pa7    White draws    (Beasley, J. 1996)
    7. (1.b8K? or 1.b8B? 1...Ba5!, 1.b8R? Bc5! 2.Rxd8 Bd6!, 1.b8N a6!) 1.b8Q! draw

Medium Difficulty
  1. White  Bg2, Pf7,a6,c5,d4,e4   Black  Ra8, Bg3, Pa7,h5    (Schellenberg, P. 1901)   solution
  2. White  Rd1, Nh2, Pc2   Black  Bf6, Pb4    (Roese, W. 1923)   solution
  3. White  Pe7   Black  Nd7, Pf7,h7,h6   White draws  (Watney, C.G. 1923)   solution
  4. White  Bf8, Nf6   Black  Kf7, Pd7,h7    (Slater, E. 1935)   solution
  5. White  Kh2, Nh6, Pe2   Black  Kd4, Ne5        (Klüver, H. 1949)    solution
  6. White  Be6, Nf6   Black  Ra1   White draws  (Sekhar, R. and Shankar, R. 1987)    solution
  7. White  Nc2,g1   Black  Pd3    (Beasley, J. 1997)   solution
  8. White  Nh3   Black  Kh8, Ng8    (Beasley, J. 1997)   solution
F. Liardet, Variant Chess 1997
Diagram 9m
solution
  1. White  Ra2, Ng4, Pd2   Black  Pd4    (Kohli, L. 1998)   solution

Hard ones
  1. White  Qf3, Pa4   Black  Kb6, Na6        (Niemann, J. 1947)    solution
  2. White  Nb1   Black  Nh8,a6        (Evseev, G. 1992)    solution
  3. White  Nb8   Black  Pd5,c3,e3        (Evseev, G. 1992)    solution
P.C. Wood, Variant Chess 1994
Diagram 4h
White draws
solution
  1. White  Nd1   Black  Pb7,g7    (Beasley, J. 1997)   solution
  2. White  Nd3   Black  Pa7,h7    (Beasley, J. 1997)   solution
V. Geerlings, Losing Chess Pages 1997
Diagram 7h
solution
  1. White  Pa5,f6   Black  Pf4    (Liardet, F. 1997)   solution
  2. White  Nd7, Pe7   Black  Nh4    (Liardet, F. 1997)   solution
  3. White  Ng5, Ph5   Black  Nd7, Pf5    (Liardet, F. 1997)   solution
  4. White  Pd6, h6   Black  Kb5, Nh8    (Liardet, F. 1997)   solution
  5. White  Ke5, Pd7,g5   Black  Kh7, Rc6, Bb7, Nb5    (Liardet, F. 1998)   solution
  6. White  Na4, Pg7,h7   Black  Rf1, Pd2     (Liardet, F. 1998)   solution
 
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If you have an interesting LC problem not listed here (maybe your own!), or have any comments on these ones e-mail me, please