Queen and Pawn Endings

This is a basic study of all Queen and Pawn Endings including many studies that lead to surprising draws.The basic position starts with the first diagram in the book of pawn against Queen, where the player with the queen needs to stop the pawn from reaching the 8th rank and promoting to a queen.This situation arises fairly frequently and needs to be studied and learned.The player with the queen needs to either check the king along a file or diagonal or, when the pawn is undefended, needs to attack the pawn such that the opposing king comes to defense.Eventually the opposing king is forced to move in front of his own pawn, blocking it. This gives the other king time to make a move approaching the enemy pawn.In this way, the side with the queen is able to make a zig-zag motion, with each sequence bringing the king closed to the pawn until he is finally able to capture it.If the side opposing the queen has two pawns, the technique is more difficult but usually boils down to the same thing.This book was first published in Russian as ISBN 4871875059 ISBN 978-4-87187-505-9 Comprehensive Chess Endings Volume 3 Queen and Pawn. It is here translated into English by Kenneth Neat.The author Yuri Averbakh is the oldest chess grandmaster in the world, at age 98.Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (Russian: ¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿; born February 8, 1922) I know him well, as I met him in Moscow at the Central Chess Club in Gogoyeski Bulvar in Kaponskaya in 1976 at a time when few Americans had penetrated behind the "Iron Curtain". He is a Soviet and Russian chess player and author. As of 2020, he is the oldest living chess grandmaster. He was born in Kaluga, Russia. He was chairman of the USSR Chess Federation from 1973 to 1978.His first major success was first place in the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of players including Andor Lilienthal, Yakov Estrin and Vladimir Simagin. He became an International Grandmaster in 1952. In 1954 he won the USSR Chess Championship ahead of players including Mark Taimanov, Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrosian, Efim Geller and Salo Flohr. In the 1956 Championship he came equal first with Taimanov and Boris Spassky in the main event, finishing second after the playoff. Later Averbakh's daughter, Jane, would marry Taimanov. Averbakh's other major tournament victories included Vienna 1961 and Moscow 1962. He qualified for the 1953 Candidates' Tournament (the last stage to determine the challenger to the World Chess Champion), finishing joint tenth of the fifteen participants. He also qualified for the 1958 Interzonal at Portoroz, by finishing in fourth place at the 1958 USSR Championship at Riga. At Portoroz, he wound up in a tie for seventh through eleventh places, half a point short of advancing to the Candidates' Tournament. He played in the 1993 Maccabiah Games in Israel, coming in fourth.He has plus records against the World champions Max Euwe and Tigran Petrosian.Averbakh is a major endgame study theorist. He has published more than 100 studies, many of which have made notable contributions to endgame theory. In 1956 he was given by FIDE the title of International Judge of Chess Compositions and in 1969 he became an International Arbiter.