Wrong-Footed

[Published in The Problemist Supplement, March 2008]

Wrong-Footed

By Alexander George

In tennis, football, etc.: (by deceptive play) to cause (an opponent) to have his balance on the wrong foot. (Oxford English Dictionary)

A problem is propelled forward not by feet but by moves. To wrong-foot an opponent in chess, then, is to maneuver him into a position on the wrong move.

Normally, to have the move in a position is the enviable condition: for it is then up to us to determine the course of play. There are some positions, however, which are not threatening in themselves and yet which are fatal to fall into on the wrong foot. That is, having to move from them proves to be a curse, and one wishes one had earlier slowed one’s pace to the point where it would now be the other’s move instead. These are of course positions of zugzwang, a terminal chess condition in which, were it but for the fact that one must move, all would be well; given the need to move, all is lost. When in zugzwang, one’s freedom is one’s undoing.

To wrong-foot an opponent, we must take our time and through an exquisitely timed deceleration, allow him to overtake us and to plunge headlong into zugzwang. Rien ne sert de courir; il faut partir à point. †

† Most of these positions were discovered in the Nalimov Endgame Tablebases. I am grateful to Steven B. Dowd for encouragement and to Siegfried Hornecker for his research help. Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 2

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Alexander George

2K5/k2P4/8/b7/8/8/2P5/8 w White wins

If White overeagerly presses forward with 1.c4?, the bK will be able to capture it via a6-b5 and the game will be drawn. White needs to wrong-foot the bK with the slower 1.c3!, which forces the bK to an untimely retreat. (Moving the bB instead is to no avail as the bishop can afford neither to take its eye off d8 to capture the c-pawn nor to get captured itself.) Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 3

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Alexander George

1K1k1n2/8/8/4N3/8/8/P7/8 w White wins

Here is a wrong-footing of a four-legged creature. If the wP charges forward with 1.a4? Ne6 2.a5 Nc5, then White lands in a position in which all its moves lead to a draw. By contrast, if the wP proceeds with son train de Sénateur 1.a3! Ne6 2.a4 Nc5 3.a5, Black is confronted by the very same position—except that all its moves precipitate its fall. (If instead 1.a3 Nd7 2.NxN KxN 3.Kb7 and White wins.)

[See also: 1K5n/3k4/8/8/1N6/8/P7/8 w by Conrady, in Rochade Europa 2004.]

Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 4

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Alexander George

1k6/n7/1K6/6P1/8/8/4P3/8 w White wins

Not every short pawn move is born from the need to wrong-foot the opponent. If Black is to draw here, its knight will need to race over to the pawns. And if White is to win, its king will have to follow in hot pursuit. Unless White makes just the right initial move, Black’s knight will be able to hold off the advance of the pawns (say by capturing one and allowing the bK to reach the other). White’s king must choose its path of pursuit carefully: it needs to avoid knight forks that would allow a pawn to drop. Hence, typical is 1.e3! Nc8+ 2.Kc6 Ne7+ 3.Kd7 Ng6 4.Ke6 Kc8 5.Kf6 – and now the mystery of the short-stepping pawn is solved. If the pawn had been on e4, then Black could move 5…Nf4 and White would not be able to make any progress. This is a case of pseudo-wrong-footing: the point of 1.e3 is not that it will help White to lose a move at a critical moment and thereby force Black onto the wrong foot. The point is rather to gain control of f4 and deny the bN a foothold there. Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 5

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Alexander George

8/8/8/8/4P3/3K4/7P/3kr3 w White draws

Black’s plan is to move its king toward the e-pawn to support its capture by the rook; the other pawn will be mopped up and the game will be over for White. For instance, 1.h4 Rh1 2.Kd4 Ke2 3.e5 Kf3 and – shades of Réti – the bK will just be able to connect with its rook to capture both pawns. White’s second move allows the bK enough time make this plan work. But after 1.h4, White has little choice since 1…Rh1 2.e5 RxP and White has lost because its king can no longer advance to support the e-pawn. White needs to speed up the movement of its e-pawn and, oddly, it can only do this by slowing down its h-pawn: 1.h3! Rh1 2.e5. Now, if 2…RxP+ then 3.Kd4 and White has just enough of a head start on Black’s king to draw the game.

Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 6

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Alexander George

8/8/2P5/k1K5/b7/8/3P4/8 w White wins

White can win only by having both pawns advance arm-in-arm. But Black will try to take one pawn with the bishop and to maneuver the bK to the 8th rank in order to draw against the other pawn. If White moves in haste, it will stumble into precisely this plan, for instance as follows: 1.d4? Ka6 2.d5 Ka7 3.d6 Kb8 4.Kb6 BxP! 5.KxB Kc8 =. White needs to slow down its advance so this Black plan will leave White with the opposition in the KP v. K endgame. Hence, the initially baffling 1.d3! Ka6 2.d4 Ka7 3.d5 Kb8 4.Kb6 BxP 5.PxB and White wins. If Black instead moves 4…Kc8 5.d6 BxP 6.KxB and wins. If the bishop makes some other move, 5…B~ 6.d7+ Kd8 7.c7+ KxP 8.Kb7 and White wins. (If the pieces were shifted one file to the right, Black would have an ace up its sleeve, viz. the resource 9…Ba5+, covering the queening square and so drawing!)

Alexander George Wrong-Footed / 7

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Alexander George

8/8/8/8/8/1k6/b2P4/K3N3 w White wins

The natural first move fails: 1.d4? Kc3 2.Nf3 and the bB steals off – with White’s win – along the a2-g8 diagonal. The problem was that White, in defending its pawn, gave the bB the opportunity to escape. The key then is for the wP to take a baby-step in order to park itself under the umbrella of the wN’s protection: 1.d3! This wrong-foots Black and forces him back: 1…Ka3 2.Nc2+ Kb3 3.d4 KxN 4.KxB Kd3 5.d5 and White wins. (For a similar idea, but in a slightly different setting, see 8/8/8/8/KN6/b7/1k1P4/8 w, White wins.)