Readers of this blog are probably aware that I use my trusted Kasparian’s Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies when I want to get my brain working, usually before a competition.
I would like to share one situation that happened to me recently. Sometimes, it happens that after a very long time of suffering and frustration I finally manage to solve the study. This time I failed.
I can recognise the process of trying, failing, but not giving up, and finally succeeding, only this time I didn’t follow through to the end. In truth, this was at the end of my session so I felt tired and wanted to finish it, but this just showed a lack of patience and perseverance under those conditions.
By now you are probably wondering which position posed such problems for me. It was a study by Hasek from 1929:
White to play and win.
The problem for me was that I didn’t stumble upon the correct idea and this made the study unsolvable for me.
It is always the same with studies like this one – if you see the idea you solve it in 5 seconds, if you don’t then you suffer until you do or until you give up.
This time I gave up.
Perhaps the most curious thing about this study is that when I set up this position for two friends of mine, rated 1900-2000, they solved it in 5 minutes!
I will leave you with this last bit of information, with the hope that you will be more successful than me in solving the study. As you can see, solving it has nothing to do with chess strength!
Good luck!
