Pure pawn endgames are said to be the simplest of all endings but that doesn’t mean they are always easy to win. A case and point is presented in a recent blog post where I shared a blown opportunity in a King and pawn endgame I witnessed at a Northern California youth chess tournament. As a follow up, I am sharing this Grigoriev endgame study I used to help prepare my students for the same tournament.
At the end of the lesson, I challenge my chess students to not only solve this endgame problem but to also explain it to another chess player who was not in our class. After all, every chess coach knows from personal experience that the understanding required to teach an endgame study is the best test for one’s mastery of the key concepts.
The final position of the solution is so beautiful it should be appreciated by itself.
