Self Stalemate is our Fate
In a chess composition is often found one fairly interesting theme which will be discussed in this article.
In addition to the basic combination ideas, which are often found both in a chess composition and directly in chess games among which are: deflection, decoying, interference, etc., there are less used but therefore no less interesting positional chess ideas which are known to chess amateurs largely due to such chess art as a chess composition. A separate line in a chess composition includes such a tactical idea as self stalemate, in which the losing side needs rescuing (in the form of a draw) by completely restricting the moves of both his king and other chess pieces remaining on the chessboard.
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Let's consider an interesting example of the chess ending "bishop vs. pawns":
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Most clearly the capabilities of self stalemating are illustrated in the pawn endings due to the mutual blocking of the pawn chains and, as result, limiting the total set of possible moves in the studying position.
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Another interesting example of the "play to stalemate" in which the main theme is inextricably linked with the original idea of building a blockade:
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If the previous chess examples were elegant in terms of performance, but not so difficult in terms of finding a solution and can be considered as exercises for training tactical thinking of a chess player, then below we will look at the couple of full chess etudes (also known as endgame studies) that won prizes at chess composition competitions. The idea in these etudes is still the same — stalemating all your own pieces in order to make a draw in a knowingly losing position.
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The last etude will appear before the chess viewer as a whole performance of pawn breaks and promotions, but the goal for which sacrifices and zugzwangs will be made is still the same — self stalemate.
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The above chess examples clearly demonstrate that chess is a multifaceted game. In which beautiful are not only checkmate combinations where the attacking side, sacrificing pieces, puts your opponent in an impasse, but also positions where to achieve a draw sometimes you have to put in an impasse (actually, in a stalemate)... yourself!
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Russian version of this article can be found here.
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