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The Réti Maneuver
Richard Réti looking fresh

The Réti Maneuver

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This position seems like a complete loss for white. 
This famous Position is from Richard Réti’s brilliant endgame study in 1921 at Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichen. This endgame shows that a king can create multiple threats at once, and how it can take a second road to a certain location 
In this position, white and black both have a passed pawn. only whites pawn it heavily guarded by blacks king, and if you try and push black can stop. but blacks pawn is 2 squares ahead of whites king, so that pawn can not be stopped.  It looks nearly impossible to even get a draw for white. But is it?
It is actually a drawn position. as everybody knows, to advance a pawn safely and successfully, you need a king right by your passed pawn, and to stop a passed pawn you need your king right by it. So how can you get your king into both of those concepts?
White manages to draw a position, that looks entirely like a dead loss! 
But of course, you will not see that position very much in your everyday games, but the same concepts apply to just about every endgame out there.  It shows that
  • The King can move more then once space per move. Well what do you mean? the king only can move one space? it turns out that diagonal and straight are two different distances. as most of you know, if a king could not go diagonal, it would take twice as much time to get to the destination. and in this position, white has the two destination points, to stop the pawn and to advance a pawn. but if you moved straight to one of them, you can not reach them in time. So basically, the king moves quicker on diagonals
  •  Diagonal > straight. In pawn/king endgames, every single move counts. You want to take the quickest route available. Except maybe triangulation, but other then that, tempo is especially precious. This whole study shows that going diagonal are much more powerful and beneficial for the king then going straight.
  • Remember all your pieces in play. one of the biggest problems in your gameplay is not seeing all 64 squares at once. If you don't do that, you could have a piece you are forgetting about. In the Réti Maneuver, if white had no pawn, it would be a dead loss. The only reason going diagonal works is because the king hopes to create double threats. If white simply forgot about the pawn, there would be no chance of a draw
  • Make your opponent waste tempo. white only reached either of the two pawns because black had to waste a tempo moving his king. So how do you make your opponent waste tempo? well, as you should learn if you actually read all of this blog and just didn't skip to the end, if the black king had been two spaces away from whites pawn, and if it was blacks turn it would also be a draw. It would be pretty much the same, except black has to waste two tempo, not just the one, thus resulting in black not being able to push the pawn, so white can reach it even quicker. so really, if you are planning to convert into an endgame, keep your pawns away from the king. that way they will not be able to push their pawn, unless it is closer to the back rank. 


That truly is an endgame that is pure simplicity, yet so brilliantly beautiful 
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