Réti Endgame Study

The Réti endgame study is a chess endgame study by Richard Réti. It was published in 1921 in Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten. It demonstrates how a king can make multiple threats and how it can take more than one path to a given location, using the same number of moves. It is covered in many books on the endgame. The procedure is known as the "Réti Maneuver" or "Réti's Idea" (Müller & Pajeken 2008:32–33), (Nunn 2007:118–19), (Dvoretsky 2006:26). Endgame composer Abram Gurvich called the theme "The Hunt of Two Hares" and it appears in many other studies and games (Müller & Lamprecht 2007:39). It is also called "chasing two birds at once" (Dvoretsky 2006:26).

Richard Réti, 1921

White to play and draw

White is to move and draw in this position. At first inspection, it appears that White has no hope in drawing. His king is well outside the "square" of the black pawn and the king is a long way from supporting his own pawn. However, White can draw by making king moves that have dual purposes. One goal is getting in the square of the black pawn, so it can be intercepted, and the other is getting to the d6-square to support the promotion of his pawn.

The black king will have to spend two tempi to stop the white pawn from promoting, and this is the number of tempi the white king needs to gain in order to get into the square of the black pawn. The solution:

     1. Kg7! h4
1...Kb6 transposes.

     2. Kf6 Kb6
Black has to spend a tempo on preventing the white king from reaching his pawn. If 2...h3 then 3.Ke7 h2 4.c7 Kb7 5.Kd7 and both pawns promote, with a drawn position.

     3. Ke5! Kxc6
Black has to spend another tempo to capture the pawn, to prevent the white king from protecting it. If 3...h3 then 4.Kd6 h2 5.c7 h1=Q 6.c8=Q, draw (Müller & Pajeken 2008:12–13). Now the white king has gained enough tempi to get in the square of the black pawn and intercept it.

     4. Kf4
Draw, since the white king can stop the pawn from promoting (e.g. 4...h3 5.Kg3 h2 6.Kxh2)

The Solution