Welcome to this active site. Each week I am going to present to you an endgame position for you to solve or to workout the best continuation. Computer analysis will also be considered. Some of these positions will come from actual historical games. Others will be composed endgame studies, but all the solutions will be relevant to the practical game. The new position will occur each SUNDAY and I will always be pleased to receive POSITIVE feedback about the positions and the analysis and I will try to acknowledge these where relevant.

International Grandmaster and Endgame Composer. Although born in France he grew up in Hungary and won the national championship at the age of 20. In 1956 he left Hungary and settled in the USA where he was very successful as a player, winning many Open Tournaments. In 1959 he became a World Championship Candidate and again in 1962 at Curacao. He made an important contribution to opening theory with his book: The Benko Gambit (1973). He is an expert endgame composer and has won many prizes.

White has to deal with Black's passed a-pawn which is extremely dangerous. The winning plan is to sacrifice the Rook at "a1" and seal in Black's King. But first some preliminary manouevring is needed to make Black lose a tempo.

Sacrificing the Rook in the corner doesn't work here: 2.Ra1? Kxa1 3.Kc2 h6 4.Kc1 (if 4.g3 a5 5.Kc1 a4 6.Kc2 a3 7.g5 hxg5 8.g4 stalemate) 4...a5 5.Kc2 a4 6.Kc1 h5 7.g5 h4 8.g6 h3 9.gxh3 a3 10.h4 stalemate;

5...h6 6.Kd2 a4 (6...Kxa1 7.Kc1! transposes to the main line) 7.Kd1 a3 (7...Kxa1 8.Kc2!+-) 8.g3 h5 9.g5 h4 10.g6 h3 11.g7 h2 12.Rxa2+ Kxa2 13.g8Q+ wins;

13.g8Q a1Q 14.Qg7+ Ka2 15.Qf7+ Kb2 16 Qb7+! Ka2 17.Qd5+ Kb2 18.Qb5+ Ka2 19.Qc4+ Kb2 20.Qc2 mate.

Pal Benko is a special guest at The Curacao 1962-2002 chess tournament being held November 16th-28th 2002. The tournament commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Candidates tournament in 1962. Viktor Korchnoi, Yuri Averbach are also included among the guests. The tournament is 9 rounds and has a maximum of 120 players. (http://www.curacao.com/chess)

1. Cumulative 2002 Prizes: 1st £100 or equivalent, 2nd £50, 3rd £30; 4th £20. (Total Prize Money=£200) Entries limited to 20 solvers. This event will run from 6/1/2002 to 22/12/2002 with a recess in July. Present CUMULATIVE COMPETITION rules apply but note the prizes will go to those participants who climb the ladder the greatest number of times during the year. The relative position of the solver's name on the ladder will decide the allocation of prizes.

2. Endgame Solving Tournaments 2002. They will be directed at new or intermediate solvers and will not be too difficult. No money prizes but a book prize for the highest placed newcomer. Events will take place at Easter, Summer and Christmas each consisting of 5 positions to solve. Present strict rules will apply; no computer analysis.