English-born American player of GM strength. He was a member of the prestigious Brooklyn Chess Club at a time when Showalter, Marshall and Pillsbury were among its ranks. He showed much promise when as a teenager he beat Frank Marshall in a long match.  Napier was the first holder of the BCF championship title after beating Henry Atkins in a play-off at Hastings in 1904. After a short international career, he gave up competitive chess for a life in insurance. He was married to Pillsbury's niece.

Francis Lee and the watching crowd thought that this ending would be drawn but Napier showed his class as his King crept among Lee's queenside pawns. The Black Bishop lacks mobility because it is hampered by his own pawns. White applies pressure against the weak queenside, re-routing his Bishop onto the h1-a8 diagonal and making a breach against Black's defence by advancing his own queenside pawns. It is a classical "good" versus "bad" Bishop ending.

 Gens Una Sumus

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8X8 Basic Endings for Success

White to play and WIN The ending RvB is usually drawn but here the Black King finds itself in a bad corner. The winning idea is to attack the Bishop in such away that mate is threatened at the same time. Firstly the Bishop has to be forced out in the open; 1.Rf1 Bh2 2.Rf2 Bg3 3.Rg2! The Bishop cannot go to the f- or h-files because of the discovered check, winning the Bishop. 3...Bd6 4.Rd2 Be7 5.Ra2 Kf8 6.Ra8 + and the Bishop is lost.

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I would like to briefly summarise the type of endings found on the site. These are; (a) Basic endings. (b) Practical chess endings. (c) The Endgame study.

(a) Basic Endings. These are theoretical positions in which we know the correct result with optimum play by both sides. They may consist of three pawns or less and also include all the non-pawn and five piece endings which have now been extensively analysed by computer and of which we have tablebases. In the days when we had adjournments some of these endings could be looked up in text books to give us some idea how to play the position. As we no longer can do this, knowledge and memory of these endings has become important in practical play. Fundamental Chess Endings (2001) by Muller and Lamprecht and Basic Endings (1992) by Balashov and Prandstetter and the earlier A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames (1970) by David Hooper are good introductions to these endings.

(b) Practical Endings. These occur in over-the-board play where usually more pawns are present. The above ending is an example of this type. Some of these endings are in the process of being transformed to basic endings but often they finish before this stage is reached. Endgame strategy is very different from the middlegame and has its own set of rules and exceptions. Fine's book Basic Chess Endings (1941,2003) recently revised by Pal Benko and Batsford Chess Endings (1993) by Speelman, Tisdall and Wade are about basic and practical endings and both can be recommended.

(c) Endgame Studies. These are positions which have been composed and will contain elements of one or both of the above types of endings. But there are important differences between these types and the study, such as artistic form and economy of construction. An endgame study has to follow strict rules of composition, especially if it is entered into a composing competition. One of these rules states there should only be one solution. If there is an unintended second solution then the study is unsound and said to be "cooked".