The Réti endgame study is a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 endgame study

Endgame study

An endgame study, or just study, is a composed chess position—that is, one that has been made up rather than one from an actual game—presented as a sort of puzzle, in which the aim of the solver is to find a way for one side to win or draw, as stipulated, against any moves the other side...

 by Richard Réti

Richard Réti

Réti composed one of the most famous chess studies, shown in this diagram. It was published in Ostrauer Morgenzeitung 4 December 1921. It seems impossible for the white king to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king...

. It was published in 1921 in Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten. It demonstrates how a king

King (chess)

In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...

 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 arguably the most famous endgame study and is covered in many books on the endgame (see chess endgame literature

Chess endgame literature

Chess endgame literature refers to books and magazines about chess endgames. A bibliography of endgame books is below.Many chess writers have contributed to the theory of endgames over the centuries, including Ruy López de Segura, François-André Philidor, Josef Kling and Bernhard Horwitz, Johann...

). The procedure is known as the "Réti Maneuver" or "Réti's Idea" , , . Endgame composer

Chess composer

A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. He usually specializes in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems...

 Abram Gurvich

Abram Gurvich

Abram Solomonovich Gurvich was a Russian composer of chess endgame studies. He was born in Baku on February 11, 1897, worked as literature and theatrical reviewer. His first chess study was published in 1926. Gurvich composed more than 100 endgame studies. Died in Moscow on November 18, 1962...

 called the theme "The Hunt of Two Hares" and it appears in many other studies and games . It is also called "chasing two birds at once" .

The study

White is to move and draw

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

 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

Pawn (chess)

The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...

 (see king and pawn versus king endgame) and the king is a long way from supporting his own pawn. However, White can draw by making king moves that have two 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

Promotion (chess)

Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...

 of his pawn.

The black king will have to spend two tempos

Tempo (chess)

In chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move. When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, he "gains a tempo" and conversely when he takes one more move than necessary he "loses a tempo"...

 to stop the white pawn from promoting, and this is the number of tempos the white king needs to gain in order to get into the square of the black pawn.
The second diagram shows the number of ways that the white king can get to various squares in the minimum number of moves. There are nine ways to get to d6, but only one of them allows him to get into the square of the black pawn.

The solution is for the white king to follow the path on the diagonal marked by "1" and then follow the dots to intercept the black pawn (if necessary):

1. Kg7! h4

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 . Now the white king has gained enough tempos 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) .

Another study with the same idea

Réti used the same idea in another study. The solution is:

1. Kg6 Kb6

2. Kxg7 f5

3. Kf6! f4

4. Ke5 f3

5. Kd6 f2

6. c7 f1Q

7. c8Q Qf4+

8. Kd5 ½-½

Yates versus Marshall

In this game between Frederick Yates

Frederick Yates

Frederick Dewhurst Yates was an English chess master who won the British Chess Championship on six occasions...

 and Frank Marshall, Black draws using the same idea:

60... Kb2! (if 60... Kc2? 61. f4 wins)

61. Kxa4 (if 61. f4?? then 61... a3 wins)

61... Kc3!

62. f4 Kd4 ½-½ ,

Lasker versus Tarrasch

In this 1914 game between World Champion

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

 Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years...

 and Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch

Siegbert Tarrasch was one of the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th century and early 20th century....

, Black exchanged down into this position because he thought it was a win, but White used the maneuver above to draw the game.

40. h4 Kg4

41. Kg6! Threatening 42. h5 . Black had only considered the line: 41. Kf6? c4 42. bxc4 bxc4 43. Ke5 c3 44. bxc3 a4 45. Kd4 a3, winning .

41... Kxh4 This move is forced and the white king gains a tempo to return on a different diagonal which is not obstructed by his pawns .

42. Kf5 Kg3

43. Ke4 Kf2

44. Kd5 Ke3

45. Kxc5 Kd3

46. Kxb5 Kc2

47. Kxa5 Kxb3 ½-½

The theme of this endgame was used later by Réti in the study .