Some Of Wotawa's Best Endgame Studies - Part 1

Introduction

One endgame composer who impressed me was Alois Wotawa.

An international master of chess composition, I have heard that he came up with many original themes in his chess problems. Perhaps the ones I share with you today will also be new to you!

One theme of Wotawa's that particularly stands out to me is placing a piece deliberately on an en prise square, without even capturing anything, for some clever tactical reason.

In this post, I will share 15 of his most instructive and exciting endgame studies, which I got from 'Harold Van Der Heijden's Endgame Study Database (6th edition)'.

Study 1 - Wotawa, 1930 (Deutsch Österreichische Tageszeitung)

White to play and win!

Study 2 - Wotawa, 1935 (Wiener Schachzeitung)

White to play and draw!

Study 3 - Wotawa, 1935 (Wiener Schachzeitung)

White to play and draw! (You will notice that this Study is very similar to Study 2, so if you see the answer to that one, you're likely to solve this Study quite fast.)

Study 4 - Wotawa, 1935 (Wiener Schachzeitung)

White to play and win! (This is a tough one)

Study 5 - Wotawa, 1935 (Wiener Schachzeitung)

White to play and win!

The Solutions

You can find the solutions to these five endgame studies of Wotawa in the Lichess Study below:

https://lichess.org/study/h0MhVOiQ

I have included an 'Introduction' chapter at the start of this study to ensure you aren't accidentally 'spoiled' with one of the solutions :)

Coming Up Next

In Part 2, I will share five more endgame studies by Wotawa. Solving these studies will help you improve your calculation, imagination and understanding of how the pieces work together.

Facing initial resistance, you may have been tempted to give up. However, suppose you push past this early discomfort and only check the solution after trying to solve the Study yourself for 20 minutes. In that case, you will notice a substantial improvement in your calculation over time.

See you in Part 2!