How to play Knight Relay Chess (part 4)

When a game is near its end and you have a good position and material advantage, it’s a good idea to trade pieces and simplify the position. The less pieces your opponent has, the harder he/she can stop you from using your material advantage. Also, avoid letting your opponent find a possibility to give you checks very often. Sometimes, if you’re not careful enough, your opponent may find a way to change a lost game into a draw just by giving you checks and more checks. Don’t leave any holes open. Here, my opponent is trying to find chances and give checks to my King by moving his Rook to g8:



But I do it first by moving my Rook to f4.

He responds by moving his King to g1 which is a good move in his situation. I won’t be able to give him more checks for now since he already has the g column in his control. I reply by moving my Knight to d3. That gives my Rook on f4 Knight-like-moving abilities and I will be able to move it more freely. By so doing, I also give my Rook control over the square g2. It’s a square my opponent could escape to easily in a normal Chess game, but not now. So if he makes any mistakes, I’m totally prepared for a mate.

Right now, His Knight on a4 is blocking my Rook and he cannot move the Knight, because if he does, I’ll immediately move my Rook on a5 to a1 and it’ll soon end for my opponent. A very bad move such as moving his Knight on a4 to b6 is a win in 2 for me, so his situation is quite dangerous.

He moves 52.Rh2:



It’s almost the best move he can make, giving him control on the second row.

I’m fully determined to get my Rook on a5 freed. So I move 52.Rb5.
There aren’t very moves he can make. A move like 53.Kc4 gives my an immediate win after I move my Rook to b1. He needs to get his Knights to a position from which they can have access to the first row to avoid mate. That’s his only chance. So there are only a couple of good moves:

53.Kc3 or 53.Kf3. But the first one is better and that’s what he chooses too:



I go for his Rook on g8 by moving my King to h7 and he moves it to g3. It looks reasonable. He cannot, or shall I say it’s not wise that he change the column his Rook is located in, because it makes it even easier for me to win.

I finally get my Rook on b5 to b1, check. For my opponent, losing is only a matter of time. But he really did well. It was one of the best games I’ve ever played. He has but one choice. He must move his Knight to d1. He has no other valid moves. Here’s the board:



His King is there awaiting a mate and my position shows a victory.
There are a few moves that I want to skip. Here they are:
55. Nd1 Nf3 56. Rgg2 Rxg2R+ 57. Rxg2 Rb4 58. Nf7 c2R
And the board is like this:



As you see, my Pawn is just one step away from changing into a mighty Queen. I’m in check, but it’s no big deal. I simply moved my King to h6.

In response, he moved his Rook to c5. Well, to take my future Queen! But I’m already powerful enough to finish things.

I moved my Rook to e4. It threatens the white Rook. Well, at this point he resigned the game. But I certainly could find a mate even if he wouldn’t resign.

Here’s the final position:



I hope you have enjoyed reading the long article and have found it a little helpful as something to help you get your games going.

Knight Relay Chess is a really interesting variation of Chess. It deserves being paid more attention to.