When people ask me to name my favorite chess book, I almost invariably respond

with Chess for Zebras, written by the Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson and originally published
in 2005. The reason I harbor such a fondness for this work is that Rowson offers an
analysis of chess psychology and chess thinking that, in both depth and practical value, is
unequalled in all of chess literature. It is hardly a surprise that Rowson holds a degree in
philosophy from Oxford University and is the founder of Perspectiva, a cutting-edge and
multidisciplinary research institute.
One of the themes Rowson introduces in 7DCS is the notion of storytelling. Rowson
defines storytelling, or chess narratives, “as the background ‘noise’ that permeate our
thoughts during play. Narratives,” he continues, “are the guiding stories that give us as a
sense of what we are trying to do and why. (…) Many players get lost in these stories,
trapped by their own narrative, and completely lose track of the objective state of affairs on
the board” (Rowson, Chess for Zebras, 46).
Endgames constitute a particularly fertile milieu for storytelling. To understand
what these narratives look like, and why they are so insidious, I will present a recent
episode from my coaching experience. It started rather innocuously, as I flipped open my
copy of Ger Van Perlo’s magisterial work Endgame Tactics in search of new training
material, and found a rather elegant combination:

XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-+-+(
7+p+-mk-+-'
6-vLltRp+-+&
5zP-+-zPp+-%
4-+-+-+p+$
3+-+-+-+-#
2-+P+-mKPzP"
1tr-+-+-+-!
xabcdefghy
GM Vlastimil Hort — Hans-Joachim Deuker, Simultaneous Exhibition,
1986
Black to Play

In this unassuming endgame, Deuker connected his pawns with …f7-f5. It may seem that
Black’s tremendous piece activity handsomely compensates for White’s extra pawn — and
it does. The problem is that Black’s last move allows an unexpected — and rather brilliant —
tactical refutation:
1.exf6+!! Kxd6 Black has little choice but to accept the sacrifice, as 1…Kxf6 fails
straightforwardly to 2.Rxc6 followed by Bd4+ (in either order).
2.Bc5+! By now, the point of the combination should be clear. After 2…Kxc5 3.f7, Black’s
entire army must play spectator to the pawn’s coronation. Moreover, the pawn promotes
with check, so 3…Bb5, intending …Rf1+, leads nowhere.
Seeing this, Deuker came up with an ingenious improvement:
2…Ke5 3.f7 Bb5! Now, the pawn no longer promotes with check, so 4.f8=Q Rf1+ picks up
the newly-minted queen and leads to an immediate draw. But Hort saw one step further:
4.Kg3!, Black resigned. The bishop proves its worth, preparing to meet 4…Rf1 with 5.Bf2.

This combination presents excellent material, as the conscientious student must not only see
the first move, but also spot 4.Kg3 at a distance, which is no trivial matter. I presented this
game as a warmup exercise to one of the high-rated groups at the Castle Chess Camp in
Atlanta this past June. Five minutes after I had set up the position, no one had uttered a word.
That is when something terrifying occurred to me. No, the position was not set up incorrectly.
Rather, all the parties involved had seemingly overlooked a trivial defensive resource. After
2.Bc5+, Black can simply respond with 2…Kd7! (diagram)

XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-+-+(
7+p+k+-+-'
6-+l+pzP-+&
5zP-vL-+-+-%
4-+-+-+p+$
3+-+-+-+-#
2-+P+-mKPzP"
1tr-+-+-+-!
xabcdefghy
Analysis Diagram

This resource, unmentioned by Van Perlo, solves all of Black’s problems. After 3.f7 Bb5, the
proximity of Black’s king to the pawn renders 4.Kg3 futile: 4…Rf1 5.Bf2 Ke7 picks up the
pawn and wins the game. White therefore has no choice but to acquiesce to the ostensibly
drawn opposite-colored bishop endgame with 5.f8=Q (or 4.f8=Q Rf1+ 5.Kg3, transposing)
5…Rxf8 6.Bxf8. A classroom poll confirmed my worst fear: everyone spotted the idea in a
millisecond, and was trying all sorts of extravagant resources, from a5-a6 to h2-h4, in order
to prevent this devilish resource.
“Keep thinking,” I responded. “Keep your mind churning.”
Meanwhile, I was turning red with embarrassment. This can’t be, I thought to myself. There
must be something I’m missing. I had computer-checked all of the material. To admit such an
error after subjecting students to over 15 minutes of useless thought would constitute
pedagogical disaster. It was at that point, as I pondered the best way to exonerate myself
from this gaffe, that something occurred to me. Let’s take another look at the bishop
endgame that occurs after Black captures White’s newly promoted queen:

XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-vL-+(
7+p+k+-+-'
6-+-+p+-+&
5zPl+-+-+-%
4-+-+-+p+$
3+-+-+-mK-#
2-+P+-+PzP"
1+-+-+-+-!
xabcdefghy
Analysis Diagram after 6.Bxf8.

White is still a pawn up, and Black can reduce further material losses by tying his bishop to
the g2-pawn with, for instance, 6…Bc6. Given the presence of opposite-colored bishops, an
extra pawn seems to have no bearing on the evaluation. But what if we consider this
position bit more concretely? After 7.Kxg4 Bxg2, a deadly — and rather straightforward —
plan of action announces its presence. It consists of five steps:
1. Push the h-pawn as far as it will go, preferably to h6. The goal is to tie down Black’s
king. White’s bishop is ideally stationed on e3, supporting the pawn and blockading
Black’s own passer.
2. Maneuver the king to b6 or c7, where it will assist in the creation of a second passed
pawn.
3. If Black’s bishop stays on the long diagonal, create a passed pawn with a5-a6. If the
bishop moves to a6, push the c-pawn to c6.
4. Push the new passer until Black is forced to give up his bishop. Recall that Black’s
king is firmly tied down to the h-pawn.
5. Finally, maneuver the king to the other flank and finish Black off. Crucially, the h-
pawn is of the right color!

I was overjoyed when I discovered this plan, and so was the first student who arrived at a
similar revelation. To combat the somewhat skeptical expressions on everyone else’s face, I
asked that student to play this position out with a nonbeliever. The game, roughly
reconstructed below, proceeded along predictably one-sided lines: 8.h4 Ke8 9.Bc5 Kf7
10.h5 Kg8 11.h6 Kh7 12.Kg5 Bd5 13.Be3 (stage 1 accomplished) e5 14.Kf6 e4 15.Ke5 Bc6
16.Kd6 Bb5 17.Kc7 (stage 2) Ba6 (17…Bc6 18.a6+-) 18.c4, and Black threw in the towel.
The demonstration worked. Everyone now seemed convinced, and I patted myself on the
back for my quick thinking. As a matter of fact, I thought to myself, this would be a terrific
training position for titled players.

As you might guess, the dramatis personae of this charade, save Hort — the unwitting
instigator of the whole business — all committed the vice of storytelling. Deuker, as well as
Van Perlo, may have simply overlooked 1…Kd7, but it is equally plausible that his
opponent’s title, coupled with the shock value of the en passant itself, convinced him that
such a combination is bound to succeed. I took the farce one step further, persuading
myself — and, in the process, my students — that it was not possible that such a banal
resource had slipped through the cracks.

And, perhaps, I even persuaded you. The five-step plan outlined above is not wrong;
indeed, it offers a striking instance of the potency of long-term thinking. But its success
hinges on Black’s unquestioning cooperation, which he by no means has to provide. Let us,
for the last time, revisit the endgame after the g-pawns have been captured, and the h-
pawn has made its first menacing step toward coronation:

XABCDEFGHY
8-+-+-vL-+(
7+p+k+-+-'
6-+-+p+-+&
5zP-+-+-+-%
4-+-+-+KzP$
3+-+-+-+-#
2-+P+-+l+"
1+-+-+-+-!
xabcdefghy
Analysis Diagram after 8.h4

It seems a bygone conclusion that Black’s king must station himself on the kingside, but
that is an illusion. Black achieves the draw by running his monarch to the opposite flank:
8…Be4 9.c3 (9.c4 Bd3 leads to an even quicker resolution) Kc6!! 10.h5 Kd5! (10…Kb5?
Allows 11.Kf4 followed by Ke5) 11.h6 Kc4 12.Bb4 e5 13.Kg5 Bh7. That is all she wrote. As
soon as White’s king reaches f6, Black marches the e-pawn down the board, forcing White’s
bishop to abandon its post and give up the c3-pawn. That leaves him with a pawn of the
wrong color. Even if he manages to pick up the e-pawn, the resultant endgame is a classical
theoretical draw, in which White has no way to “un-a-file” his pawn without stalemate.
That, my friends, is the perils of storytelling in a few words. As Rowson points out, self-
narration is, to a degree, an innate human phenomenon. So let’s make sure that the yarns
we do spin at the chess board are richly textured with moves and insulated by concrete
considerations.