How To Build A Chess Fortress

The recently concluded Tata Steel chess tournament was very memorable for the U.S. grandmaster Sam Shankland.

From now on he will be forever remembered as a chess player who the beat the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in his last professional classical game. But Sam will also be remembered as a grandmaster who resigned in a book-drawn position.

Sam Shankland. | Photo: Alina l'Ami/Tata Steel Chess.

I bet you've already seen that game:

A resignation in a dead-drawn position is so unusual that this game quickly became well known in the chess world. As a matter of fact, they even updated the old meme that I discussed in my old article. Now it looks like this:

Here is what some of super grand-masters would do:

Nakamura: Qg8

Caruana: Qg7

Giri: Qg6

Shankland: I resign!

It should be noted that Sam has always been a good sport, so he also laughed at this episode on his Twitter:

"Do me a favor and and never resign another drawn position" - Border Control Agent at SFO while stamping my passport. I really never will live this one down!

— Sam Shankland (@GMShanky) January 28, 2019

It is funny that less than a week later, the same fortress was reached in the following game:

Here even World Champion Magnus Carlsen couldn't resist. Here is what he wrote about the position after Black played 53...Be8:

Very interesting ending from Gibraltar! Seems to me white will use the majority to create a passed pawn. Black will then sac the bishop and resign pic.twitter.com/bnWHQeOzHS

— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) January 31, 2019

Not all people got the joke, but Sam was a class act again:

It made my day that most people commenting on this post had no idea what he was talking about.

Badge of honor to be trolled by the World Champion. Doesn't happen to nobodies! https://t.co/sBiJjtUQ9Z

— Sam Shankland (@GMShanky) February 1, 2019

I hope the tragicomic episode that happened to Sam Shankland will urge you to study basic fortresses that can happen in endgames. It is not so uncommon to see a lonely king able to survive against a much bigger army of an opponent.

One of the most well-known situation is a so called "bishop of a wrong color." If a bishop cannot control the promotion square of his rook pawn or pawns, then all you need to do in order to make a draw is just place your king into the corner in front of your opponents' pawns! Here is a simple example:

Less known, but still easily drawn positions can happen if your opponent has a knight and his rook pawn went too far:

Of course if you move the Ng5 to f6 or f8 the position is still a draw! White can only stalemate Black's king, but there is no win. 

Here are a couple of useful fortresses to remember.

This is a simple draw if Black avoids the only available trap and doesn't go with his king to the corner where it gets promptly checkmated. In this kind of a position it doesn't matter if White's bishop is light-squared or dark-square; it is still an easy draw. Moreover, it can be a knight and it still would be a draw!

By the way, the color of the bishop doesn't matter in the fortress from Shankland's game too. But again, there is a trap to avoid:

The knowledge of these basic fortresses can save you in a difficult situation, just like in my game vs. Nakamura:

Now try to find how White can save the following position that looks completely lost.

As you can see, building a fortress can save a seemingly lost position. Therefore any tournament player should know these typical positions where a huge material advantage is not enough to win the game!