Knight Endgame After losing in the first round of the Staunton Memorial to Danny King (quite effortlessly I might add) I feared for the worse but my tournament turned in round two. I got into serious trouble in the opening but managed to wiggle out and then had the upper hand in the following endgame. I felt a lot more confident in my play for the rest of the event after I was able to see a number of pretty lines clearly despite being somewhat tired in the fifth and sixth hour of play:   Houska,J (2375) - Levitt,J (2432) Staunton Memorial, Simpsons In The Strand, London 2004 48...Kc7 The ending looks winning for Black, but there could be some tricks…The shortest way to get to the a3-pawn is via a5 but I preferred to centralise the king to limit the options available to the white knight. 49.h5 Kd6 50.Nf4 a5 51.Nd3 Kd5 52.Nf2 There are now several ways to skin the cat but I was drawn to the line 52...b4 53.axb4 axb4 54.Nxg4 b3 55.Nf2 b2 56.Nd1 Ne3+! 57.Nxe3+ Ke6. The punch and counterpunch involved in a line like this make it an aesthetically pleasing line to find. The moves 52...g3 and 52...a4 are also very strong but having seen the above line, 52…b4 seemed the most direct. 52...b4 53.axb4 axb4 54.Kf1 Jovanka finds a way to fight on. 54...b3 55.Ke2 Kd4 56.Kd2 g3 57.Nh3 g2 There are some further attractive tricks now after 58.Nf4 b2! 59.Ne2+ (59.Kc2 b1Q+ 60.Kxb1 g1Q+!) 59...Ke5 60.Kc2 Nd4+ and the g-pawn queens. So instead white just waits with 58.Ng1, hoping that the knight can stop the g-pawn and the king can deal with the b-pawn. Black needs to find the right plan, which (surprisingly) is to retreat with the king. 58.Ng1 Ke5 59.Kc3 Nd4 60.Nh3 Kf6 61.h6 Leaving the h-pawn where it is does not help: 61.Kb2 Kg7 62.Kc3 Kh6 63.Kb2 Ne2 64.Kxb3 Kxh5 65.Kc2 Kg4. 61...Kf7! Black’s restraint in his king’s approach to the h-pawn is essential to avoid a drawing knight fork. 62.Kb2 Kg8 0–1 Black will swipe the h-pawn and then slowly come back round via g7/f6/f5 so Jovanka resigned.