The Saavedra position is one of the best known chessendgame studies. It is named after the Spanish priest Rev. Fernando Saavedra , who, while living in Glasgow in the late 19th century, spotted a win in a position previously thought to have been a draw. This is among a minority of positions where king and pawn can win against a king and rook, and one of the most famous examples of underpromotion in chess. It is also a rare example of a player being famous for a single move.
Solution
The position as it is usually given today, with White to move and win, is shown in the diagram. The solution is: Or 2...Rd2 3.c8=Q Rb2+ 4.Ka4 Ra2+ 5.Kb3 Rb2+ 6.Kc3 and White wins. Threatening 7.Ra8+; instead 6.c8=Q? Rc4+! 7.Qxc4 is stalemate. Black must either lose the rook or be checkmated by 8.Rc1.
History
The long history of the study has its origins in a game played between Richard Fenton and William Potter in 1875. From the position shown, the game continued 1.Rxh3 Kxh3 2.Kc6 Rxa5 3.b7 Ra6+ and the players agreed a draw. However, as Johannes Zukertort pointed out in the City of LondonChess Magazine, 1875, White could have won with 4.Kc5 4...Ra5+ 5.Kc4 Ra4+ 6.Kc3 6...Ra3+ 7. Kb2, and White will promote the pawn when the queen versus rookendgame is a theoretical win. Upon Potter's death in March 1895, G.E. Barbier published a position in his Glasgow Weekly Citizenchess column of April 27, 1895, which he claimed to have occurred in Fenton–Potter. In fact, he had misremembered the game, and the position he published had never arisen. It was published as a study with Black to play and White to win; the technique is just that demonstrated by Zukertort and by Kling and Horwitz before him: 1... Rd6+ 2. Kb5 Rd5+ 3. Kb4 Rd4+ 4. Kb3 Rd3+ 5. Kc2. When Barbier published this solution on May 4, he claimed that by moving the black king from h6 to a1 the position could be transformed into a "Black to move and draw" study. On May 11 he gave the solution 1... Rd6+ 2. Kb5 Rd5+ 3. Kb4 Rd4+ 4. Kb3 Rd3+ 5. Kc2 Rd4! 6. c8=Q Rc4+ 7. Qxc4 stalemate; however, as Saavedra pointed out, 6. c8=R instead wins, a solution published by Barbier on May 18. Saavedra, a Spanish priest who lived in Glasgow at the time, was a weak amateur player; his sole claim to fame in the chess world is his discovery of this move. The modern form of the position was obtained by Emanuel Lasker by moving the c7-pawn back to c6 and changing the stipulation to the standard "White to play and win".
Alternate line
As computer-generated endgame tablebases confirm, Black can offer longer resistance by 3...Kb2, for which White has only one winning reply, 4.c8=Q, promoting to a queen instead of the underpromotion to a rook. Then White can force checkmate on the twenty-sixth move. However, per the anthropocentric conventions of endgame studies, moves that result in positions known to human masters to be theoretically lost are considered sidelines.
Legacy
The study has been widely reproduced, and in Test Tube ChessJohn Roycroft calls it "unquestionably the most famous of all endgame studies". It has inspired many other composers: the many promotions and underpromotions in the studies of Harold Lommer, for example, were inspired by the Saavedra position. Mark Liburkin was also inspired. A number of composers have produced work which elaborates on the basic Saavedra idea. The study shown to the left is the most famous of these; it is by Mark Liburkin and is White to play and win. After the first move 1.Nc1, Black has two main defences; the first of these shows the Saavedra theme: 1.Nc1 Rxb5 2.c7 Rd5+ 3.Nd3! Rxd3+ 4.Kc2 Rd4 and we have a position already seen in the Saavedra position itself; White wins with 5.c8=R Ra4 6.Kb3. The other Black defence features two new stalemate defences, and a second underpromotion, this time to bishop; this is why this study is well-known while many other elaborations on the Saavedra position are forgotten: 1.Nc1 Rd5+ 2.Kc2 2...Rc5+ 3.Kd3! 3...Rxb5 4.c7 Rb8! and now both 5.cxb8=Q and 5.cxb8=R are stalemate, 5.cxb8=N leaves a drawn ending, and 5.Nb3+ Rxb3+ 6.Kc2 Rb2+! 7.Kc1 only draws after 7...Rb1+ or 7...Rb4 8.c8=Q Rc4+. White can only win by 5.cxb8=B! followed by a bishop and knight checkmate.
