Ladislav Prokeš

Ladislav Prokeš (7 June 1884 – 9 January 1966) was one of the most prolific composers of endgame studies in chess. He was born and died in Prague.^[1]

Prokeš was joint Czech Champion in 1921^[1] and played for the Czech Olympiad team in 1927, 1928, and 1930.^[2] In 1951 he published a collection of studies "Kniha šachových studií". His 1,159 endgame studies, as listed in Harold van der Heijden's database, rank fourth among all composers.^[3]

Prokeš maneuver

L. Prokeš, 1939

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

White to move and draw

The Prokeš maneuver is a tactic in chess that enables a rook to draw against two advanced pawns in a chess endgame. Prokeš composed an endgame study in 1939 which illustrated the Prokeš maneuver for the first time.^[4] The solution begins:

1. Kg4 e2

2. Rc1+ Kd4

3. Kf3 d2

and Black threatens to promote a pawn, which would win. But White forces the draw with:

4. Rc4+! Kd3

5. Rd4+! Kxd4

6. Kxe2 Kc3

7. Kd1 Kd3 stalemate

The idea is, that by vacating the c1-square on the fourth move, White's rook prevents Black's pawn from capturing on c1. The white king is then able to reach the d1-square, stopping the pawn. The position after 6.Kxe2 is drawn (see King and pawn versus king endgame).

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• Ladislav Prokes at Chessgames.com
• Ladislav Prokes: The Player's Composer by A. J. Roycroft. EG 7, January 1967, p. 1.
• Obituary for Ladislav Prokes by A. J. Roycroft. EG 5, July 1966, pp. 104–05.