King walk

Under a Wanderkönig is understood in chess a king who is not like most protected by a farmers' Wall in the middle game, but freely moves across the field - mostly in the crossfire of opposing figures.

A traveling king is in most cases a drawback for the player, but not always. Hiking kings that penetrate in the middle game in the opponent's half of the board and remain victorious, collects chess patron Tim Krabbé under the name Steel- kings.

In the endgame, the king usually plays an active role - not in this case one speaks of a traveling king.

Game examples

The black king wandered, driven by white attacks, the enemy camp, where he was checkmated: 33 Te 1 -b1 ! Lf5xb1 34 Th1xb1 Kb2xb1 35 DG3 -b3 Kb1 -a1 c1 36 Kd2! and because black after 36 ... h6 Qh8 - 37 Kc 1 -c2 d4 -d3 38 Db3xd3 is powerless, he gave up here. Often a hiker King is forced by material sacrifice. Had too much of a good thing be given the Remaining but sometimes not enough to put the king matt. This happened in the Immortals drawn game:

This was followed by 16 ... Bc8 - b7 ! 17.Kc6 - b5! 17.Kc6xb7? leads to the mat after 17 ... Kd8 - d7 18.Dd1 - g4 Kd7d6 together with T8 - b8 # 17 .. Bb7 - a6 18.Kb5 - c6 with a draw. ( 18.Kb5 -a4? La6 - c4 plus b5 b6 - # )

If the traveling King has sufficient support through its own figures, its army can certainly be victorious.

The black king is not safer than the white by preventing castling. In the game Black chased the king only in his last completely safe hiding place, after which White turned the tables: 25 ... Dh3 - g2 26 KD5 - b7 - b5 c4 27 KC4 DG2 d3 -f3 28 Kd3 -c2 Df3 - f2 29 Kc 2 -b3 Rd8 - c8 30 Tc1 -c2 Df2xf4 31 Kb3 -b2 Nc6 - a5 -a1 32 Kb2 Df4 - c4 e5 - e6 33 Sa5 c6 34 b1 - h7 - h5 35 d1 Re1 - g1 - h7 Th8? 36 Tg1xg7! together with Matt.

In exceptional cases, a migrant king will even try to figure out attack.

White has completely paralyzed his opponents, but to put him matt, he needs further strengthening. What else is there? The King!

Timman was on here. On 34 .. Lc8xd7 follows 35.Kg5 h6 and - white sets in the next train with Df6 - g7 matte. Black plays 34 ... Kg8 - h7, so does White with 35.Df6 - XG6 then the uncovered farmers g6 ( f7 is tied ), and sets a few moves later matt.

Double hiking Kings

Games in which the kings of both sides wander are a rarity, but also they occur.

White moved here from the bay and at the same time offered a - symptomatic of double hiking kings. This availed him nothing, because the black king came under on c8, while the white had completely into the open: 24 Kd2 e3 Kd7 - c8 25 dh6 - f5 - f4 g7 ! 26 Ke3xf4 Db2xf2 Kf4 - g5 Df2xg2. White gave up.

Here, both sides have the opponent's king chased across the board. Black, with a minus figure, tried it with further material sacrifices, but he made at the end of his opponent a Steel King: 48 ... Tf1 -f3 ! 49 Ke3xf3! Le2xf3 leads to eternal chess Dc1 -h1 50 Kf3 g4 - Tb1 - g1 51 Td3 - g3 Dh1xe4 K g4 - g5 Tg1xg3 52 53 KG5 - f6 Tg3 -f3 ! A second rook sacrifice on the same field! After 53 ... g7- g5 turns white around the tables and puts fast matt with Re8 -d8 Dd2 - a5. 54 Le2xf3 De4xf3 55 SG7 - f5! Df3xf5 56 Kf6 g7 - g6 - g5 threatens eternal chess. 57 Dd2 - h2! Parried everything. Qf5 - g6 58 KG7 - h8 f7 - f6 59 Re8 - a8 a6- a5 60th Dh2 -b2 Black resigned.

Examples from the opening

As already mentioned, a traveling king in the opening is sometimes enforced by material sacrifice. Sometimes it goes but also volunteer on the trip.

Wilhelm Steinitz invented with the Steinitz Gambit, an opening, in which the king moves voluntarily over the board: 1 e2- e4 e7 - e5 2 Nb1 - c3 - c6 3 Sb8 f2 - f4 d2 -d4 e5xf4 4 Qd8 - h4 5 Ke1 - e2 to Lf1 to free the king must walk on the queenside. It goes without saying that white is not good then. Nevertheless, Steinitz had by his skill and the surprise effect a positive balance with his gambit.

Sometimes may well be a traveling king in the opening but still.

In this variation of the Sicilian Sveshnikov Black seems to be already on the brink of: White threatens 11 Sb 5 - c7 # or (in response to 10 .. Nf6 - d7 ) 11 Sb5xd6 #, and 11 for example a6xb5 ... 12 Lf1xb5 Ne7 - c6 13 d5xc6 Ta8xa4? 14 c6 - c7 is the struggle to an end. But with 11 ... Ke8 - d7! Black saves the day. An error would now be 12 Sb 5 - a7? Kd7 c7 - 13 Da4 - a5 b6 b7 - 14 Da5xa6 Kc7 - b8! , And the traveling king wins a piece. Forced is 12 Sb 5 b7 - b5 -a3, with mutual chances ..