The Centurini Position is a well-known same-colored Bishops endgame involving an advanced passed pawn, where the side without the pawn tries to sacrifice their Bishop for the pawn to reach a drawn endgame. When the Centurini Position is reached, the side with the pawn is always able to win the game, but the required maneuvering can be very tricky. In the diagram above, White reaches the Centurini position with 1.b7. The continuation is all about White trying to prevent Black's Bishop sacrifice: 1... Bd6 2.Bh4 Kb6 3.Bf2+ Ka6 4.Bd4 Bh2 5.Bc5 Bg3 6.Be7 Kb6 7.Bd8+ Kc6 8.Bh4 Bf4 9.Bf2 Bh2 10.Ba7 Be5 11.Bb8 Bd4 12.Bc7 Ba7 13.Bf4 Kb5 14.Be3 Bxe3 15.b8=Q+ 1-0
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When we started adding a playful touch to chess learning, we looked through thousands of videos and hundreds of books to find the best resources out there. Here's our curated selection of the best content we encountered on the Centurini Position. We also included some smaller creators who are growing fast and we believe deserve your attention. Check out these resources if you want to master this type of endgame position.
Learn in detail the Centurini Position with this nice lesson by ChessGeek in which the major variations are very clearly presented, even the trickier ones.
This is another fantastic book by Jeremy Silman. Endgame techniques are presented in a really fun and useful way. Centurini position too. A must-read for beginners and intermediates.
If you are serious about your endgame technique, don’t skip this great book by Karsten Müller & Wolfgang Pajeken. Among a lot of content, you’ll find a detailed introduction to the Centurini position as well.
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