Kling and Horwitz Position

The name honours two German-born chess masters and endgame composers who worked together in London: Josef (Joseph) Kling, 19 March 1811 - 1 December 1876, and Bernhard Horwitz, born 1807 in Neustrelitz and died 1885 in London, who is described as German and British. Their joint book Chess Studies (1851) is the source normally cited for the positions bearing their names, and the year 1851 is attached to the position in modern endgame literature. In rook endgames the Kling and Horwitz Defensive Technique is a rear-of-the-pawn defence that lets the defender draw against a central or bishop pawn on the fifth rank, with the defending king in front of the pawn and the rook placed low behind the pawn; against a knight pawn the method fails and the back-rank defence is needed. Wikipedia's rook-and-bishop-versus-rook article likewise states that the Kling and Horwitz Defensive Technique enables Black to force a draw with Black to move against perfect play. A separate two-bishops-versus-knight setup is also labelled Kling and Horwitz, 1851, and Wikipedia notes that computer analysis has since refuted that one as a draw, White winning in 45 moves.

First documented: 1851 — Josef Kling and Bernhard Horwitz, Chess Studies (London, 1851)