Pal Benko is a chess legend that has crossed swords with Fischer, Botvinnik, Tal, Smyslov, Spassky, Petrosian, Keres, Korchnoi, Geller, and many others. In his book, BENKO'S LIFE, GAMES & COMPOSITIONS (by Benko and Silman, with a large opening survey by John Watson), he shares tales of his youth in war torn Hungary, he tells of his imprisonment, torture, and eventual escape to the United States, he gives insight into his close friend Fischer and other chess personalities, and he shares over 100  deeply annotated games against many of the greatest players of all time.

Throughout his rich and often turbulent life, one of his most satisfying artistic pastimes has been the creation of chess problems and endgame compositions. Though 300 of these are presented in his book (How did Fischer, Petrosian, Geller, and others fare when faced with these mind-bending problems? The book discusses this in detail!), he's given me permission to share some of these classics with you in this column.

Our previous (eleventh) problem, a famous Benko endgame composition, sees White down an Exchange but (according to Benko) able to force a win. Did you see how White claims victory?

WHITE TO MOVE AND WIN

1.Bc4+! (1.b7? Kxb7! 2.Bd5+ Kb8 3.Be4 a5 4.Bxa8 a4!, =) 1…Ka5 2.b7 Rf8 (2…Rb8? 3.Bb5) 3.Bd3 Rg8 4.b4+ Ka4 5.Bc2+ Ka3 6.b5 Rf8 7.Bd1 Rg8 8.Bg4 Rb8 9.Kc6 Kb4 10.Be2 Re8 11.Kd7 Rf8 12.Kc7 Rf7+ 13.Kb8, 1-0.

Our new, twelfth, problem is another Benko endgame.

WHITE TO MOVE AND WIN

This is an instructive position and thus well worth exploring.