A Piece of Heaven

In the middle of the cold winter I got an invitation for private training session on a country which I always wanted to visit. The capital of UAE, Abu Dhabi was the place where I gave a week of lessons to a real Sheikh. While the temperatures in Europe were dropping down under the zero, I had some exciting days, enjoying the +25 temperatures and the beach, the beauty of the local architecture, and first class conveniences of my host.
I was surprised to learn that until 1950-ies UAE was an extremely poor country, in which the local people earned their living mainly thanks to the pearl diving. Everything changed for good when petrol was found. However, contrary to some other countries where only a few people benefit from such discoveries, the people from UAE can hardly complain. You do not have to be Sheikh to receive a house, car and scholarship to study in a foreign country, all you need is your native pass, and will to do so.
Nowadays, the country is a real sample of religious tolerance where Muslimism meets all other religions in a really patient way.
Among the positions that we studied with HH was this famous one:
Steinitz - Trapping the knight
[Dejan Bojkov]

1.Re4 A rook versus knight endgame is usually a draw, but the weak side should stick his pieces together. Here we have a case in which the knight is too far away from his king and is dominated by the opponent's king and rook duet. 1...Nd1 The knight is moving away from the king, and will be patiently surrounded. However, the other retriets would not save it: [1...Nf1 2.Rf4+ is an immediate fork, while; 1...Ng2 places the knight on a poor place, where it is already limited by the opponent's rook. 2.Kf6


2...Kg8 3.Rg4+; 1...Nc2 does not help either- 2.Kd5 Na3 3.Kc5 Nb1 4.Kb4


4...Nd2 5.Re2! and White benefits from the position of the opponent's king. 5...Nb1 6.Rb2+-] 2.Rf4+ Kg7 3.Rf3!


Strong manouever, that takes away three from all four available squares from the knight and chaces it away to the corner. 3...Kg6 [Or- 3...Nb2 4.Kd5 Kg6 5.Kd4 Kg5 6.Rf1 Kg4 7.Rb1 Na4 8.Rb4] 4.Ke5 Kg5 5.Kd4 Kg4 6.Rf1 Nb2 7.Rb1 Na4 8.Rb4


and finally, the knight is trapped 1–0