Endgame Virtuoso
I am holding a book called “Grandmaster Chess Strategy” by Jurgen Kaufeld and Guido Kern published by New In Chess in 2011. The book is a collection of Ulf Andersson’s games with excellent annotations by the authors. If you have ...
How Pros Play Theoretical Endgames
To play endgames well one has to know how to use general strategies of endgame play such as positioning the king actively, creating passed pawns, placing rooks behind passed pawns etc. However, this is not enough as there are theoretical positions...
Working on Endgame Mistakes II
Two weeks ago we looked at my game against Shahade and learned the importance of categorizing endgame mistakes. The article featured the importance of king activity – something I neglected during the game; and going through Lasker’s ga...
Tactics and Patterns in Q+B Endgames.
Endgames are not only about technique, maneuvering and strategy. Tactics play as big of a role in endgames as they do in the other stages of the game. In order to develop an acute dynamic sense in the endgames you have to train in solving endgame-...
Working on Endgame Mistakes
Any serious chess player after finishing a tournament analyzes his games. (Yes, I am saying: no matter how good you are, if you don't analyze your games, you are not serious!) Through game analysis you can come to important conclusions regarding w...
Bizarreness Contest from New Yorker Hotel
Last week I played in the Manhattan Open and as the tournament progressed I knew exactly what this week’s column would be about. The tournament endgames were of a very bizarre nature. Maybe the tournament location in a chandelier hall of the histo...
Short Endgame, Big Prize
The two endgames presented today are from my own practice. They happened in the recent Cleveland Open in the last two rounds. My friend made a joke saying that I steer the games into endgames in order to have material for my endgame column. He has...
What Many IMs Don't Know. Part II.
I am happy to receive positive feedback from you on the first part of this two articles series on R+B vs. R endgames. It is good to know that many of you are interested in endgame theory as well as practical examples of play. The last week article...
What Many IMs Don't Know
Rook and bishop vs. rook endgames might not happen too frequently in a chessplayer’s practice. However, once you get such an endgame in a tournament game then you better know what you are doing or otherwise you will appear a fool. I got an inspira...
T-t-t-t-tripled Pawns
The adjective that I heard people use describing the endgame we will study today is: weird. I would agree with this description as evaluating the rook endgame that you will see shortly is a challenge even for grandmasters. This is a kind of endgam...
The Knight v. The Bishop
Initially, I was planning to show at least 3 endgames in this article from my recent play. As I started analyzing the first endgame position, it happened to have a lot of hidden resources and I decided to split the article into a few, so we can go...
From Small Advantage to Decisive
Sometimes I wonder how does a slightly worse endgame position become much worse and then lost. The defending side may not make any blunders relying on a passive defense, but still it is not enough to pull the game from the void. What is the defini...
Unmovable Feast
In the US, *the* annual chess celebration is not the exclusive and elite US Championship, but the World Open – the biggest US open tournament hosted in Philadelphia. Many sacrifice their time with family during the long weekend to get a shot...
Whatever Goes on in Your Mind
I have been recently fascinated with the short stories of American writer David Foster Wallace. Particularly, his profound discussions about sport and specifically about tennis (he was once a competitive junior tennis player) intrigued me, because...
Forced and Unforced Errors.
Using sports language in chess a player who makes more unforced errors loses. By unforced errors I mean the errors that a player makes due to lack of class or experience that most grandmasters will spot right away as weak moves. When a grandmaster...
Inconceivable Brilliance
This is a very cool game; it features a brilliant shot by Shirov in the endgame. He is up two pawns, but due to the opposite colored bishops, it seems like the road to the win will be long and difficult. However, Shirov uncorks a fantastic bishop ...
Stubbornness is a Virtue
Today, we continue exploring the endgame from the last week article. Here, we will look at my second game in this endgame and the actual Aronian- Grischuk game. I learned a lot from playing out this position, learned not only a lot about this part...
Just Convert that Pawn!
Today’s endgame is from the category of practical endgames. What makes it practical? No precise positions, no theory involved… As a counter-example, this endgame without the knights, but with the rooks would be a theoretical position. Rook endgame...
A Master of Equal Endgames.
The endgame Kamsky-Shulman is back this week. I had more success in the second game than in last week’s game. It is due to personal experience and particularly due to my shameful loss last week that I decided that I would not lose a single further...
Selfishness Rewarded
I followed live the game Kamsky-Shulman from the US Championship and it seemed like black made logical moves but nevertheless lost. While following games live it is good to give evaluations to them as they progress. My evaluation for the first par...
One Queen vs. 3 pieces: Misevaluations
The queen against three pieces is the theme for last week’s and this week’s articles. These endgames are extremely complex as the evaluation of the position can change rapidly. You have heard the expression of "playing for two results." This is ty...
One Queen vs. 3 pieces, Who is Better?
In the last game of the US Women’s championship I could have transposed into an endgame were I had a queen and my opponent had a rook and two pieces. The material advantage would have been on her side but my queen was very active and I also would ...
No Need to Rush
Last week we looked at an endgame and came up with two plans for white. They were not sufficient to gain advantage. Black’s position is solid and it is not easy to break through. Black has one weakness – the white passed pawn on b3. It is useful t...
Two Plans - Computer Rules.
Before looking at a training game that I had while playing this endgame let us review general ideas of why playing out endgames is important. Generally, we have more experience with openings and middlegames because these stages of the game happen ...