Winning starts with what you know
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Endgame theory forms the basis for chess. This becomes painfully clear as soon as a player has reached a clearly won endgame, yet must in the end content himself with a draw, simply because he lacks the necessary know-how to finish the opponent off. Does this sound familiar? Then avoid such accidents and make endgames your strength – by building up a solid endgame technique.
Endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller from Hamburg, Germany, has finished the second volume of his endgame training series. It is intended to lay a solid foundations for the last phase of the game. After dealing with basic endgames from giving mate with the queen to the basics of pawn endgames in Volume I, this new DVD is dedicated exclusively to rook endgames: rook versus pawn, rook and pawn versus rook, rook and rook pawn versus rook, rook and two connected pawns versus rook.
Karsten Müller also teaches you the basics of more complex endings, like rook and four pawns vs rook and three pawns, using classical master games (like Botvinnik-Najdorf and Alekhine-Capablanca). There is also a section on the latest discoveries in endgame theory, especially regarding rook endings with three vs three pawns on one side of the board with an addition rook pawn on the other side.
Those of you who find studying endgames with chess textbooks dry and tedious will enjoy this DVD with its advanced training system which allows you to relax and watch the lectures like a regular TV show, but also to pause at any stage and try to play out the position against Fritz. The benefits are enormous – you can count on winning a substantial number of extra points at tournaments simply by being self-confident in playing the endings. Remember, it is not just when the familiar ending appears on the board that you are able to profit from your newly-gained knowledge; you will also find yourself playing far better in the middlegame, since you are striving for endgames you know you can win.
After a basic training course in rook endings Karsten Müller he illustrates what has been learned with a series of famous master games. For instance he show us the dangers of a draw that lurk in an ending with rook and two connected pawns vs rook.
Endgames with rook and two not connected pawns vs rook are also usually won, but here we need to know the important exceptions, which depend on which files the pawns occupy. Trying to play these endings purely on the basis of intuition can lead to the loss of many half points – expecially if your opponent has been studying the endgame theory.
The DVD Endgames 2 – rook endgames by Dr Karsten Müller includes five hours of video instructions. Here are two small samples to give you an idea of what they look like (remember that the original DVD running on your computer will give you a much higher resolution and audio+video quality).
Karsten Müller has played for the Hamburg Chess Club in the German Bundesliga since 1988. In 1997 he finished third in the German championship. As an internationally renowned endgame expert he is the author of the endgame column in ChessBase Magazine and the author of the Endgame Corner on ChessCafe.com. His book "Fundamental Chess Endings“, which he co-authored with Frank Lamprecht and which was published in 2001 by Gambit Publishing, is already considered a modern classic.
System requirements: Pentium Processor, 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000,Windows XP, Windows Media Player 9.0, DVD drive.
