Rooks vs passed pawns

by Karsten Müller
10/3/2017 – Rooks should go behind passed pawns! In rook endings this is a popular and helpful rule of thumb. After all, in most cases this is indeed where the rook should go. But unfortunately - or fortunately - there are exceptions.

Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames

Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.

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Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine

Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.

Click to go to the ChessBase Magazine page

Apart from his regular columns and video lectures in ChessBase Magazine there is a whole series of training DVDs by Karsten Müller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.

ChessBase Magazine #180 (October/November)

The editor’s top ten: 

  • Hou Yifan’s temptation: the ex-women’s world champion shows how, cool as ice, she countered Bacrot in the traditional tournament in Biel.
  • Perfect start: Teimour Radjabov annotates his win with Black against the almost unbeatable Anish Giri at the Grand Prix in Geneva.
  • “Simple is good!” Together with GM Simon Williams find the simple but strong winning moves in the game Radjabov-Eljanov. (Video)
  • Are you as fast as Vishy Anand? With Oliver Reeh solve one of the deepest winning combinations in this issue. (Video)
  • No simple play in the “Double English“: let GM Mihail Marin bring you up to date on the opening after 1.c4 c5.
  • Vishy Anand and the Steckner proof: Karsten Müller presents high class technique in a classical rook ending. (Video)
  • Brakes applied to the Accelerated Dragon: let Renato Quintiliano show you a tricky positional plan for White.
  • Unprejudiced world champion: Peter Heine Nielsen annotates Carlsen’s successful premiere with the Bird Opening (1.f4) on the Grand Chess Tour.
  • With the Catalan bishop against the Rubinstein French: Jonas Lampert shows you why you may hope for an advantage with 5.g3! (Video)
  • "King in the box": enjoy the unforgettable mating patterns in Efstratrios Grivas’ FIDE training course.

Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.

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