Endgames from Amsterdam

by Karsten Müller
10/8/2023 – The star-studded Levitov Chess Week rapid tournament saw Ian Nepomniachtchi grabbing the title ahead of Vishy Anand and Peter Svidler. GM Karsten Müller followed the games closely and found five remarkable endgame positions. Find here the compilation of his pragmatic, instructive and enjoyable analyses!

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Extra pawns do not guarantee a win

We have all learned that when we are ahead in material, we should consider simplifying the position to reach a winning endgame. Most times, this strategy leads to victory, but some endgame setups make it difficult (or sometimes impossible) to make the most of our material advantage, as seen in the following two examples.

Vladimir Kramnik reached the following winning position against Wesley So in round 9. It is White to move. How to proceed?

Here, improving the king with 50.Kc2 wins, while 50.f5, as played by Kramnik, allows Black to escape with a draw. Further mistakes were made (as seen in the replayer below), but So nonetheless managed to get a half point despite the material disadvantage!

Again, White is winning and it is his move. And again, improving the king with 66.Kf5 would have likely led to a victory. Peter Svidler, however, pushed his passed pawn (like Kramnik) with 66.b4, and saw his opponent, Boris Gelfand, managing to escape with a draw!

These are only two of the five instructive endgame positions which you can study and enjoy in our dynamic replayer below.


Endgames of the World Champions from Fischer to Carlsen

Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.


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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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