The importance of knowing endgames

What does the name André Chéron mean to you? Milos Pavlovic presents one of the famous endgame theorist’s very helpful rules of thumb...

Why endgames are so unpopular? Is it because they are generally difficult, or is it because they are often underestimated? The well-known phrase ‘all rook endgames are drawn’ has perhaps unintentionally played down the significance of endgames.

Needless to say all the world champions have been very strong endgame players. Thanks to Kramnik’s match victory over Kasparov we really started to appreciate such positions again in tournament chess. That said, due to the modern-day enormous use of analysis engines, we still don’t look anything like as much as we should at endgames; the accent is all on openings.

To really understand the openings one has to start by first learning endgames, but that part is somehow missing these days. An almost empty board is rather confusing to many and found boring by others. However, to really grasp the role of geometry in chess, it is essential to start right from there: with the endgame.

There are many type of endgame and usually we don’t come across that many in our tournament games. My former trainer, the late legendary Dragoljub Velimirovic, always told me that there are around 50 endgame positions that are worth knowing. Just like with the openings, endgames also have certain rules and theory behind them. If you don’t know them, you will either lose or miss a win. It really is as simple as that.

The importance of endgame knowledge is really high. Just think of that epic match in 1987 between Karpov and Kasparov, where the latter triumphed in the final game thanks to a fine bishop versus knight endgame (with queens on). Trying to understand which minor piece is better and when is not easy, but endgame study can really help there.

For the purpose of this article I decided to give not minor piece endgames, but four rook endgames. I hope that you find them useful in your own games.

On the ChessBase game viewer, you can move pieces and analyse, with a new and powerful engine switched on. It's the best way to really understand the ending.

I should also add that all these general rules have, unsurprisingly, their exceptions, but without knowing the rules we would be even more in the dark when we reach the endgame of rook and pawn versus rook. Forget Chéron’s discoveries at your peril!

The above articles were reproduced from Chess Magazine March/2018, with kind permission.

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UK’s most popular CHESS Magazine — established 1935! All the regular features of the UK’s best-selling CHESS magazine plus more! In this issue:

• The King of Wijk – Yochanan Afek watched Magnus Carlsen win Wijk for a sixth time
• A Good Start – Gawain Jones was pleased to begin well at Wijk aan Zee
• All Tied Up on the Rock – John Saunders had to work hard, but once again enjoyed Gibraltar
• Rocking the Rock – The best of the action from the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters
• HIARCS and the World of Computer Chess – Mark Uniacke reports and discusses a paradigm shift
• A Lovely Attack – Dan Bisby is always a dangerous opponent as Jon Speelman discovered
• Doing It By The Book – Carl Strugnell managed to win without leaving his preparation
• Studies with Stephenson – Brian is back and discusses the remarkable Penrose family
• The Importance of Knowing Endgames – Milos Pavlovic presents one of Chéron’s handy rules of thumb
• Plus all the regular features such as: How Good is Your Chess?, Saunders on Chess, Find the Winning Moves, Never Mind the Grandmasters, Studies, Home & Overseas News, Calendar and Book Reviews.

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