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A difficult endgame: Fabiano Caruana vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

by Karsten Müller

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4/20/2021 – Fabiano Caruana had a lot of time to prepare for his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in round 8 of the Candidates, and he used it to find a new and dangerous idea in the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf, a favourite of the French player. "MVL" survived the opening and escaped into an endgame that objectively was a draw but difficult to defend. Karsten Müller took a closer look.

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Karsten Müller analyzes

Chess Endgames 12 - Rook vs Knight

What is the best way to use your pieces to their full potential in the endgame? GM Karsten Mueller demonstrates "knight geometry", and teaches you how to employ the "knight check shadow" in your own games!

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Get ready for the start of the Candidates 2020
FIDE resumes the Candidates Tournament
Round 1: Wang stuns Ding, Nepomniachtchi beats Giri
Round 2: Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave score
Round 3: Ding bounces back, beats Caruana
Round 4: Draws
Round 5: Nepomniachtchi takes the lead
Round 6: Nepomniachtchi wins again, widens the gap
Round 7: Vachier-Lagrave takes down Nepomniachtchi
Round 8: Caruana impresses, wins marathon

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Books, boards, sets: Chess Niggemann

Books, boards, sets: Chess Niggemann

Karsten Müller 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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