Six instructive positions!
Giri’s powerful sacrifice
The Dutch team arrived in Chennai as the seventh favourites. After recovering from a loss against Israel in round 4 with back-to-back victories, the Europeans stand two points behind the Armenian leaders.
Elite GM Anish Giri is playing on top board, and has collected victories over Nils Grandelius, Eric Hansen and Baadur Jobava. Facing the creative Jobava in round 6, Giri played an outstanding positional exchange sacrifice to get an unstoppable duo of passed pawns!
The sting of the scorpion
Not only top-GMs’ games provide instructive positions to study and learn. The encounter between Anousha Mahdian (Iran) and Toritsemuwa Ofowino (Nigeria) from round 4 of the women’s tournament saw the Iranian winning an endgame with rook and pawn against bishop and knight — an oft-seen material distribution.
Ofowimo failed to find the most resilient defensive king manoeuvre on move 49.
The pawn race
Studying basic pawn endgames is frequently the first step of any chess player on his or her learning path in the final phase of the game. This is the simplest kind of setup, but that does not mean one should take it for granted — precision is often required even when very few pawns are left on the board.
Sudan’s Mohammed Ibtihal beat the Bahamas’ Trinity Pinder with the black pieces after the latter erred in a pawn race with two pawns per side.
The good knight, the bad king road, and the successful invasion
In the remaining three examples, two relevant topics are explored: the good knight versus bad bishop ending, and the precision needed to find the correct paths for the king in opposite-coloured bishops endgames.
Can you find the correct king road for White in this position? She is, in fact, winning with her two extra pawns despite the presence of opposite-coloured bishops.
Marwa (Sudan) vs. Thomas (Bahamas) - Round 6
Find the solution to this problem and analyses for two more endgames in the replayer below.
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 3.Bf4 Nf6 4.c4 c6 5.Nc3 Ne4 6.e3 Qa5 7.Qb3 b5 8.cxb5 Nxc3 9.bxc3 Qb6 10.Be2 a6 11.bxc6 Qxb3 12.axb3 Nxc6 13.Rxa6 Rxa6 14.Bxa6 Bd7 15.0-0 e6 16.Ra1 Be7 17.b4 Bd8 18.Bb5 0-0 19.Bxc6 Bxc6 20.Ra7 f6 21.Nd2 Bb5 22.h3 Bc6 23.Nb3 Rf7 24.Rxf7 Kxf7 25.Na5 Bxa5 26.bxa5 Bb5 27.g4 f5 28.Kg2 Kg6 29.Kg3 h5 30.f3 fxg4 31.hxg4 hxg4 32.Kxg4 Bd3 33.Be5 Bf5+ 34.Kg3 Bd3 35.Kf4 Kh6 36.e4 g5+ 37.Ke3 Bc4 38.exd5 exd5 39.Kf2 Kh5 40.Kg3 Be2 41.Bd6 Bc4 42.Kf2 Kh4 43.Be7 Kh5 44.Kg3 Be2 45.Kf2 Bc4 46.Ke3? 46.Kg3 Be2 47.f4 gxf4+ 48.Kxf4 Kg6 49.Ke5 Kf7 50.Bh4 Bc4 51.a6 Bxa6 52.Kxd5 Bb7+ 53.Kc5 Ke6 54.c4 Ba8 55.Bg3 Bb7 56.d5+ Kd7 57.Kb6 Ba8 58.Ka7+- 46...Kh4? 46...Kg6! 47.Bd6 Kf5 48.Bg3 Ke6= 46...g4? 47.f4 Kg6 48.Bh4 Kf5 49.Bg3 Ke6 50.Kd2 Kf5 51.Kc2 Ke4 52.Kb2 Kf3 53.f5 Kxg3 54.f6 Kh2 55.f7 g3 56.f8Q g2 57.Qf2 Kh1 58.Qh4+ Kg1 59.Kc2 Kf1 60.Qf4+ Ke2 61.Qg3 Kf1 62.Qf3+ Kg1 63.Qf4 Kh1 64.Qh4+ Kg1 65.Kd2+- 47.f4 Kg4 48.fxg5 Kf5 49.Kf3 Kg6 50.Kf4 Bd3 51.Ke5 Bc4 52.a6 Bxa6 53.Kxd5 Kf7 54.Bf6 Bc8 55.c4 Be6+ 56.Kc5 Ke8 57.d5 Bf7 58.Kd6 Bg6 59.c5 Bc2 60.c6 Ba4 61.Kc5 1–0
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| Marwa,J | 1316 | Thomas Nelissa | - | 1–0 | 2022 | D15 | 44th Chess Olympiad Women 2022 | 6.65 |
| Kiolbasa,O | 2376 | Ciolacu,A | 2163 | 1–0 | 2022 | C60 | 44th Chess Olympiad Women 2022 | 5.4 |
| Sebag,M | 2447 | Injac,T | 2372 | 0–1 | 2022 | C88 | 44th Chess Olympiad Women 2022 | 4.5 |
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In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.
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