A (very) good bishop

by Karsten Müller
12/5/2017 – Of course, a rook is stronger than a bishop. This is one of the first things you learn in chess. But sometimes rooks are helpless against bishops. Particularly so if passed pawns join the game.

Fritz 16 - He just wants to play! Fritz 16 - He just wants to play!

Fritz 16 is looking forward to playing with you, and you're certain to have a great deal of fun with him too. Tense games and even well-fought victories await you with "Easy play" and "Assisted analysis" modes.

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Value is an (sometimes) an illusion

Bitcoin is all the rage right now with its price syrocketing to nearly €10,000. But the real question is, what can you do with it? We all know a rook should be more valueable than a bishop, but occassionally the latter is more useful in practice.

 

Chess Endgames 11 - Rook against Bishop

The more reduced the material, the more important it is to correctly assess the potential of your own and the enemy pieces. This is particularly true in endgames with unbalanced material. This DVD begins with a discussion of asymmetrical material balances, including
rook against bishop, rook and knight against two bishops, two rooks against rook and bishop, queen and rook against queen and bishop, rook and knight against bishop and knight, rook against two bishops.
Video running time: 8 hours 26 min.

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.

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.

Karsten Mueller

Karsten Müller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

ChessBase Magazine #181 (October/November)

The editor’s top ten: 

  1. Counter-puncher Carlsen: Peter Heine Nielsen shows how, cool as ice, the world champion seized his chance against Caruana in the IoM.
  2. Calculate correctly: test your calculation of variations with Oliver Reeh in his interactive tactics video!
  3. The improved Grand Prix Attack: let Simon Williams enthuse you for 2.Be2 against the Sicilian.
  4. Tricks in a double rook ending: Karsten Müller shows you the key points in Aronian-Vachier Lagrave from the World Cup (video)
  5. Drum roll with a long echo: Max Illingworth sums up what Grischuk's 6...Bc5 has set in motion in the theory of the English Opening.
  6. What's new in the King's Indian Attack? Let Igor Stohl bring you bang up to date.
  7. Surviving despite -+(4,84): David Navara explains how he saved the draw with a rook against a queen and despite being a pawn down.
  8. Attack, attack, attack: let Aronian's second Ashot Nadanian show you how the Armenian notched up his first win in the World Cup final.
  9. Doubled is better: find the diversionary motif in Khalifman-Ehlvest from the FIDE training course of Efstratios Grivas.
  10. World Cup decider: enjoy one of the most spectacular tiebreaks in Daniel King's video analysis!

Links

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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