The king is a strong piece

by Karsten Müller
1/23/2018 – Steinitz often emphasised the strength of the king. Of course, kings are particularly strong in the endgame because they are less vulnerable with fewer pieces on the board. But even if you can no longer mate the enemy king, you should keep a good eye on him.

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Even seemingly drawn positions with reduced material can turn, on the tiniest inaccuracy, to a win for the stronger side. The devil is in the details.

 

Chess Endgames 14 - The golden guidelines of endgame play

Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.


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 (December/January)

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!

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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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