The strength of weak pawns

by Karsten Müller
4/9/2018 – "Better is the enemy of good" is proverbial advice against unhealthy perfectionism. But in chess — and particularly in endgames with reduced material — good is often not good enough. In this case it's better to strive for something better.
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Rook vs Bishop

Whit is up the exchange, but with reduced material the question is, can he win it?

 
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54...Bf6 In a purely technical endgame a rook is usually much better than a bishop. However, the side with the rook usually still has to be precise.
White to play and win
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Stark,T-Atri,J-2017Klubturnier5

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 Mueller 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 Mueller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.

Karsten Mueller

Karsten Mueller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

ChessBase Magazine #183

The editor’s top ten: 

  1. Has Magnus Carlsen really given away a piece? World champion trainer and Dragon expert Peter Heine Nielsen explains what lies behind it.
  2. When Anish Giri defeated the clear leader Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Wijk, the tournament became interesting; the Dutch player himself shows you his crashing victory.
  3. Whether it is more than an opening for a single game is something you must decide for yourself, but Alexey Kuzmin’s setup 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 Bg7 5.h4 is not only venomous, but it can also be learned quickly.
  4. Decision in Wijk aan Zee: Enjoy Daniel King’s video summary of the tiebreak between Carlsen and Giri.
  5. In a Sicilian Stunner from Oliver Reeh White makes the going at first, but you get the opportunity to distinguish yourself in the defence of the black position.
  6. As safe as Fort Knox, that is not true for Jonas Lampert – the German player shows you a convincing path for White against the popular variation of the French!
  7. Move by Move with Simon Williams: attack along with Abhijeet Gupta and hunt down Ivanchuk’s king.
  8. If you are looking for a safe repertoire against 1.b3 Renato Quintiliano can guarantee you the correct one.
  9. Friends of the French pay heed: in his strategy column Mihail Marin investigates the pawn formation which arises when Black has played ...f6 it comes to the exchange of the e5- for the f6-pawn.
  10. In the interactiv endgame our expert Dr Karsten Müller asks you some tricky questions: can you do better than the two players?

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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