Passed pawns

Saving half points

This is a tricky example illustrating when it's necessary to sacrifice one's bishop to queen a pawn (or stop one of your opponents'), and why.

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 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 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

• Mate is the best defence
• Forbidden squares
• More from Karsten Mueller