Endgames from Miami (1)

by Karsten Müller
8/20/2022 – A field with well-established GMs and young stars is fighting it off in Miami at the FTX Crypto Cup. Our in-house expert Karsten Müller is following the games looking to find the most intriguing and instructive ending positions. Do not miss his on-point analyses! | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa in 2018 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

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The ever-relevant rook endgames


Pragg the technician

Despite being so young, Pragg is already a very strong endgame technician. In this ending against Anish Giri, he immediately chose a technical solution when he got a chance.

 

Aronian fails to find a win amid a pawn race

Rook endings have a large drawish tendency, but races are different, as demonstrated by this position seen in a game between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian.

 

Le’s missed chance

Le Quang Liem had two extra pawns in a rook endgame against Aronian, but in this particular setup, precision is needed until the very end. How would you continue with White here?

 

The winning idea was 73.Ra8, improving the rook. Le’s 73.Kc5 gave Black a key tempo, and Aronian found the one reply that held the draw: 73...Rc2+

Find this game’s full analysis plus three more instructive endgames in the replayer below!

 

Magical Chess Endgames Vol. 1 & 2 + The magic of chess tactics

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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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.