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Walking
the PathChess Expertise Step by Step: Vol. 4, Endgame Magic (DVD), by Efstratios Grivas, ChessBase, Video running time: 4 hours, $33.95 (ChessCafe Price: $27.95)
My review of the companion volume, Chess Expertise Step by Step: Vol. 3, Rook Handling, made its way into the August 2012 "ChessBase Cafe" column here at ChessCafe.com. I mentioned there that GM Grivas is not the most animated presenter and that he speaks somewhat quickly with a heavy accent in a deep, gravelly voice, but the viewer soon becomes acclimated to his style of delivery and enunciation and inflections.
The contents of this DVD are divided as follows:
In the "About the author" segment, Grivas lists his extensive accomplishments as a chess trainer and author. He is a FIDE Senior Trainer (Secretary of the FIDE Trainers' Commission), an International FIDE Chess Arbiter, and an International FIDE Chess Organizer. He has won several medals at various Olympiads and, in 2010, he was awarded the FIDE TRG Boleslavsky Medal for best author of 2009. It is a bit unnecessary to include this as a video clip; a paragraph of text in the index window would have sufficed.
In the introduction, Grivas explains the concept of this DVD:
"Many people think that the qualities of the grandmaster, compared to an ordinary player, mostly consists of superior opening preparation, greater calculating abilities, and deeper understanding of typical middelgame positions. If you, however, take a closer look at games, say, from a strong Open tournament, you will notice several cases where the grandmaster outplays a weaker player or even a fellow grandmaster in the endgame from more or less equal positions. You are often left wondering, how on earth could someone lose such a simple position with so few pieces on the board.
"And yet, in my personal experience, the last part of the game is where a well-educated player can set the opponent the most problems. The weight of each moves increases; each mistake can prove very costly; and great accuracy is required. In our times, with the abolition of adjournments and the increasingly faster time-controls endgame knowledge has acquired greater significance than ever before. This DVD, called "Endgame Magic," tries to cover important parts in this field and help to assimilate knowledge, and understand in depth, the proper handling of the endgame in certain cases.
"We will examine how to benefit from the isolani in the endgame; how to try to win or defend when a rook and rook-pawn vs a bishop and rook-pawn (on the same side) endgame arises; the technique of the 'square' when the advantage of the exchange-up seems to be difficult to capitalize; how to win or defend with a plain queen vs a plain rook; how to benefit from our opponent's shattered pawns; how to play some specific pawn endings; and, finally, what are the problems of the exchange-up when facing the bishop-pair. As Laurence Fishburne has mentioned in Matrix, 'There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.'"
It may seem surprising that the section with the most segments is "Rook & RP vs Bishop & RP," but time-wise many of these have the shortest duration; the longest clip here is just shy of seven minutes, while the majority are three to five minutes in length. The longest clip overall can be found in the "Pawn Endings" section, clocking in at slightly more than sixteen minutes.
Since the concept of "The Square" may be the least self-explanatory of the contents, let's have a look at it. Grivas admits that the title of this segment may be misleading because it is a survey of the ending rook and bishop and pawn versus bishop and knight and pawn, when there are no passed pawns and the bishops are of opposite colors. "But as the usual winning maneuver is the 'rook-square' move it is useful to call it 'The Square.'"
The first example is from Kasparov-Karpov, FIDE-Wch Lyon (16), 01.12.1990.
Grivas concludes that this endgame is "easy" in that "White has a very concrete plan" and "difficult" because White "has to be accurate at certain moments." For sure, this section is somewhat esoteric for the average player. The segments on the isolani, pawn endings, queen vs rook, and shattered pawns will all have more practical significance.
Whereas Grivas used many of his own games as models on the previous DVD in this series, none here are from his own practice. It is Gelfand and Kasparov who appear the most times at three games each, and Svidler and Topalov at two games. The famous game Salwe-Rubinstein makes an appearance, as do game examples from Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Spassky, Smyslov, Fischer, Müller, and others. In each case, the examples are well-chosen for the topic being presented. It is also useful that Grivas includes the majority of his "script" in the game annotations; thus, you do not have to replay the video segment to review his spoken commentary.
Chess Expertise Step by Step: Vol. 4, Endgame Magic covers many important topics that are necessary to know in order to become a more accomplished player. Perhaps by the time the viewer has worked through the first three volumes they will be ready to absorb the contents of this one. Chess Expertise Step by Step: Vol. 3, Rook Handling was recommended to players of all levels; for Chess Expertise Step by Step: Vol. 4, Endgame Magic, it is probably of benefit to be a stronger player at the outset.
My assessment of this product: Good (four out of six stars)
An apologyAt the time of publication of this review it had escaped our attention – as it had the attention of the original reviewer at Chess Cafe – that the analysis provided by GM Grivas was in fact taken, often verbatim, from a Huffington Post article published by GM Lubomir Kavalek two years ago. The oversight is especially embarrassing since the original Huffington article had appeared on our newspage as well. The matter has been minutely documented in a subsequent article by Kavalek's entitled "Heavy Lifting". |
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Efstratios Grivas: Endgame Magic 30.01.2012 – The Greek grandmaster is a highly experienced chess trainer and chess author. He has participated in the ChessBase sponsored program of training sessions for talented young players. In addition he has recorded a number of training DVDs, the latest of which deals with the endgame. In addition to a description of this product we bring you a valuable lesson in an important ending. |
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Grivas: Chess Expertise Step by Step 05.11.2011 – Greek grandmaster Efstratios Grivas is a highly experienced chess trainer and chess author. He has participated in the ChessBase sponsored program of training sessions for talented young players. In addition he has recorded a number of training DVDs, the latest of which deals with rook handling in the endgame, with four hours of personal video instructions. Do not miss this one. |
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Grivas Training: Building a Repertoire 18.04.2011 – "In contrast to the middlegame and the endgame, where theory is objective and accepted by everyone, in the opening each chess player makes his choices in accordance with his emotions and his personal experience. No opening loses, no opening wins." World renown chess trainer GM Efstratios Grivas explains how you should build your repertoire in Part 3 of his lecture series. |
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Grivas Training: Getting to Know Ourselves 13.02.2011 – Young chess players need to be able to identify the assets and weaknesses of their chess personalities. Many trainers and trainees have wondered how this can be done properly. The basic resource are one's recent games, which are used to produce an "X-ray image" of one's chess-self. GM Efstratios Grivas, a world-class trainer, tells us how to go about it, in Part 2 of his lecture series. |
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ChessBase Training with GM Efstratios Grivas (Part 1) 28.01.2011 – How do you help talented young chess players to realize their potential? Working with a world-class trainer is a good way to start. ChessBase has started a program to sponsor a series of training sessions, which started, logically, in our offices in Hamburg. Five young talents got a full-day session with an internationally known chess coach, who has graciously placed his entire lecture at our disposal. |
