Karsten Muller: Rook against Knight

Karsten Muller: Chess Endgames 12
Rook against Knight

Review by Chris Wainscott

Unless you are new to chess or just returning to chess after an absence of several years you are most likely aware of German GM Karsten Muller’s excellent DVD series on the endgame.

With this release, GM Muller continues his quest to impart high level endgame knowledge to the viewer. This time in an ending that, while somewhat rare, is difficult to convert without the knowledge of how to do so.

This DVD is broken down into eight chapters. They are:

1. Rook versus Knight
2. Two Rooks verses Rook and Knight
3. Rook and Bishop versus Bishop and Knight With Opposite Colored Bishops
4. Rook and Bishop versus Bishop and Knight With Same Colored Bishops
5. Rook and Bishop versus the Knight Pair
6. Rook and Knight versus the Knight Pair
7. Rook versus Bishop and Knight
8. Rook versus Two Knights

ChessBase was kind enough to send me this DVD to review, and so after watching the DVD here are my thoughts…

First of all, let’s acknowledge just exactly what it is that we are dealing with here. Is knight versus rook an ending that you can expect to play frequently? The answer to that is no, it is quite rare. How rare is it you ask? So rare that it happens roughly one in every 100 endgames (0.97% to be exact, according to Fundamental Chess Endings which was written by GM Muller back in 2001 along with Frank Lamprecht).

So what is the value in studying something that you will only see a handful of times in your career? Well, one answer is that perhaps someday you’ll face it in the last round of a tournament with $5,000 on the line. But that’s not likely. What is likely is that you will be able to take the concepts that you learn from the study of this endgame and apply them to late middlegame situations as well.

For example, GM Muller introduces the concept of the “knight check shadow” early on in the DVD. Here are the main two examples:

In the first example the king is limiting the mobility of the enemy knight, while in the second example it’s the rook that is restricting the knight. The idea of the knight check shadow is to force the knight to spend more tempi to get where it needs to be, if indeed it can get there at all.

Another benefit to this DVD is that when you take all of the various configurations covered in the chapters and add them up you are looking at approximately 20% of the endgames you will play. Here is an ending from Chapter One that illustrates the knight check shadow technique:

After watching the analysis clip of the position above I gained an appreciation for these types of endgames where the appearance can be deceiving. I looked at the position before watching the clip and thought it to be a dead draw. After hearing GM Muller explain the concepts (for example the misplaced pawn on g5) I will be more mindful of these items in my own games.

Chapter Two is Two Rooks vs Rook and Knight. This chapter starts out with an example taken from a game between Garry Kasparov and Evgeny Bareev from Novgorod 1997. Here is the starting position of the video clip:

GM Muller starts off by pointing out that when there are no pawns on the board then positions tend to be drawn the majority of the time, but that White has chances to play for the win. In the game Kasparov played 72.Rg6!? and then after 72…Re3? 73.Re6 Bareev resigned as he can’t prevent the loss of the knight. However, Bareev could have played: 72…Kh3! as after 73.Rb3+ Kh2 the position is a draw.

In fact, I let Houdini run for 3-4 minutes in this position and clipped the analysis below. Feel free to play through it to see the ideas.

Analysis by Houdini 1.5a w32:

1. = (0.26): 73.Rb3+ Kh2 74.Rg4 Rf8+ 75.Ke5 Re8+ 76.Kf6 Rf8+ 77.Ke6 Rd8 78.Ra3 Rf8 79.Rg7 Nf4+ 80.Kd6 Re8 81.Rg4 Nd3 82.Rg7 Nf4 83.Rg4
2. = (0.21): 73.Kf6 Re3 74.Rg8 Ng3 75.Kg5 Re5+ 76.Kf4 Rf5+ 77.Ke3 Re5+ 78.Kd3 Rf5 79.Kd4 Rf4+ 80.Ke3 Ra4 81.Rb1 Ra3+ 82.Kd4 Ne2+ 83.Kc4 Rc3+ 84.Kd5 Ng3 85.Rb4 Re3 86.Rc4 Ne2 87.Rc6 Ng3 88.Rcc8 Kg2 89.Rc2+ Kh3 90.Rh8+ Kg4 91.Rg8+ Kf3 92.Rf8+ Kg4 93.Rc4+ Kh3 94.Rh8+ Kg2 95.Rc2+ Ne2 96.Rf8 Kg3

When pawns are on the board it can be a completely different matter. Here is a famous example of this type of endgame from St. Petersburg 1914 between world champion Emmanuel Lasker and future world champion Alexander Alekhine. GM Muller first discusses this position:

In the interests of space I won’t cover examples from every chapter, but suffice it to say that each of the remaining chapters also breaks down ideas and concepts into variational truths such as the examples given above.

My opinion of this DVD is that this is something that pretty much any player serious about improving should own, if for no other reason that a lot of this material is sparsely covered elsewhere.

Does this mean that you are likely to start getting these endgames in your own games? Not necessarily, but many of these concepts will translate into late middlegame concepts. Also, knowing the material in this DVD gives you one more weapon in your arsenal as you will have know when to trade into these endgames with confidence.

I give this DVD four out of five stars.

Source: On the Road to Chess Master

Chess Endgames 12 - Rook vs Knight by Dr. Karsten Müller Languages: English ISBN: 978-3-86681-361-8 EAN: 4027975007502 Delivery: Download or Post €29.90 €25.13 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $33.41 (without VAT) Order this Endgame Trainer here

The more reduced the material on the board is the more important it is to be able to estimate the potential of the pieces correctly. In endgames with asymmetrical material this is absolutely crucial. The new 12th DVD in Karsten Müller‘s popular series continues the journey started with the 11th to discuss endgames with an uneven material balance. The very important aspects "coordination" and "harmony of the pieces" can be studied well in those endgames and help to improve the practical play. Especially the geometry of the knight can be analysed in great detail. The international acclaimed endgame expert looks at the winning motifs of the side with the rook, like giving back the exchange, opening lines and restricting the knight with many well chosen examples. Of course the question of the right exchange also plays a vital role, when converting the advantage. Video running time: 5 hours 38 min.