Passed pawns are powerful

by ChessBase
10/15/2020 – The less pieces on the board, the more complicated it is. Queen endings are especially complicated. On day 3 of their rapid match in Prague, Dai Van Nguyen and Nigel Short had to play a complicated queen ending, and with limited time they did not always find the best moves. Karsten Müller had more time and analysed this tricky and instructive endgame in more detail.
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Powerful passed pawns

Although Nigel Short is now Vice-President of FIDE, he has not yet put his career as a player on hold. At the invitation of the Prague Chess Society, the veteran played a rapid chess match in Prague against the 18-year old Czech Grandmaster Dai Van Nguyen who is considered a great talent.

Dai Van Nguyen

Short took the lead in the match, but on the final day Nguyen managed to turn the tables and in the end the young Grandmaster won the match 5½-4½.

Short and Nguyen

After the match, Nigel Short gave a simul, but now he is busy finding a way back to his home in Athens. The flight he had booked has been cancelled, and so has another one he wanted to catch.

A simul with Nigel Short

Pavel Matocha, the president of the Prague Chess Society and the organiser of this and many other chess events, reported about Short's difficulties to return home, and remarked jokingly that "Christmas in Prague is nice too".

In the eighth game of the match, the second game that Nguyen won, a complicated queen's ending appeared on the board. It contained many subtleties, too many for a rapid chess game. Karsten Müller had more time and took a closer look at the endgame:

 
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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.

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