Passed pawns - criminally dangerous

by Karsten Müller
4/1/2025 – "The passed pawn is a criminal who should be kept under lock and key" is a famous quote by Aron Nimzowitsch. In the diagram position, White has failed to keep the passed pawn on c3 under control. Black to move and win!
Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.a3 0-0 8.Nc3 Nd4 9.Nxe5 Nxb3 10.cxb3 Bb7 11.Nf3 c5 12.0-0 Re8 13.Re1 h6 14.h3 Qb6 15.Ne2 Bf8 16.Bf4 Nh5 17.Bh2 d5 18.e5 d4 19.Nf4 Nxf4 20.Bxf4 Qc6 21.Rc1 Qd5 22.Bg3 a5 23.Re4 a4 24.bxa4 Rxa4 25.Kh2 Ra6 26.Nd2 Rc8 27.f4 Qe6 28.Re1 c4 29.Nf3 c3 30.Rc2 Rd8 31.Nh4 Qb3 32.Qb1 b4 33.bxc3 Qxb1 34.Rxb1 dxc3 35.axb4 Rxd3 36.Rb3 Passed pawns - criminally dangerous "The passed pawn is a criminal who should be kept under lock and key" is a famous quote by Aron Nimzowitsch. In the diagram position, White has failed to keep the passed pawn on c3 under control. Black to move and win!
Black to move and win
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Idani,P2603Harikrishna,P26950–12025C77German Bundesliga 2024-259.2

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.

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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

Karsten Mueller regularly presents endgame lessons in the ChessBase Video Portal

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Topics: ChessBase Magazine, Endgame, Karsten Mueller
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.
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Video

60m The Two Knights

This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.

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