11/19/2012 – The Cuban Grandmaster and 3rd World Champion José Raúl Capablanca said: “In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame.” Review of an interesting DVD by a former FIDE World Champion.
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Rustam
Kasimdzhanov: Endgames for Experts
Review by Zhigen Lin
Presenter: Grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Publisher: ChessBase
Language: English
Running Time: 3.5 hours
The Cuban Grandmaster and 3rd World Champion José Raúl Capablanca
said: “In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before
everything else, for whereas the the endings can be studied and mastered by
themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the
endgame.”
Of course, a beginner must learn the basic opening principles too (such as
“control the centre” and “knights before bishops”),
but I vividly remember American International Master Joshua Waitzkin explaining
in an audio lecture that endgames are the heart of chess and that studying the
endgame builds an important foundation to support one’s skill development
in all other phases of the game. His reasoning was that in endgames, pieces
can be studied in isolation so that a player can grasp their true potential
without any ‘distractions’. Studying the capabilities of each piece
will allow a player to not only play better endgames, but use and coordinate
their forces more effectively in the opening and middlegame.
The subject of this review is a DVD from ChessBase. Endgames for Experts is
an instructional chess DVD presented by Uzbekistani Grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov,
winner of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004. The title of the DVD implies
that it is aimed at expert-level players. I would say it is suitable for players
with FIDE ratings of 1700 and over.
Overall, I really enjoyed this DVD and felt it improved my knowledge in the
endgame considerably. Kasimdzhanov’s English is quite good and he is able
to articulate complicated concepts in a readily digestible and engaging way.
His analysis of both the concrete and strategic aspects of a position is very
thorough. In my opinion, Kasimdzhanov is one of the best presenters in the chess
multimedia industry.
Apart from excellent choice of material, I believe there are a number of factors
that set this DVD apart from others. Firstly, it is unusual to have such a high-ranked
player giving lectures. At the time of writing, Kasimdzhanov is one of the strongest
players in the world with a peak FIDE rating of 2706. He won the FIDE World
Chess Championship in 2004, knocking out a string of top players including well
known grandmasters Veselin Topalov and Michael Adams.
An enormous advantage to this DVD is that, unlike opening lectures, which generally
go out-of-date very quickly, material on endgames will always be relevant. Kasimdzhanov
is well prepared for his lectures and often gives a helpful summary of the lessons
learnt from each particular example. The lectures are cut into bite-sized 7
to 15-minute chunks. Personally, I think this is the perfect length for the
videos. In fact, perhaps more than one person agreed with me because the producer
seems to have gone out of their way to ensure that larger videos were split
into the 7- to 15-minute time frame. A great initiative from ChessBase!
In this DVD, Kasimdzhanov shows his own games, which is logical because, in
addition to variations given by computers, he can add lines that he calculated
during the game, explain the reasoning behind certain moves and point out lines
that he was expecting his opponent to play. He also has the opportunity to elaborate
on his mistakes – the faulty reasoning that caused the mistake and how
he could have improved on it. It is nearly impossible for an annotator to be
able to analyse another person’s game to the same depth as a game participant.
Here are my favourite three examples from the DVD:
Kasimdzhanov-Shirov must be one of Kasimdzhanov’s best games. He
uses precise positional and tactical motifs to defeat one of the world’s
best players.
Tregubov-Kasimdzhanov looks like an easily drawn endgame at first, but
Kasimdzhanov patiently grinds down his 2550 opponent.
Kasimdzhanov-Baklan is a gem that is left until last on the DVD. In a marathon
82-move game, Baklan uses virtually every defensive resource in the position
to prevent Kasimdzhanov’s plans. However, in a surprisingly complex
endgame given the equal material balance, Kasimdzhanov’s two bishops
eventually overwhelm Baklan’s bishop and knight.
Conclusion
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this DVD. I feel that, when studied
carefully, it will improve a player’s endgame skills significantly, which
will result in a strengthening of their game as a whole. I would encourage more
grandmasters to show their own endgame struggles to further our knowledge in
this critical phase of the game. A strong incentive for both the teacher and
student is that such material will generally never go out of date.
Assessment: 5/5
About the author
Zhigen Lin (FIDE rating 2146) is a BCom and BSc student at Monash University,
Australia. He became the Australian Under 16 Champion at age 13 and has
represented Australia in various youth competitions, including events
in France, Turkey, Georgia and Singapore. He runs the Chess
Game Improvement website and the accompanying
YouTube channel.
Sampler: Rustam Kasimdzhanov – Endgame for Experts
Links
Zhigen Lin (FIDE:2146, ACF:2256) is an enthusiastic chess player
and analyst. Here is his
website.
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