Endgames from Saint Louis

by Karsten Müller
9/1/2022 – Five days of rapid and blitz saw Alireza Firouzja achieving a magnificent result in his first outing at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Our in-house expert Karsten Müller once again compiled a series of instructive endgames for us to learn from and enjoy! | Pictured: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes
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Rooks, rooks, rooks

Truly double-edged

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Fabiano Caruana played a razor-sharp, entertaining endgame in round 8 of the rapid section. Shakh had a winning position with two connected passers one move away from promotion, but Caruana could have saved a draw with his active pair of rooks — extremely precise calculation was required, though!

 

Two are better than one

Two (active) rooks are often stronger than a queen, as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave demonstrated in his third-round game against Mamedyarov

 

Activate the rook

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied for first in the rapid section of the event. Perhaps he would have won the rapid had he found the correct approach to convert his pawn advantage against Sam Shankland in round 5.

 

Shankland went on to save the draw after MVL played the passive 61.Rd2 here. Both the direct 61.Ra6+ and the more subtle 61.Rb2 — which are more active alternatives — were winning manoeuvres for White.

Find this game’s full analysis plus two more instructive endgames — including one in which passive defence is required — in the replayer below!

 

In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.

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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.