
Why endgames are so unpopular? Is it because they are generally difficult, or is it because they are often underestimated? The well-known phrase ‘all rook endgames are drawn’ has perhaps unintentionally played down the significance of endgames.
Needless to say all the world champions have been very strong endgame players. Thanks to Kramnik’s match victory over Kasparov we really started to appreciate such positions again in tournament chess. That said, due to the modern-day enormous use of analysis engines, we still don’t look anything like as much as we should at endgames; the accent is all on openings.
To really understand the openings one has to start by first learning endgames, but that part is somehow missing these days. An almost empty board is rather confusing to many and found boring by others. However, to really grasp the role of geometry in chess, it is essential to start right from there: with the endgame.
There are many type of endgame and usually we don’t come across that many in our tournament games. My former trainer, the late legendary Dragoljub Velimirovic, always told me that there are around 50 endgame positions that are worth knowing. Just like with the openings, endgames also have certain rules and theory behind them. If you don’t know them, you will either lose or miss a win. It really is as simple as that.
The importance of endgame knowledge is really high. Just think of that epic match in 1987 between Karpov and Kasparov, where the latter triumphed in the final game thanks to a fine bishop versus knight endgame (with queens on). Trying to understand which minor piece is better and when is not easy, but endgame study can really help there.
For the purpose of this article I decided to give not minor piece endgames, but four rook endgames. I hope that you find them useful in your own games.
On the ChessBase game viewer, you can move pieces and analyse, with a new and powerful engine switched on. It's the best way to really understand the ending.
I should also add that all these general rules have, unsurprisingly, their exceptions, but without knowing the rules we would be even more in the dark when we reach the endgame of rook and pawn versus rook. Forget Chéron’s discoveries at your peril!
The above articles were reproduced from Chess Magazine March/2018, with kind permission.
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ChessBase Magazine 182
ChessBase PC-DVD
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The latest edition of CBM is for ‘February/March 2018, but the main emphasis in terms of reporting and annotated games is on the London Chess Classic and the Palma de Mallorca Grand Prix. Nepomniachtchi, Radjabov and So contribute, March 2018 while Daniel King, Lawrence Trent and Simon Williams make important video contributions. Finally, Michal Krasenkow has chipped in with the latest on his favourite 6 h3 line against the King’s Indian.
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My Black Secrets in the Modern Italian
Wesley So
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Over the years ChessBase have tempted Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand to record DVDs for them, and now the leading American GM joins such hallowed company. So does not, however, cover his best games, but rather explains how he likes to meet 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 as Black. In total there are 9 video clips, with So in each one essentially discussing the various lines with co-presenter, IM Oliver Reeh. At times the coverage is quite theoretical, but there are also a great number of useful general points, as Reeh encourages So to explain when Black should prefer, say, ...a5 rather than ...a6 to prepare a retreat square for his bishop, or when ...Ng4 and ...f5 might be appropriate
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