The top 10 endgames of 2023!

by Karsten Müller
12/29/2023 – Karsten Müller is both an endgame expert and a major enthusiast of the final phases of a chess battle. Here he presents the 10 top endgames of the year, a selection of the most interesting and substantial positions seen on the board throughout 2023!
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A revitalized phase of the game

In the early history of chess tournaments, a great deal of attention was paid to the endgame. Players like Akiba Rubinstein or Raúl Capablanca were unrivalled endgame virtuosos. In later years, research into openings and the search for improvements in the early phases of the middlegame became more prominent.

With Magnus Carlsen, however, things changed, since we got a world champion who was once again very interested in the endgame and put a lot of energy into this phase of the game. In his younger years, Carlsen saved many games with his outstanding skills in the endgame and then cemented his role as the world’s best player, particularly thanks to his fantastic endgame skills. Incidentally, as some may still remember, he mentioned that he had intensively studied the book Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht.

GM Müller has picked out ten endgames played in 2023 that particularly inspired him. Magnus Carlsen is represented twice in this selection. One in which the Norwegian wins an endgame with queens and (initially) knights, and an endgame with rooks and knights. Anish Giri also appears twice in the list. But other players who are not so high up in the world rankings are also capable of handling endgames in anexemplary manner!

Replay Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #259: Endgames from 2023

The top 10 endgames of the year

Here are Karsten Müller’s top 10 endgames of the year. Enjoy!

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Magnus magic. The most dangerous passed pawn is often very valuable in queen endings: 36...Ne3+! The decisive opening of attacking roads. 37.fxe3 Qe2+ 38.Kh3 Qxf3 39.a4 The c-pawn will decide the day now. The most dangerous passed pawn is often very valuable in queen endings. But 39.Qxc5?! runs into Qh1+ 40.Kg4 f5+ 41.Kf4 Qe4# A really beautiful mate! 39...Qh1+ 40.Kg4 Qe4+ 41.Kh3 c4 42.Qc7
42...Kg6 A nice move to unpin the f-pawn. 43.Kh2 43.a5 can now be met by Qh1+ 44.Kg4 f5+ 45.Kf4 Qe4# 43...Qc2+ 44.Kh3 Qxa4 44...Qxa4 45.Qc8 Qd1 46.Qg8+ Kf6 47.Qh8+ Ke7-+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Pantsulaia,L2564Carlsen,M28350–12023A50FIDE World Cup 20232.1
Yu,Y2720Kuybokarov,T2584½–½2023E60FIDE Grand Swiss 202310.17
Vachier-Lagrave,M2727Pichot,A26501–02023C78FIDE Grand Swiss 20238.15
Sindarov,J2658Vidit,S27160–12023C54FIDE Grand Swiss 20237.3
Sindarov,J2654Pechac,J26371–02023B0185th Tata Steel Challengers 20235.4
Ivic,V2585Vaishali,R24251–02023B4585th Tata Steel Challengers 20234.2
L'Ami,E2627Warmerdam,M26161–02023D1285th Tata Steel Challengers 20236.7
Giri,A2760Mamedov,R26401–02023E90FIDE Grand Swiss 20239.13
Bharath Subramaniyam H2500Giri,A27600–12023B11Qatar Masters 20232.3
Carlsen,M2852Nakamura,H27681–02023D24Airthings Masters Div 1 20234.1

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.

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