Endgames from Düsseldorf (2)

by Karsten Müller
2/27/2023 – A new super-tournament took place in Düsseldorf, with five vetted GMs facing five raising talents. Karsten Müller kept a close eye on the event, and sent us a number of fascinating endgames, annotated. Find here five instructive positions. Time to learn and enjoy! | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Black’s blockade

The technical endgame explored by Ian Nepomniachtchi and Andrey Esipenko is truly instructive. In a knight vs bishop duel, Esipenko, with the knight, managed to block his opponent’s attempts to make progress.

Wolfram Schön shared some of his own analysis in this deep endgame.

 

The drawing zone

In the last game of the rapid playoff, eventual champion Levon Aronian had a rook and a pawn against Gukesh’s bishop and pawn. Aronian prevailed, but only after the Indian prodigy missed a chance to enter ‘the drawing zone’.

 

When the initiative matters the most

Wesley So had the upper hand in an endgame with rooks and knights against Praggnanandhaa, but he failed to find an outstanding prophylactic move on move 59, one that was discovered by Thorsten Cmiel.

 

In seventh heaven

Levon Aronian scored his third win of the event in round 5, when he got the better of Anish Giri after doubling his rooks on the seventh rank.

 

Keymer’s knight

Vincent Keymer showed great technique to beat Wesley So with black in the penultimate round. The young German made good use of his tricky knight.

 

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.

Links

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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