“In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame.” – José Raúl Capablanca
Event: “43rd Olympiad 2018” Site: “Batumi GEO” White: “Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi” WhiteElo: “2711” Black: “L’Ami, Erwin” BlackElo: “2639” Result: “1/2-1/2” One of the most interesting things about queen endings is that the queen with g and h pawns versus queen cannot win with the best defence. Of course, in practical game, various factors such […]
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If the rim pawn had not gone too far, if it had not passed the fourth rank, the position is won! This was found by Guretzky and Cornitz in 1863. White to move wins because he can permanently cut the opponent’s king off his h-pawn. The starting moves are identical to the previous example. […]
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Correctly positioned bishop – along the b1-h7 diagonal – draws even when the h-pawn is on the fifth rank! This has been known ever since the duel Morphy – Loewenthal ( London, 1858 ) . White to move cannot win since his h-pawn had gone too far! ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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In endgames with rim pawn and the “bad” bishop ( that is, wrong-colored bishop ) a special meaning belongs to the warning to avoid a too early and too far advance of the pawn. When the h-pawn is on the sixth rank, Black easily draws with a «bad» bishop by keeping it on the […]
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Let us examine how to lead defence and attack in a critical position with the f- and h-pawn that has been seen many times on tournaments, and was first recorded in the game Bondarevski – Keres, (the Match Moscow-Leningrad, 1939). Even though White achieved an optimum-attacking position by placing the rook on e6, the […]
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7.2. Rook and Two Pawns versus Rook Like in knight and bishop endings, the advantage of two pawns is usually sufficient to win, but the final decision is on pawn structure and the activity of pieces. Thus, we will devide these endings in three groups: a ) Connected pawns, b ) Isolated pawns, c […]
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As we have seen in the example 3, the weakness of the rim pawn is especially expressed when the black king has not “crossed the Rubicon” on the fifth rank, in which case the rook can neutralize it through “cutting off” and preventing support for the pawn. However, the fatal can also be the […]
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Rook shows the greatest power in the fight with the rim pawn since there the pawn can provide almost no protection for its king, so very often the mating motifs decide on the outcome. The case with the h-pawn on the second rank is very instructional. White can win only if two essential conditional […]
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The great rook’s power and its successful battle against pawns on both sides are further expressed in the position where the opponent’s pieces have not yet passed the fifth rank. White to move wins by “cutting off” the black king along the fifth rank. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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