“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
Here is one well known, older ending from a high class game where White missed a nice winning motif. Do you think you would find it? Event: Dos Hermanas White: Svidler, Peter WhiteElo: 2713 Black: Anand, Viswanathan BlackElo: 2781 Result: 1/2-1/2
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White’s prospects of winning are the best with a rook’s pawn since then the bishop has the least manoeuvring space. When the pawn is on the seventh, the black bishop does not have the short diagonal at all. White always wins provided he can prevent the enemy king from entering into the drawing zone […]
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The most difficult in queen endgames is to realize minimal advantage. Queen and pawn can win against queen if the weaker side’s king is not in front of the pawn and if it is possible to prevent draw by repetition. The best chances to win are with the pawn on the seventh rank, and […]
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In a similar position, White wins even with the king on g4, because he can realize the same mating picture from the other wing. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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If his king is near enough, White may win in a mating attack after queening the pawn. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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Without the king’s help, queen cannot win against the bishop’s pawn on the seventh rank either, because Black has stalemate to defend. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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In a similar position with the rim pawn, white cannot win, because Black defends with stalemate. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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When the black king is cut off “only” along the d-file, the position is drawn. White to move cannot win because he is not able to let his king escape from “the prison”. ← Basic EndingsBasic Endings →
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The biggest problems to realize advantage arise in similar positions with rim pawn where the white king does not have enough “air to breathe” and cannot perform the standard Lucena’s manoeuvre with bridge building on the fourth rank. The rook will lose much time in order to reach b-file and thus enable king’s escape, […]
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