101 chess endgame tips [1st ed.] 9781904600664, 1904600662

Citation preview

101 Chess Endgame Tips ·Steve Giddins

First published in the UK by Gambit Publications Ltd 2007 Copyright © Steve Giddins 2007 The right of Steve Giddins to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Paten!S Act 1988. All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. ISBN-1 3: 978-1-904600-66-4 ISBN-10: 1-904600-66-2 DISTRIBUTION:

Worldwide (except USA) : Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, England. Tel +44 (0)20 8986 4854 Fax +44 (0)20 8533 5821 . E-mai1: [email protected] Gambit Publications Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, England. E-mail : [email protected] Website (regularly updated) : www.gambitbooks.com Edited by Graham Burgess Typeset by John Nunn Cover image by Wolff Morrow Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Gambit Publications Ltd Managing Director: Murray Chandler GM Chess Director: Dr John Nunn GM Editorial Director: Graham Burgess FM Gennan Editor: Petra Nunn WFM Webmaster: Dr Helen Milligan WFM

Contents

Introduction Symbols Bibliography Acknowledgements

6 7 7 7

Kings and Pawns Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip

I - Defying Euclid 2- The Gentlemanly Art of Shoulder-Charging 3- A Royal Pas de Deux 4 -The Breakthrough 5 More Pawn Breakthrough Ideas 6- Don't Forget about Stalemate Resources -

8 9 10 11 12 13

Knights Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip Tip

7 Simplifying into a King and Pawn Ending 8- Knights Hate Rook's Pawns 9 - Deflections 1 0- Pawns on the Same Side 1 1 - Space is Important in Knight Endings 1 2- In the Footsteps of the Master 1 3- Exploiting a Positional Advantage 14 - Activity is King -

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Bishops Tip 1 5- Barrier Reefs (Part I) Tip 1 6- Barrier Reefs (Part 2) Tip 1 7- Bishop and Wrong Rook's Pawn Tip 1 8- King at the Rear Tip 1 9- Good Bishop versus Bad Tip 20

-

How to Manufacture a Passed Pawn

Tip 2 1 - The Principle of Two Weaknesses Tip 22- Not-so-Distant Passed Pawn Tip 23- The Crippled Majority Tip 24- Pawns Don't Move Backwards Tip 25

-

The Power of Two Passed Pawns

Tip 26 - The Power of Connected Passed Pawns Tip 27- Barrier Reefs (Part 3) Tip 28 - Pawn Placement

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

Knight vs Bishop Tip 29 - Knight vs Bad Bishop

36

101 CHESS ENDGAME TIPS

4

Tip 30- The Agile Knight Tip 31 - Knights are Better than Bishops at Attacking Weak Pawns Tip 32- Knights are Better than Bishops at Attacking Weak Pawns (Part 2) Tip 33 -Bishop vs Knight on an Open Board Tip 34 -Fischer's Classic Tip 35- Knight on the Rim Tip 36 -The Triumph of the Two Bishops

37 38 39

40 41 42 43

Rooks Tip 37 - Know the Basics Tip 38 - The bnportance of King-Shelter Tip 39- Know the Basics, Part 2 Tip 40 - Know the Basics, Part 3 Tip 41- When Two Extra Pawns Don't Win Tip 42 -Pawns on the Same Side Tip 43 -Defence from the Side Tip 44- The Strength of the Rook at the Side Tip 45 The Strength of the Rook at the Side (Part 2) Tip 46- Karpov's Masterclass Tip 47- Shoulder-Charging Tip 48 - Keep the Furthest Pawn Tip 49 - Passed Pawns Mean Counterplay Tip 50- The Exception that Proves the Rule Tip 51- More Chances with a Knight's Pawn Tip 52 -Never Forget about Stalemate Tip 53 Triangulation Tip 54 New York 1 924 Revisited Tip 55 -Don't Get in a Huff Tip 56 -The Active Rook Tip 57 Another Active Rook Tip 58 -Yet Another Active Rook Tip 59- When Similar is Not the Same Tip 60 - Seizing Space Tip 6 1 - The Weakness of Weak Pawns -

-

-

-

44 45 46 47 48 50 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

60 61 62 63

64

65 66 67 68 69 70

Queens Tip 62 - Evading the Checks Tip 63 - King Safety is the Key Tip 64- King Safety is the Key (Part 2)

71 72 73

Strategy and Technique Tip 65 Exchanges to Realize a Material Advantage Tip 66- Rooks are Better than Knights- Usually! Tip 67 -When Two Pieces are Better than One Tip 68- The Value of Knowing Your Theory Tip 69 - Drawing with Rook vs Rook and Bishop Tip 70 - When Two Rooks Beat a Queen Tip 7 1 -Transforming an Advantage -

74 75 76 77 78 79 80

CONTENTS

Tip 72

-

Centralizing the King

Tip 73

-

Transforming an Advantage

Tip 74- The Perils of Passivity Tip 75- A Lesson in Not Hurrying Tip 76- Positional Alchemy Tip 77 - The Importance of Calculation Tip 78 - Concrete Play Tip 80- Bad Bishops are Often Good Defenders

Tip 79

-

Schematic Thinking

Tip 81 - The Principle of Two Weaknesses Revisited Tip 82 - Pawn-Structure Subtleties Tip 83- More Breakthroughs Tip

84- The Master at Work

Tip 85- Workmanlike Technique Tip 86- A Two-Bishops Masterclass

be Deceptive

Tip 88 -·Overcoming the Blockade Tip 87 -Appearances can Tip 89 - Squeeze Play Tip

90- The Power of the King

Tip 9 1 - Calculate Your Way to Victory Tip 93 - The Importance of Playing On Tip 92 - Fighting for Space

Tip 94- The Outside Pawn-Majority Tip 95

-

Too Brutal

Tip 96

-

The Minority Attack

Tip 97 - Attacking the King Tip 98 - The Power of Zugzwang Tip 99 - Passed Pawns are the Key Tip 1 00- Don't Forget Combinations! Tip 1 0 1 - Positional Draw

5

81 82 83

84

86 87 88 89

90

91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 1 02 1 03 104 1 05 1 06 107 108 1 09 1 10 1 11

I ntroduction erage player. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, many players take the superficially

The endgame is probably the most neglected part of chess, especially from the point of view of the av­ logical, but fallacious, view that it is better to study openings, since if one misplays the opening badly enough, one will not even survive into an ending. This may be strictly true, but only of very bad open­ once one has achieved this, there is no good argument for ignoring endgames any longer.

ing play. It does not need too much knowledge to enable one to play the opening reasonably well, and Secondly, many players believe that endings are boring. I firmly believe that this is completely

untrue, and, on the contrary, the endgame is the best and most enjoyable part of chess. I hope in this book to show why this is the case. Thirdly, the traditional three-hour playing sessions in club and league chess have tended to militate against reaching very many endgames, and when one did get one, the chance to play it out was usu­ local chess which has changed for the better in recent years, and the replacement of adjournments and ally lost, due to the intervention of that dread figure, the adjudicator. Thankfully, this is one aspect of

adjudication by quickplay finishes means that endgame technique is now more important than ever.

In writing this book, I hope to give the average player a good introduction to many important ideas and techniques in endings. The positions given include many basic, theoretical endings, and also a significant number of more complex positions, which illustrate more general points of tech­ nique. I hope that this material will not only improve the reader's endgame play

per se, but also

stimulate further study. The material I can cover in a book of this size is of necessity limited, but there is a wealth of fine books on the endgame, and any player who wishes to study further has no lack of opportunity to do so.

Important Endgame Principles Many important endgame principles are illustrated in the ensuing examples, but it will be useful here to summarise the main points of endgames: •

Material matters in endgames. This may sound trite, but it is an important point. Whereas in the middlegame, sacrificing material to open lines and activate pieces is a standard device, it is much less common in the endgame. While we shall see that tactics and combinations have their role in the endgame, it is usually only in rook (and some queen) endings that piece activity is more im­ portant than an extra pawn or two. So, within reason, it pays to be a miser in the endgame.

•

In similar fashion, pawn-weaknesses tend to grow in importance in endings. In the middlegame, it is frequently a good idea to accept an isolated or doubled pawn, in order to activate one's pieces and/or open lines.

In the endgame, the simplified positions and (normally) absence of

queens tend to make such dynamic play much more difficult to achieve, and consequently static weaknesses tend to be more important. •

We shall see much in this book on the subject of the 'principle of two weaknesses'. One weak­ ness is frequently not enough, and the key to winning many positions is to create a second weak­ ness in the defender's position, so as to stretch the defence to breaking point.

•

The other cardinal endgame principle which I shall emphasize time and agairi is 'do not hurry'. The endgame usually has a somewhat slower and less dynamic tempo than most middlegames, and this means that careful and slow manoeuvring is often the order of the day. Numerous good positions are spoilt by the player rushing things, when a small piece of preliminary care would have eliminated all of the opponent's counterplay.

•

Finally, it is important to have the right attitude to the endgame. There is a rather dreadful song, from the Hollywood musical

Camelot, called How to Handle a Woman, the crux of the advice

being "love her, simply love her".l don't know about women, but this is certainly the right way to approach the endgame. As I said above, the endgame is the best part of chess, containing a

]NTRODUCFION

7

wealth of depth and beauty, and the more one studies it� the more apparent this becomes. Re­ gardless of any specific knowledge it may convey, if this book helps the reader to appreciate and develop a love for endgames, it will have done its job.

Steve Giddins Rochester, November 2006

Symbols +

check

Echt

European team championship

#

double check

Ct

IZ

Candidates event

checkmate brilliant move

Z

wna1 European Clubs Cup

++

!! ! !? ?! ? ??

interzona1

good move

ECC

interesting move

OL

olympiad

dubious move bad move

tt

junior event

blunder

1-0

the game ends in a win for White

jr

team event

Ch

championship

lf2_lh

Cht

team championship

0- 1

the game ends in a win for Black

Wch

world championship

(n) (D)

nth match game

Wcht

world team championship

Ech

European championship

the game ends in a draw

see next diagram

Bibliography Many of the positions used in this book were taken from my own endgame files, collected over the past 20 or more years. Other specific references used include: Fine: Basic Chess Endings Panchenko: Teoria i praktika shakhmatnykh okonchanii

Beliavsky & Mikha1chishin: Winning Endgame Technique

Smyslov & Levenfish: Rook Endings

Averbakh et a1.: Comprehensive Chess Endings

Shakhmatny Biulleten, 1955-91 Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1946-91 I a1so drew on many individual players' game collections, notably those of Botvinnik, Smyslov and

others.

Acknowledgements Thanks are due to John Saunders, Editor of British Chess Magazine, for permission to reproduce some material, in modified form, which originally appeared in that journal. Gerard Welling's splendid chess library supplied at least one reference which would otherwise have eluded me, as also did Yochanan Afek, while the Gambit production team did their usua1 first-rate job. This book is dedicated to the memory of the late A.J. ('John') Smith, for his friendship, his incalcu­ lable contribution to my chess development, and above all, for passing on his own deep love of the endgame. Sorry I wasn't there at the end, John.

101 CHESS ENDGAME TIPS

8

----1 --] p

--··

Defying Euclid

------

We ate all taught at an early age that the short­ est distance between two points is a straight line. However, there are some important differ­ ences between chessboard geometry and its Eu­ clidean equivalent.

This same idea crops up in many practical endings, such as the following:

w

Em. Lasker - Tarrasch St Petersburg 1914

R. Reti Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten, 1921 White draws this hopeless-looking position, because the king march 'iPg7-f6-e5-f4-g3-h2 does not take any more moves than the straight route 'oth7-h6-h5-h4-h3-h2. By using the for­ mer route, however, the white king is able to threaten to queen his own pawn, and thereby gain vital tempi. 1 'iPg7 h4 2 f6 'iirb6 (D) 2... h3 3 'iPe6 �b6 4 'iPd6 draws.

Tarrasch had exchanged into this position thinking that he was winning, since his king can stop the h-pawn, while he stands to promote a pawn on the queenside. Indeed, after 40 h4 'iPg4 41 'iPf6 c4 42 bxc4 bxc4 43 'iPe5 c3 44 bxc3 a4 (D) the c3-pawn blocks the white king, and there is no way to stop Black's a-pawn pro­ moting.

w

w

However, after 40 h4 'iPg4 Lasker played 41 'iPg6! threatening 42 h5. After the forced 41 �4 the white king had gained a tempo to .••

3 'iPeS c3 2 �d6? �d4 3 �c6 �eS 4 �b7 �d6 5 �xa7 �c7, etc. However, by employing the shoulder-charg­ ing technique, White could have won by 2 'it>dS! (D).

If White tries to bring his king to the queen­ side directly, he is defeated by a shoulder­ charge by the black king; e.g., I �g4? �c2 2 �f4 (or 2 f3 �d3!) 2...�d3 3 �e5 �c4 4 �d6 �b5 5 �c7 'iii>a6 winning. White must be ready to meet ...'it>xb6 by �b4, without having his way blocked by the enemy king. There is only one narrow path to the draw, which in­ volves reaching b4 via e l.

1 �g3!! �c2 2 �2! �d2 3 �! �d1 4 �2 �d2 S � (D)

B

This prevents the black king from getting to d4, and wins a vital tempo. 2 'it>b4 3 'it>c6 �c4 4