|
|
| |||||||
| From | Message | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 Endgames |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Lu, - Topalov, Baku, World Cup 2015 92. Rg8+ Kh4 93. Kf5 Kh3 94. Rg4 Kh2 95. Ke4 Kh1 96. Kf3 Kh2 97. Rg2+ Kh1 This is a book draw. Remember the King heads for the corner not controlled by the Bishop. 98. Kf2 Bb6+ 99. Kf1 Bc7 100. Rg7 Bd6 101. Rh7+ Bh2 White cannot make any headway so played.... 102. Kf2 Stalemate. It was a long game, but I post this because there are still so many who don't understand simple endings. Ask yourself, if you were Topalov, would you have known how to prove the draw? I often test my opponents endgame knowledge to see if they really know what they are supposed to...and you'd be shocked by the results I find. But yes, this ending is a draw, when played correctly! If you move to the wrong corner, this is no longer the case. The best way to drill this into your head is to practice it. Use the endgame tables available online if you are unsure (make sure you make an honest attempt first), play a computer from this ending on both sides. Do you see the computer blunder? How about yourself? Better to learn these endings the easy way, through practice, instead of the hard way, like say, in a major tournament where the stakes are high! |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Another Endgame from the World Cup A. Motylev - A. Giri, World Cup 2015 36. b4?! White puts the pawn on b4 hoping Black will triple attack it with Rb8. 36... Rb8 Black falls into the trap... 37. Rd3 White leaves the b-pawn to it's fate. The trap is.... 37... Bxb4 Black takes the pawn. 38. Bxb4 Qxb4 39. Rd8+ And White wins the Queen after 39... Rxd8 40. Qxb4 ...alas that did not happened. There is a major flaw in what Motylev did. Can you spot it? ***Solution Spoiler*** Giri did not fall for the trap; instead he played 37...Re8! That skewers the e1 Bishop. White resigned. White was so wrapped up with his own idea that he forgot to look at what Black might play. An important lesson that one. Even good players blunder. Of course this is not the only case in history of a good player blundering as mentioned in one of my annotations. Stay sharp players! |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
"When you don't know what to play, wait for an idea to come into your opponent's mind. You may be sure that idea will be wrong." Siegbert Tarrasch (1862 - 1934). |
||||||
|
With that being said, he put up a very good fight. There is one moral which exists from another game I studied which also applies to endgames. And, yes, as noted in KOH thread which I posted in the original end game thread by from ION which he agrees with, "It's not how much you know, but rather, it's about applying what you know and applying it towards your games" (which also became the title of a recent annotation.) In fact, as I was wondering for a while, what it boiled down to on how I've surpassed 1300. But, the main reason I improved to this strength is because I remember exactly what shamash said. Without having had played a game against him or seeing an annotation from shamash, that, alone, shows that he is a very good teacher and you can learn from him. |
||||||
|
The Queen Skewer We begin at this position. 43. Kd2 Nf5 44. Kd3 Ne7 45. Kd2 Nd5 Well worked out. Should White play Nxd6 then the a-pawn cannot be stopped. 46. f5 Nxc3 Now White realized that if 47.f6 than 47...Ne4+ picks up the f-pawn. So 0-1. After this I saw something else, and asked, if you allowed white to queen, can't black still win? Looking at this, Black can allow White to promote and then skewer the new Queen...Watch…Look...Learn. (and they played out my melody too!) 47. f6 a2 48. f7 a1=Q 49. f8=Q As you know, I tend to like to look for alternative wrap-ups. Here, Black has that most important of things when dual promotions take place: The Move. Note: if it were White to play here, Qb8+ draws. But now, let's see how Black forced White into a skewer: 49... Qd1+ 50. Ke3 Qe2+ If Kf4 then Qf2 is skewer number 1. 51. Kd4 Qe4+ 52. Kc5 Only move. 52... Qb4+ And skewer number 2 picks up the Queen. 0-1 |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
BvN I won't post this in the hall of shame, because I wanted to show a point: in the endgame, there is no room for mistakes. And here, 1 move was literally all it took for me to strike: 1. Kg3 Kf8 2. Kg4 Kg7 3. Kh5 Ne4 4. f3?? This is bad because now Ng3+ wins the Bishop... 4...Nf6# But, checkmate is better. The funny thing is, I have a giant database which I can search for statistics like who wins the BvN endgame. This db has games from pretty much all the 20th century, mainly expert level and higher. Well, I took a peek and out of over 100,000 games, here is what it shows: ===Pure 2 Bishops v 2 Knights games=== White has the two Bishops - 49 games Wins 29 (59%) Draw 13 (27%) Lost 7 (14%) Black had the two Bishops. 36 games. Won 11 (30%) Drew 16 (45%) Lost 9 (25%) So Two Bishops in the hands of the good guys carries some clout. But… ===Pure ending 1 Bishop v 1 Knight no other pieces=== White had the Bishop. 842 games. Won 376 (44%) Drew 284 (35%) Lost 182 (21%) Black had the Bishop 746 games Won 184 (24%) Drew 243 (34%) Lost 319 (42%) Incredible how the wins differ with the color with the single piece ending. The lone White Bishop wins (44%) of the games and yet the lone Black Bishop only wins (24%) and has lost on this DB (1966 - 2005) (42%). Kind of begs the question: what are the good guys doing with their White Knights? A good thing to think about |
||||||
|
teardrop34 07-Nov-15, 05:00 |
Deleted by teardrop34 on 23-Nov-15, 08:28.
|
||||||
|
teardrop34 07-Nov-15, 09:39 |
Deleted by teardrop34 on 23-Nov-15, 08:28.
|
||||||
|
A Bernard Horwitz Endgame Study White to play and win. I won't give you a move limit, or any hints past this. All I will say is the beauty of this solution will be needed later |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
deeper_insight 23-Nov-15, 09:39 |
As to a few games above with the Topalov world cup.Its interesting to note that the Nalimov table bases illustrate a draw in only 3 moves,per se: 1.Rh7,Bd8 2.Rh8,Bc7 3.Rh7 (*) Just FYI. |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
A Bernard Horwitz Endgame Study -- The Solution Part 1 Kxb5 -- draw Kb4 -- draw Kc6!! -- win Very nicely spotted ragnarhairybreek, but this is only a one move analysis. There is more to it than that but is a great start for someone your level Now for the explanation: 1. Kc6 Ka8 In the next part, we will look at the charming conclusion if Black plays 1...Ka6. 2. Kb6 Of course, taking the b-pawn is a draw. Now the goal is simple here, force the pawn advance and eventual exchange, then play out the easy win. Watch and learn 2... b4 3. axb4 a3 4. b5 a2 5. Be5 It's a simple win. 5... a1=Q 6. Bxa1 Hope you all enjoyed it. Maybe not as much as that holiday feast, but still. Jeremy |
||||||
|
A Bernard Horwitz Endgame Study -- The Solution Part 2 2. Be3 Ka5 3. Bc5 Ka6 4. Bb6 Again, Black is reduced to turning the blocked a-pawn into a passed b-pawn. 4... b4 5. axb4 a3 6. b5 Well, that's what happens when you get cute. You get mated instead. Keep alert ladies and gents Jeremy |
||||||
|
deeper_insight 29-Nov-15, 20:24 |
1....b4 2.axb4,Kb6 3.Bc1,Kb5 4.Ba3,Kb6 ect ect or 1.Kd6,Kb6 2.Be3+,Kb7 3.Bd4,Kc8 4.Bb6,Kb7 5.Kc5,b4 ect ect Again,the best move is 1.Kc6(as Jeremy stated) for a mate in about 10 moves,but not the only move for mate.The idea here may not have a mate goal,just next best move,but I thought i'd bring up some mate comparisons anyway.I'm only saying this because if a player would somehow "miss"the best move of Kc6,its still no biggie,as long as they understand that there are just as equally safe ways to mate...but the road to that mate is a longer country road to reach the desired destination! Its easy to check all of these other move tests here,by plugging in different moves with whites K or B.Even moving whites K away from the "hot zone" can still yield a win for white as I showed above or by checking in the Nalimov: chessok.com |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
L. Aronian - M. Vachier-Lagrave, European Team Championship 2015. This was the final position where Levon resigned. From the previous study I posted, can you visualize what Levon saw in this position that made his resign? |
||||||
|
deeper_insight 30-Nov-15, 11:51 |
According to the Nalimov tablebases,Kb4 is a draw,not a win...that is,if we are on the same diagram a few boards above(and my copied diagram below with whites King already moved to b4) and the black King on a7.Check for yourself right here: chessok.com Black to now move above after whites King move to b4 Just set up all the above diagram pieces on the Nalimov board with whites King on square b4,as if it just moved to square b4(as above).Then make SURE its blacks turn to move NEXT by clicking on "switch turn" and observing that it is definitely blacks turn to move in the top of the board,which it will show.Then press "evaluate".It shows a draw,not a win.However,I suppose with terrible play from black(like black moving his King far away) it could win for white,but then,if we go by that scenario,many games listed as a "draw" can be won if your opponent plays like an old electronic calculator with pancake syrup all over the keys,while it is shorting out! |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
RE: L. Aronian - M. Vachier-Lagrave, European Team Championship 2015. Recall the tricks from the Horwitz endgame study involved turning black's blocked pawns into passed ones. Such a study does not work in this game though as after a4, Black is not forced into taking with Bxa4?? (which would be a draw in case you aren't following me ), but the more devastating Kg3!! since after this, it is a straightforward won King and Pawn ending for Black. |
||||||
| |||||||
