Heavyweight Heavy Piece Endgames

"Heavy piece endgames" are endgames when Queens and/or Rooks and pawns left on the board. Here are 2 "heavyweight" games (pun intended) starring future World Champion Vassily Smyslov, one of the greatest players of all time AND one of the greatest endgame players of all time squaring off vs fellow heavyweight GM Andor Lilienthal (in the second game and pictured here) who is probably best remembered for his famous defeat of Capablanca at Hastings, 1934/5. BUT less well known facts about Lilienthal are that he defeated 7 world champions in his career; he was one of the original 27 GMs designated by FIDE in 1950 and he personally played or met every World Champion from Dr Lasker on up to the current champion V. Anand! Up until his death at age 99 in 2010 he also held the distinction of being the world's oldest living GM - the honor is now held by GM Averbakh, coincidentally another endgame expert! 

For more info on GM Lilienthal click on these links:

http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4006318

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article2520590.ece

For further reading on heavy piece endings click on this link to an article by our very own WGM Natalia Pogonina: http://www.chess.com/article/view/heavy-piece-endgames

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 opening and middle game must be studied in relation to the end game. CAPABLANCA

A player can sometimes afford the luxury of an inaccurate move, or even a definite error, in the opening or middlegame without necessarily obtaining a lost position. In the endgame … an error can be decisive, and we are rarely presented with a second chance.  PAUL KERES

After a bad opening, there is hope for the middle game. After a bad middle game, there is hope for the endgame. But once you are in the endgame, the moment of truth has arrived.    EDMAR MEDNIS