We continue our series on bishop endgames and today's topic is king activity in bishop endings. Getting the king into the center should be an aim in most endgame positions. Usually, in bishop endgames the defending side can block the opposing king...
The topic of today's article is the "bad bishop" in the endgame. A bad bishop is usually a piece that is restricted by its own pawns, though it is also sometimes simply a piece that does not have much work to do. In contrast the opponent's bishop ...
Last week we started the bishop endgame series and will continue with this topic with the next few articles. Today's theme is bishop exchange in same-color bishop endings. After the bishops are traded a pawn endgame arises. The purpose of the trad...
Now that we are experts in the bishop vs. knight endgames it is time to move on to the endgames that feature the knight's rivals - the bishops. We shall have several articles exploring different ideas in bishop endgames such as exchange, sacrifice...
Dr. John Watson: In real life. People don't have archenemies. Sherlock Holmes: That sounds a bit dull. So what do people have in their REAL lives? "Sherlock" (TV Series 2010-) The last three weeks we concentrated on endgames that feature the a...
Today we will look at bishop vs. knight endgame where one or both sides have connected passed pawns. Two examples feature an extra two pawns in these endgames and as we will see, having two extra pawns does not necessarily guarantee a win. The thi...
The topic of today's article is piece sacrifice in bishop vs. knight endgames. The most typical scenario is to sacrifice a piece in order to get a passed pawn. This is common because in endgames the price of a passed pawn can be much higher than t...
No two pieces have faced off more often, or with greater acrimony, than the bishop and knight. With today's article we are starting a series on bishop versus knight endgames. Here are a few examples that show different scenarios that can happen in...
It was the first round of the North American Open in Las Vegas and I was paired against the top 50 player Vallejo Pons, rated over 2700. Usually I don't get to play foreign chess players because they don't often come to play in American Opens. Val...
For the past few weeks we were busy exploring opposite-colored bishop endgames with other material present on the board. Today I will deviate from the topic by showing you my recent endgame experience from a tournament in Las Vegas. I cannot call ...
Today we will look at rook and bishop endgames where the bishops are of opposite color and where one side has a passed pawn. We will explore attacking and defensive strategies by examining three examples. The complexity of the examples increases f...
A rook and a bishop is a powerful combination. If their joined force hits a weak point the defending side might find it hard to defend, especially if the weak point is located around the king. A very typical pawn structure arising from many openin...
Today we will look at an opening-endgame transition resulting from the Queen's Gambit Accepted (QGA). We will see the analysis of three games, the first one being from my game a few years ago. In this opening it is usually white who chooses to go ...
Suppose you play a lower-rated opponent and the game steers into an endgame right away. This can be due to you trying to outplay your less-experienced opponent and prove that your endgames skills are worthy or due to your lower- rated opponent try...
Today we will look at a game where the transition from opening to endgame did not go well for one side. White ended up with a busted bishop on b3 with no prospect of activating it due to doubled c-pawns. As a few probably guessed by now, the game ...
With the next couple of articles we will look at transitions from openings into endgames and explore the significance of endgames in opening preparation. Gata Kamsky once gave me advice on how to study openings. In addition to theory he recommende...
Heavy pieces endgames are endgames when only queens and/or rooks and pawns are left on the board. The key factors are space and open files. Controlling a vital open file can be a decisive advantage. Here are the most typical plans you can employ ...
Today’s article is a continuation of the queen endgames theme. The last article we looked at stalemate ideas in queen endgames and today we will look at pawn sacrifices. In the first example, black sacrifices a pawn in hope of perpetual and an eas...
Today’s article is dedicated to two topics in queen endgames. The first one is how to play queen endgames when one side has extra f- and h-pawns. Last week we had a chance to analyze positions with extra g- and h-pawns and they proved to be ...
Rook endgames are the most common ones in chess. Unfortunately, they are also complicated both in terms of evaluation and in terms of knowing how to play them. Therefore, it is not surprising that Tarrasch used to say that “all rook endgames are d...
I would like to return to queen endgames as they are the ones that puzzle many chess players. Queen endgames are complicated because there are not many theoretical positions to know, and they require tons of calculations because of possible perpet...
With the past two articles we looked at the importance of passed pawns in endgames. We looked at pawn breaks and piece sacrifices to achieve positions with passed pawns. Those positions were mostly winning for the side that had a passed pawn. Toda...
Today we will look at how to create passed pawns in endgame positions with minor pieces. The examples that are shown here concentrate on pawn breaks and piece sacrifices in order to achieve positions with passed pawns. Creating a passed pawn is eq...
Today we will talk about rook endgames where one side is trying to create a passed pawn. The first example will show having a rook behind passed pawn is a very big advantage. The second and the third examples show that while the rook in front of t...
