Recently I have had too many draws in the Slav – a result of my opponent’s preparation and my unprincipled way of playing it. If you are ready to play the Botvinnik system or the Meran then you are in a good shape, however for me that is a scary p...
Last week we looked at a book dedicated to chess endgames virtuoso Ulf Andersson. Today we will look at a book dedicated to an endgame master known to all – Karpov. The book “Endgame Virtuoso Anatoly Karpov” by Tibor Karolyi and ...
I am holding a book called “Grandmaster Chess Strategy” by Jurgen Kaufeld and Guido Kern published by New In Chess in 2011. The book is a collection of Ulf Andersson’s games with excellent annotations by the authors. If you have ...
To play endgames well one has to know how to use general strategies of endgame play such as positioning the king actively, creating passed pawns, placing rooks behind passed pawns etc. However, this is not enough as there are theoretical positions...
Two weeks ago we looked at my game against Shahade and learned the importance of categorizing endgame mistakes. The article featured the importance of king activity – something I neglected during the game; and going through Lasker’s ga...
Endgames are not only about technique, maneuvering and strategy. Tactics play as big of a role in endgames as they do in the other stages of the game. In order to develop an acute dynamic sense in the endgames you have to train in solving endgame-...
Any serious chess player after finishing a tournament analyzes his games. (Yes, I am saying: no matter how good you are, if you don't analyze your games, you are not serious!) Through game analysis you can come to important conclusions regarding w...
Last week I played in the Manhattan Open and as the tournament progressed I knew exactly what this week’s column would be about. The tournament endgames were of a very bizarre nature. Maybe the tournament location in a chandelier hall of the histo...
The two endgames presented today are from my own practice. They happened in the recent Cleveland Open in the last two rounds. My friend made a joke saying that I steer the games into endgames in order to have material for my endgame column. He has...
I am happy to receive positive feedback from you on the first part of this two articles series on R+B vs. R endgames. It is good to know that many of you are interested in endgame theory as well as practical examples of play. The last week article...
Rook and bishop vs. rook endgames might not happen too frequently in a chessplayer’s practice. However, once you get such an endgame in a tournament game then you better know what you are doing or otherwise you will appear a fool. I got an inspira...
The adjective that I heard people use describing the endgame we will study today is: weird. I would agree with this description as evaluating the rook endgame that you will see shortly is a challenge even for grandmasters. This is a kind of endgam...
Initially, I was planning to show at least 3 endgames in this article from my recent play. As I started analyzing the first endgame position, it happened to have a lot of hidden resources and I decided to split the article into a few, so we can go...
Sometimes I wonder how does a slightly worse endgame position become much worse and then lost. The defending side may not make any blunders relying on a passive defense, but still it is not enough to pull the game from the void. What is the defini...
In the US, *the* annual chess celebration is not the exclusive and elite US Championship, but the World Open – the biggest US open tournament hosted in Philadelphia. Many sacrifice their time with family during the long weekend to get a shot...
I have been recently fascinated with the short stories of American writer David Foster Wallace. Particularly, his profound discussions about sport and specifically about tennis (he was once a competitive junior tennis player) intrigued me, because...
Using sports language in chess a player who makes more unforced errors loses. By unforced errors I mean the errors that a player makes due to lack of class or experience that most grandmasters will spot right away as weak moves. When a grandmaster...
This is a very cool game; it features a brilliant shot by Shirov in the endgame. He is up two pawns, but due to the opposite colored bishops, it seems like the road to the win will be long and difficult. However, Shirov uncorks a fantastic bishop ...
Today, we continue exploring the endgame from the last week article. Here, we will look at my second game in this endgame and the actual Aronian- Grischuk game. I learned a lot from playing out this position, learned not only a lot about this part...
Today’s endgame is from the category of practical endgames. What makes it practical? No precise positions, no theory involved… As a counter-example, this endgame without the knights, but with the rooks would be a theoretical position. Rook endgame...
The endgame Kamsky-Shulman is back this week. I had more success in the second game than in last week’s game. It is due to personal experience and particularly due to my shameful loss last week that I decided that I would not lose a single further...
I followed live the game Kamsky-Shulman from the US Championship and it seemed like black made logical moves but nevertheless lost. While following games live it is good to give evaluations to them as they progress. My evaluation for the first par...
The queen against three pieces is the theme for last week’s and this week’s articles. These endgames are extremely complex as the evaluation of the position can change rapidly. You have heard the expression of "playing for two results." This is ty...
In the last game of the US Women’s championship I could have transposed into an endgame were I had a queen and my opponent had a rook and two pieces. The material advantage would have been on her side but my queen was very active and I also would ...
