Miguel's Zugzwang - An Interesting Endgame
The FIDE World Cup 2021 began with plenty of fascinating games. I had the fortune to tune in at my favorite moment from the livestream. Ivan Saric with White and Sergio Miguel with Black entered into this endgame:
A cursory glance at this position should result in one thought: it has to be a draw. And of course, this is indeed a dead drawn position. However, this knowledge does not stop the endgame from being interesting! Like all endgames (even with so few pieces), every plan and tricky move has to be thoroughly investigated. This position is no different; there is a lot to unpack here... and Black has chances to make a mistake!
The Draw
Let's first look at how Black (and White) may hold this position:
An Important Mistake
The deepest line to calculate revolves a situation where Black launches his f-pawn at the wrong time:
The Zugzwang
There is a more immediate trap looming in this position for Black. Falling for this fatal error results in a – dare I say – fascinating position?
An Important Lesson
In the game, Miguel played Ke2 which resulted in the same zugzwang motif. The Angolan player was instantly handed a loss by Saric. Along with the technical analysis discussed above, there was a more foundational lesson to be learned here as well.
Upon seeing Miguel's blunder, commentator Daniel Naroditsky stated, "He played Ke2, and he played instantly with 23 minutes [left on the clock]. This is a great lesson: you have to take your time in the endgame."
Additional Links
- Official Chess.com Event PGN
- Game Report with Blog Annotations
- Timestamps - Official Livestream Commentary with Naroditsky and Topalov:
