Stalemate in Endgames

The weakest link of my game is the Endgame. I simply play it badly, for whatever reason. My knowledge of theoretical positions is quite limited, and perhaps I simply do not have the patience needed to grind down endgames.

Because of this, I purchased several books on endgames and perused them carefully. In addition, I studied games of Capablanca, Smyslov, Karpov, and Kramnik, all of whom are renowned in the art of the endgame.

Endgames are a bit too boring for my liking. For that reason, I also bought the 608 page book "Van Perlo's Endgame Tactics" by Van Perlo, and have been dragging it along wherever I go ever since. As the title says, it gives over 1300 examples of tactics in endgames, and endgames suddenly became less boring for me and my endgame immediately imrpoved!

One of the recurring themes in the book were Stalemate ideas. It is simply amazing how seemingly lost positions can be saved by a stalemate idea.

To introduce you to this theme, let me show you a few examples:

I so much liked this theme that I began composing some puzzles on the stalemate theme. Here is a small selection: