Endgame FENs: Spare Tempo, Blockade, Breaking Up, & Breakthrough
These positions are meant to be played against a computer with a tablebase. I'm using Scid vs Mac with tablebases from ChessLib, which can be found here: ChessliB - Nalimovs endgame tablebases.
It would probably be smart to play these positions repeatedly with your engine's strength set to random, that way you don't become accustomed to always seeing the tablebase move. For this reason, I will not be putting these games in puzzle format. They're in diagram form so that the FEN can be copied and then played against a computer. When you play the FEN, switching the "b" or "w" after the position will allow you to play with opposite colors. Some of these are zugzwang, if black to play, wins, or if black to play, loses, and vice versa.
As with all of my blog posts, this is a work in progress. As I review and study material I'll post it here to be used by the chess community.
VISUALIZATION TRAINING: I discovered as I typed these FENs that this is a great way to increase your spatial memory and practice visualization. Instead of referencing the image, I'm memorizing it and then producing what I remember into an FEN. Tricky, but very rewarding.
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