Begin Here
Are you a beginner? This post is for you. The game I'm sharing here is one I won recently here at chess.com "Live". The time control was 20 minutes with 10 seconds added per move.
Intermediate and advanced players will have already learned to appreciate the value of a well-played endgame. This game and a few comments to go with it can help beginners to develop endgame appreciation as well.
I hasten to add that the endgame of this particular game was not particularly well-played. What I think is worth noticing is that one side played the endgame less badly than the other side. Fortunately, whereas I made several mistakes in the endgame, my opponent committed several blunders.
In The Middlegame in Chess, GM Reuben Fine recommends steering toward the endgame when any one of the following conditions hold:
- you have a material advantage
- your pawn structure is better than your opponent's
- you want to stop your opponent's attack
- the enemy queen is the most mobile piece
In this game, my opponent played the opening so aggressively that our forces were thinning after a dozen moves. I decided to try to go into the endgame under my direction rather than his, hoping that by doing so I could find some advantage. In this case, the endgame began (with the exchange of queens) after move 13.
Until move 49, neither side committed any blunders (computer analysis). This first blunder of the game was the only blunder I committed here. Subsequently, I committed 6 mistakes while my opponent committed 6 blunders. These errors, along with the computer-recommended moves, are identified in the accompanying annotations.
