Endgame is more important than opening theory. Even grandmasters cannot always play perfect endgames. If you are good at endgames, you have serious advantage over a lot of players. I think the endgame is the hardest part of the game.
Openings? Endgame!
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May 14, 2013
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#3
I suck at end-games. But then... I suck at openings, too.
Here's my best end-game so far:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-showcase/a-study-like-endgame
Magnus Carlsen is a good example. He is very strong at endgame but he is not so good at the opening. But carlsen wins lots of endgames!
There are also a lot of traps and mistakes in the endgame! Gms make big mistakes in the endgame! Lucena is not more complicated stuff! Lucena is theory.
Dvoretsky, in his Endgame Manual of just over 300 pages, gives over 50 of them to pure pawn endgames, and about 1 page to the Lucena Position.
The thing about pawn endgames is that they involve calculating long lines with many variations, some of them barely different, accurately - a skill that is only accrued through a lot of practice.
MelvinDoucet wrote:
Even complete rookies can do well in endgames, once you know how to occupy the space with your king so you can promote your pawn it's easy as pie. There's more complicated stuff like the Lucena position for example, but that's about it.
It's not enough to know basic principles such as develop your knights before your bishops, control the center, don't move the same piece twice blah blah blah...
Endgames are mainly about your general playing skills, your positional understanding. Theoretical positions are only a part of the endgame, but mainly endgames are not about memorization.
There is theory for how to play R+p vs R, or how to play Q + p vs Q, for example. But most of the theoretical positions never (rarely) happen. Practically you will often get positions with R+K+N vs R+K+N with a few pawns, and such things. And if you cannot play the endgame, you lose. The memorization is just about 10-15% in the endgame, but usually your endgame skills matter the most.
Why not enough? Develop your pieces, control the center, etc. You do it in every opening... Do not play the najdorf poisoned pawns and such and you wont get trapped. Play openings with less forcing moves, and that is all.
May 14, 2013
0
#8
Pawn endgames are incredibly complex.
Here's one of the more complex pure pawn endgames I can recall:
And here's one that is just plain difficult to work out completely:
Endings is extremely complicated. All players can play openings without a lot of thery. Devolop your pieces, control the center. In the exchange variation in Ruy Lopez (1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. d4 exd4 6. Qxd4 Qxd4 7. Nxd4) the endgame is the most important. The pawnstructure is good for white because in a K+P endgame white win!
White want a passed pawn on the kingside. black cant got a passed pawn on the queenside
Why are there so many people who study oppening theory and is very bad at the endgame?
I think endgame is more important than oppening theory. I have won lots of losts endgames on chess.com!
People can´t their endgame theory fx K vs K + P!
There is an opening of the day but not an endgame of the day.