Welcome to this active site. Each week I am going to present to you an endgame position for you to solve or to workout the best continuation. Computer analysis will also be considered. Some of these positions will come from actual historical games. Others will be composed endgame studies, but all the solutions will be relevant to the practical game. The new position will occur each SUNDAY and I will always be pleased to receive POSITIVE feedback about the positions and the analysis and I will try to acknowledge these where relevant.

Important Notice: I will next be back on Sunday January 16th with the first position of the New Year.

 

Estonian and Soviet Grandmaster. World Championship Candidate. In 1938, Keres came equal first with Reuben Fine at the Dutch AVRO tournament which was looked upon as the unofficial Candidates tournament for the World Championship. Keres had the better Sonnenborn-Berger score so he was declared the winner. It was generally accepted that Keres would have the right to play a title match against Alekhine but the outbreak of the Second World war brought negotiations to an end. Paul Keres was one of the greatest players in chess history, but sadly he was never destined to play a match for the World Championship.

Both sides have connected passed pawns but White has the advantage because his pawns are more advanced. Also his King is better placed to deal with the opposite pawns. Keres was so convinced that he had an easy win that he didn't bother to analyse the adjourned position and played the weak move: 2.b5? instead of the winning 2.Rd4! cutting off the King from the pawns. The following main line appears to be the best continuation.

".......thanks for drawing my attention to these drawing lines. A pity - the ending had really looked very smooth...I think your final judgement on 19th century analysis is a bit harsh, however. How many trivial mistakes can one find even today! And sitting at our computers, we should not forget how Steinitz had to analyse several hundred games for that (tournament) book - without Fritz and friends ! "

The Amos Burn biography is a magnificent achievement. It has some nice Victorian touches; the photographs etc. At nearly a 1000 pages it is a "big book" in every sense. It is not only about Burn but about chess in the late 19th and early 20th century. Please do some "googling" and read the rave reviews.

All these are interrelated and important and you cannot understand (b) or (c) without a knowledge of (a).

(a) Basic Endings. These are theoretical positions in which we know the correct result with optimum play by both sides. They may consist of three pawns or less and also include all the non-pawn and five piece endings which have now been extensively analysed by computer and of which we have tablebases. In the days when we had ajournments some of these endings could be looked up in text books to give us some idea how to play the position. As we no longer can do this, knowledge and memory of these endings has become important in practical play. A Pocket Guide to Chess Endgames (1970) by David Hooper and Basic Endings (1992) by Balashov and Prandstetter are both good introductions to these endings.

(b) Practical Endings. These occur in over-the-board play where usually more pawns are present. The above ending is an example of this type. Some of these endings are in the process of being transformed to basic endings but often they finish before this stage is reached. Endgame strategy is very different from the middlegame and has its own set of rules and exceptions. Fine's book Basic Chess Endings (1941,2003) and Batsford Chess Endings (1993) by Speelman, Tisdall and Wade are about basic and practical endings and both can be recommended.

(c) Endgame Studies. These are positions which has been composed and will contain elements of one or both of the above types of endings. But there are important differences between these types and the study, such as artistic form and economy of construction. An endgame study has to follow strict rules of composition, especially if it is entered into a composing competition. One of these rules states there should only be one solution. If there is an unintended second solution then the study is unsound and said to be "cooked". Endgame studies are important to the practical player because they enhance his imagination and help him learn and enjoy areas of theory without too much effort. Walter Korn's American Chess Art (1995) is a basic introduction to the endgame study and a more comprehensive work is John Roycroft's Test Tube Chess (1972).