Spectacular Endings - the foot soldiersSunday, October 22. 2006
Author: Servant
Chess is like a triathlon, their are three parts to it, the opening, middlegame and the ending, three stages that are different. You can start out well in a triathlon, the swim and bike ride but it is the final run that decides who wins. A person in the lead after the bike ride can easily lose if they are too tired to run fast, the same applies in chess as a person who has the advantage after the middlegame can still lose in the ending, this thought should boost ones confidence in their abilities when playing a tougher opponent. Knowing endgames can help you as you can then think ahead in the late middlegame and have a better idea if you are winning, drawing or unfortunately losing. This knowledge then dictacts how you play, if you swap of pieces or just keep a central knight, long range bishop or a file sweeping rook. If you want to be a strong player then you have to play the best move until move 70 or 80 and try not to make a mistake after that. This is the approach of the modern day Grandmaster who is a really competitve player. I have been following the ongoing Chess World Chamionship in Elista, Russia and have noticed the strong moves by both Topalov and Kramnik in their games. They both have played brilliantly in the endgame and have been able to win and draw when there have been little pieces left. I can see that they are very committed to their endgames, they know that the game is usually decided at the end. To add to that they seem to be very patient too at the table. Much of the endgame requires thinking ahead, perhaps up to 7 moves ahead if one can do that, one such situation is when there are passed pawns and you have to see ahead to see if you can deliver check when you promote to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. You have to see if the opponent can do the same thing to you as well. These days, chess endings are exciting and tend to get alot of focus in tournaments rather than the opening where people who finish their games early come and watch the top board players take each other on right until the last move. I read about endings in the Australian newspapers and there are lots of tricks worth knowing. I have eight positions here where the pawns are invovled. To be honest these foot soldiers can really make a difference in the ending.  (Diagram 1) Black to move wins Black has an extra pawn but his king is 2 squares from the centre d5, d4, e5, e4, wheras White's king may be able to stop Black's extra pawn. Black is a pawn up so he must decide where to move 1...Kb6! well thought, not (1...Kc6? 2.Kc4 Kb6 3.b4 which holds of Black's king) 2.Kc3 (2.Kc4 Kc6 3.Kc3 Kd5 Black wins) 2...Kb5 3.Kd3 Kb4 4.Kc2 c4 which allows Black's king to eat White's pawns and this wins the game 0-1 Black just had to think ahead a few moves to see how he could push White's king back and position his own.  (Diagram 2) White to move wins White's king is in the centre and will have to somehow stop Black's outside passed pawn 1.Kc6! brilliant ...Ke8 (1...h5? 2.Kd5 allows White's king to march over and win Black's h-pawn) 2.Kd6 Kf8 3.Kd7! White thinks 6 moves ahead to see something on the horizon 3...h5 4.Ke6 h4 (4...Kg7 5.Kd5 and the White king catches the h-pawn) 5.Kxf6 h3 6.g7+ Kg8 7.Kg6 h2 8.f6 h1Q 9.f7 mate 1-0 the king and the pawns worked well as a team.  (Diagram 3) Black to move wins Black can win a pawn and has a passed a-pawn on the wing; White's king is yet to reach the centre 1...Kf5!! an incredible move (1...a5?? 2.cd+ Kxd5 3.h4 Kxd4 4.h5 Ke5 5.h6 Kf6 6.h7 White wins or the capture 1...dc?? 2.h4 a5 3.h5 a4 4.h6 gh 5.d5+ Kf6 6.d6 a3 7.d7 Ke7 8.g7 allows White to win) 2.cd Kxg6 3.d6 Kf6 wins for Black since his king can stop White's doubled d-pawns or capture them and his passed a7 and b7 pawns will promote to a queen 0-1 it's definitely worthwhile to know your endgames; Black could have easily lost here.  (Diagram 4) White to move wins Black has an extra pawn while White's king has been relegated to his own back row; Black has a passed pawn on his wing 1.f6!! a prescient move (1.a4?? bae.p 2.ba Kg3! 3.a4 h5 4.a5 h4 5.a6 h3 6.a7 h2 mate or 1.Kxg2?? Kg5 2.a4 bae.p 3.ba Kf6 4.a4 Ke7 5.a5 Kd8 6.a6 Kc8 the Black king is in time to catch White's pawn) 1...gf 2.Kxg2 Kg5 3.a4 bae.p 4.ba Kf5 5.a4 Ke5 6.d6! cd 7.c6 dc 8.a5 and White's pawn promotes to queen 1-0 it goes to show that there is more in the endgame than people expect.  (Diagram 5) Black to move wins Black's king can go to several squares and he should be able to win from here; White's king can only try to settle Black for a draw 1...Ke4! the best move out of all the options 2.Kg2 Ke3 3.Kf1 Kd3 4.Kf2 Kxc3 5.Kf3 Kb4 6.Kxf4 Kxa4 7.Ke3 Kb3 8.Kd2 Kb2 Black decisively wins 0-1 Blocking the opponents king or forcing the king to move backwards is a common theme in endgames.  (Diagram 6) White to move wins In this unlikely yet possible position, both sides have passed pawns and both kings are working at their jobs, it's a matter to find the best move 1.Ke6! this move has the logic of preventing the passed pawn from going anywhere (1.Kc6 Kc4 2.b3+ Kxb3 3.h4 e5 4.Kd5 c6+ 5.Kc5 e4 6.Kd4 c5+ draws) 1...c5 2.Kd5 c4 3.h4 e6+ 4.Kc5 White thinks about every move as (4.Kd4?? e5+ loses the game) 4...e5 5.h5 e4 6.Kd4 e3 7.Kxe3 Kxb2 8.h6 c3 9.h7 c2 10.h8Q+ Kb1 11.Qb8+ Ka1 12.Kd2 wins 1-0 White followed the principle of making the best move possible for each move and that policy wins many games.  (Diagram 7) Black to move wins So how does one cope with different pieces and passed pawns? the answer is within the pawn moves, here the king's still play a role as in previous examples 1...Kh5! an exact move 2.Kd2 Kg4 3.Ne2 b4 4.a7 b3 5.Kc1 h5 6.Kb2 h4 7.Kxb3 Kh3 8.Kb2 Kxh2 9.Nd4 h3 the net result is that Black's h-pawn is too powerful 10.Nxf5 Kg2 11.Ne3+ Kf3 12.Nf1 Ke2 13.f5 h2 Black played well and should be congratulated 0-1 the knight vs bishop scenario unbalanced the position but Black was brave to go for more than a draw.  (Diagram 8 ) White to move wins Black has his king in the centre and four pawns advanced to the equator of the chessboard whereas White's pawns aren't as far advanced and look sleepy but in all determination plus perseverance White can win in this position 1.e4+ (both 1.b3 ab 2.ab c5 3.b5 c4+ 4.Kc3 Kc5 5.b6 Kxb6 6.Kxc4 Kc6 7.e3 Kd6 and 1.e3 e4+ 2.fe fe+ 3.Kc3 c5 lead nowhere for White) 1...fe 2.fe+ Kc5 3.Kc3 Kb5 4.a4+ Kc5 5.b4+ ab+ 6.Kb3 Kd4 7.a5 Kc5 8.a6 Kb6 9.Kxb4 Kxa6 10.Kc5 now the game is decisive for White 10...Kb7 11.Kd6 Kb6 12.Kxe5 c5 13.Kd5 Kb5 14.e5 c4 15.e6 the passed pawn goes through 1-0 there are secret moves that player's can miss in their games, one also needs imagination in chess to discover what is within the board. Overtime you can have the experience to know the tricks and this is your advantage over newcomers. Certainly there is more to learn and i'm excited about the next endgame. 
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I guess if you truly know what you need to get the job done, very few pieces would be needed.
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