Category Archives: Endgames

Something from me

As you know mostly I write on news but from now on I will be writing on various topics other than chess news so I was very much excited while writing this post as this is originally something from me.

While teaching chess to my students I give following general rules for tactics.

  • Always look for undefended piece of opponent and yours
  • Count Every checks and Intermediate checks
  • Try to watch every relative captures on the board

As personally I was believed that if we strictly follow above rules every tactical motifs can be covered like pin, double attack, discovered attack etc etc..

But recently I played a game in parsvnath Chess competition which force me to add something to the captioned rules and that is quiet move.

Technically quiet move is the move that neither captures anything, checks nor directly attacks enemy piece but that move sometimes change all calculations all over the board and turned to be a fatal for you or your opponent.

Below position was arised from my recent game against Ayush Garg rated 100 points elo more than me. I played slav exchange as suggested by my mentor though its drawish reputation, I scored more than 80% in the same. After tough struggle I reached to below mentioned position.

Diagram 1

Though my position is quite promising, I offered him a pawn and played Nd2 so he took my pawn on a2 now came my move that was kc4! See the diagram.

Diagram 2

After his replied Ba3 which has been answered by b4!! And now there is no other good move for him except resign however he played for some moves which are not necessary to show.

No combination, no sacrifices no bold attack but a simple move can change the outcome of the game that is the beauty of the chess!!!

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The Inexhaustible Two Knights Defense

The Two Knights Defense 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 has been around for centuries.  Well at least as far back as Steinitz-Chigorin, and I think before that, although I’m not quite old enough to remember. Like the energizer bunny, in modern times the Two Knights “just keeps on ticking.”

Energizer Bunny

Energizer Bunny

White’s most popular try against the Two Knights, especially among grandmasters, has long been 4.Ng5, the “duffer’s move” as Tarrasch called it. If you’re not a grandmaster, I would recommend as White the “Quiet Italian” 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3, which can also be reached by the move order 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3. As I hope to show in a future article, the Quiet Italian is, in fact, not so quiet.

So, why am I saying that for GM’s the duffer’s move is OK but for ordinary mortals it’s probably not? Simple. The Two Knight’s Defense is a gambit. Black sacrifices a pawn for a quite promising initiative. Promising, that is, unless your opponent has a grandmaster’s defensive technique and a grandmaster’s endgame skill to convert the extra pawn. Steinitz played 4.Ng5. Fisher played 4.Ng5. Kasparov, Morozevich, Radjabov, Sutovsky and many other GMs … they all played 4.Ng5.

But if you’re a duffer playing another duffer, you might say, hey, why not give it a shot? After all, Black might not see the threat to f7. Fair warning: a better duffer might roll out 4…Bc5!? and let you take on f7. Which way do you take? Imagine your surprise after 5.Nxf7 Bxf2+! What now? Or your opponent might play the book move 4…d5. You take 5.exd5, hoping to get a grisly Fried Liver Attack 5…Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3+ – a sure win for White, right? Wrong! Recent computer analysis has found hidden resources for Black.

Not long ago I played in a correspondence thematic tournament (something I would strongly recommend if you have the time and patience) in the Two Knight’s Defense. All players played two games against all other players – one with White and one with Black, all games starting from the position 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6. I have to admit, in some of my games as White I played the Quiet Italian, but in others I played the duffer’s move! Please understand that this was a research project for my students – I haven’t played 1.e4 in over the board competition in quite awhile.

Below are a couple of games in the Main Line Two Knights with Nigel Davies’ suggestion 10…Bc5, from his book Play 1.e4 e5!, Everyman Press. In the first game (from the thematic tournament) I wish I could say that I followed Nigel’s book and played his suggestions. Alas, it was my opponent who did so!  This game features an instructive (and mercifully short) ending. The second game was a recent quick play teaching game with one of my students, Kunal Singh.

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The Cat … Strikes!

No, there is no famous player or opening system that I’m aware of, known as “The Cat.” Yes, there was an article in the October 2006 issue of Chess Life about “The Cat in the Hat” – an incident involving alleged cheating via wireless transmission of computer moves to a receiver inside a player’s hat (beware of players wearing hats or leaving the board for frequent, extended “bathroom” breaks – especially if you can’t find them in the bathroom but you can find them emerging from the hotel elevator).  And, yes, there is a Snake Benoni, an Elephant Gambit, of course the venerable Orangutan, the Hedgehog and a host of other openings named after animals. Well, I too am an animal. And some of the guys at work, during a lunchtime blitz game, would sometimes kibitz “the cat … strikes!” As good as that was, I might have been even more proud if they had said, man, what an animal!

What an animal

 What an Animal!

But too me, “The Cat … Strikes” reminds me more than anything of the Queens’ Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation (QGDX). How many times has this “Cat” struck? The following 1994 game by then World Champion Garry Kasparov is both instructive and highly creative. Enjoy!

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Old Age and Treachery

We’ve all heard the above phrase, which by now is a well-established part of popular culture. There is even a song by this title, with lyrics by Willie Nelson  By the way, I also rather liked this one about the Old Sidewinders (Swindlers with poisonous fangs)

Sidewinder Swindlebeard

The full phrase goes either “Old age and treachery always overcomes youth and skill,” or the equivalent “Old Age and Treachery beats youth and skill every time.” I didn’t use that full phrase here because, well, it just isn’t true! Not always; not every single time. But often enough.

I read an interesting article by this title in Psychology Today. I’d recommend it to all you geezers out there. The basic idea is that, as we grow older, we can’t do some things as well as we used to – but there are other things that we do better; mostly things having to do with knowledge and experience, as opposed to brute force calculation and motor movements requiring youthful dexterity and speed (e.g. bullet chess). You might say that is pretty much obvious, but have you yet applied this idea systematically to your chess? When you plan your opening repertoire and game strategy in the broadest sense, do you consciously avoid the things you do less well in favor of the things that you now do better? If so, then you’re well on the way to what I’ll call “treachery in action!”

Here’s is a recent example:

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Nezhmetdinov in the Endgame

As the 1000-mile-wide Hurricane Sandy approaches my home (I’m just a few miles north of that big red line that tracks the storm eye), I am reminded of a “hurricane” of the chess world. In his July 7, 2012 blog, Nigel provided an extraordinary documentary on the life and chess of Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-1974), acknowledged by the world’s top grandmasters as one of the greatest attacking players in chess history. Nezhmetdinov was called “the greatest master of the initiative” (Polugaevsky), and “virtuoso of combinational chess” (Bronstein). Botvinnik said of him “Nobody sees combinations like Rashid Nezhmetdinov,” and Averbakh “If he had the attack he could kill anybody, including Tal.” Like a hurricane, Nezhmetdinov was always looking for “an active game with great complications.”

Among Nezhmetdinov’s credits include his plus score of +6 =9 -5 in his twenty games against five world champions – Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian and Spassky, including +1 =3 against his more famous attacking compatriot Mikhail Tal. When Tal was asked what day was the greatest in his life he said, “The day I lost to Nezhmetdinov,” referring the beauty of Nezhmetdinov’s combinations. There is a book:  Nezhmetdinov’s Best Games, translated and published by Caissa Editions, 2000. Nigel relates the story of his book acquisition in Russia and the incredible middle-game Polugaevsky-Nezhmetdinov, 1958.

Although renowned for his brilliant middle game play, it is less well known that Nezhmetdinov played some fine endgames (of course, only in cases where his opponent survived to see the endgame). But endgames are not all about the “theory of coordinate squares” and the like – there can be great tactics even with a reduced number of pieces on the board. Nezhmetdinov’s opponents soon came to expect they could never let their guard down, even for a moment in the endgame. If you blinked, you could be mated, as the first example below shows (a lot of interesting lines are contained in the notes):

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Enhancing The Basic Mates

I’ve been doing a few endgames with my son of late, having left it until his sight of the board was fairly well developed. And one thing I’ve found useful is to enhance the basic mates (king and queen vs. king, king and rook vs. king and king and two bishops versus king) with some extra motifs so he can perfect his technique in them without being bored by the repitition.

Here are some of the enhancements I’ve been using, we take it in turns to play White until he beats me on three consecutive occasions:

King And Queen Versus King

The best way to enhance this one is to start from a king and pawn versus king position, promote the pawn and then do the mate. We’ve been using the following position:

King And Rook Versus King

King and rook versus king can be enhanced in various ways, the following one involving a pawn on the 7th skewer theme.

King And Two Bishops Versus King

The following position is a way of showing how a knight can be trapped by a bishop before we get on to the nitty gritty of the two bishop mate. Note also how helpless Black’s kingside pawns are here:

There are other ways to do this of course, for example other pawn endgames can be used to reach king and queen versus king. And you might also insist on under promotion to a rook.

And why am I so insistent that these basic mates should be so perfect? Because I believe they develop skills and pattern recognition which go way beyond these simple endgames.

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How to Play Queen vs Two Rooks Endgame? (Part 2)

My second video of the series “How to Play Queen vs Two Rooks Endgame?” is presented below. In this second video Grandmaster Tomasz Markowski shows us how to take advantage of the favorable circumstances for the rooks in this type of endgame to finally beat Grandmaster Jacek Gdanski. The game was played in the fifth round of Poland championship in 2002. I hope it’s useful to you. Enjoy it.

Robert M. Cuadros
October 2012

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Cómo Jugar los Finales de Dama contra Dos Torres? (Parte 2)

A continuación presento mi segundo video de la serie “¿Cómo Jugar los Finales de Dama contra Dos Torres?”. En este segundo video, el Gran Maestro Tomasz Markowski nos muestra cómo aprovechar las circunstancias favorables para las torres en este tipo de finales para terminar imponiéndose contra el Gran Maestro Jacek Gdanski. La partida se jugó en la quinta ronda del campeonato de Polonia del año 2002. Espero que les sea de provecho. Disfrútenlo.

Robert M. Cuadros
Octubre de 2012

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Improving Endgame Play – Step 1

Like so many chess players, I mis-spent my youth in pool halls … well, no, that’s not quite accurate. The truth is that I did squander alot of time studying the most popular, complex chess opening variations. “If my opponent falls into this trap at move five, then I’ve got him – I know it twenty moves deep all the way to mate! And in all variations!!” Or, I thought, “More likely, he won’t fall for the trap, but then I’ll play Fischer’s latest improvement at move 22, thus guaranteeing a small but comfortable edge.”

Although the traps did win a few games, in most cases my “deep preparation” was totally wasted. Most of my opponents didn’t even know the main lines, and my stronger opponents were equally uncooperative, easily sidestepping my dark designs.

On rare occasions in those days, I would take out an endgame book. I was told that endgames were good for you – sort of like taking vitamins, only a lot more work. I did manage to learn some basic endgame principles, but then it was always more fun to study tactical puzzles and even easier to go back to the openings. After all, it seemed essential to have a backup system for everything I played, just in case of “emergencies.” In all candor, after decades of tournament play I have never actually had such an emergency.

Nonetheless, it is a well known fact that I am single-handedly responsible for keeping Barnes and Noble in business, having purchased immense quantities of highly specialized opening books for many, many years. What’s worse, I actually spent time reading them. Then, when chess engines became commercially available, I started “checking” the openings book analyses and looking for theoretical novelties. Well, that didn’t last long – I soon realized that the authors, aside from being grandmasters, had engines at least as powerful as mine… In time, I also discovered that, except for rare early tactical skirmishes, engines are not of much help in the openings.

So, at Nigel’s suggestion, I’m now making some opening repertoire changes that will reduce the amount of material I have to study. At the same time, these changes produce more solid positions that avoid feeding my habit for ultra-sharp positions (which require complex calculations at almost every move, an increasingly taxing task on my aging brain). But best of all, Nigel’s approach leaves lots of extra time to address an important neglected area, i.e. improving one’s endgame play. So that’s Step 1 – finding the time  and making endgame study a priority.

Here are a few instructive endgames I’ve studied so far this week – games by two of the greatest endgame players in history, Jose Raul Capablanca and Akiba Rubinstein.

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¿Cómo Jugar los Finales de Dama contra Dos Torres? (Parte 1)

A continuación presento mi primer video de la serie “¿Cómo Jugar los Finales de Dama contra Dos Torres?”. En este primer video, la Gran Maestra Judit Polgar nos muestra cómo aprovechar las circunstancias favorables para la dama en este tipo de finales para terminar imponiéndose contra el Gran Maestro Alexey Shirov. La partida se jugó en la segunda ronda del torneo de Wijk aan Zee del año 1998. Espero que les sea de provecho. Disfrútenlo.

Robert M. Cuadros
Septiembre de 2012

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