Chess Strategy

Stalemate can be valuable rescue motif in seemingly hopeless ending. Bellow is a sample from the book “Da Te Pitam?” by IM Nikola Karaklajic. Unfortunately, this wonderful endgame collection composed of 52 tests never saw its English edition, but it was translated to French, and Russian teachers massively used Serbian version. The book was real hit in Arab world.

White to move and make a draw. Note that straightforward trade of Rook for the f-pawn will not save the game, because black King will win e4 pawn and then he takes the opposition thanks to the tempo from doubled pawn.

Try to find the right path, I will post the solution in 2-3 days.

White has three pawns for the exchange, but black Rook is threatening to win one of the kingside pawns, after which white position will become difficult. There is an exceptional possibility to secure a draw, try to find this idea.

Edit on 8th April: There is a cunning idea to save the kingside pawns, but white has to depart with his Bishop! Nevertheless, pawns will be forming hermetic fortress and black has to concede to a draw - 1. Kd1! Rh2 2. Ke1 Rxg2 3. Kf1 Rh2 4. Kg1 Rh6 5. f3! Re6 6. Kf1 Kf7 7. Kf2, white King has enough squares and mobility to prevent Rook invasion.

Recommended reading:
Silman’s Complete Endgame Course - From Beginner To Master

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In Portisch/Sarkozi book “600 Endings” I found lots of studies by Seleznev, but his first name was not given. Internet search didn’t help either, perhaps it was pseudonym. He particularly liked to “play around” with checkmate motifs. Here are two of his compositions in Rook endings.

In this position there are no passers and white King is also quite far from the c-file and all the pawns. Playing to win in a Rook ending is unavailing, therefore white has to search for a way to transpose the game into good pawn ending. Note that despite of having doubled pawns, there is important tempi reserve for white later on.

The straightforward approach gives no fruitage, 1. Re2+ Kd5 2. Rxe5+ Kxe5 3. Kf3 Kf5! 4. c4 Ke5 and now threat of Ke5-d4 saves black after 5. c3 Kf5 which makes opposition, or 5. Ke3 Kf5 without progress because d4 is under black’s control.

Now Seleznev’s favorite motif comes to rescue. With the threat of mate, black King gets pushed one rank down, which is just enough for white to grab favorable opposition.

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The game Capablanca-Tartakower, played on 1924, is a wonderful classical example for the importance of Rook’s activity in the endgame. Most of the notes bellow will be translations from Paul Keres’ book, because it is hard to expect anyone else to explain it better, and some will be of Irving Chernev (Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings) and myself.

This position is very interesting and not easy to evaluate. Black King is cut off on the 8th rank and White also has a protected passed pawn. On the other hand, Black Rook is about to start collecting White’s weak pawns. Which factors here are more relevant?

In Rook endings, to some lesser extent than in Queen endings, a general rule says that it is very important to make yourself a passed pawn. The difference is that Queen alone is usually providing sufficient support for the pawn’s advance, while in Rook endings, when enemy King is on the pawn’s route, it is required to have King’s help.

In the given example, White already has passed pawn and an active Rook, and knowing that King has to be involved eases future planning.

1. Kg3!

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There was reader’s request to post more about endings. As a warm-up, let’s take a look at the old game Tarasch-Rubinstein, San Sebastian 1911.

This example should serve as reminder on how important is Rook activity in the endgame. Very often, one of the players is willing to sacrifice a pawn or two just to improve Rook’s position and gain on activity. Rook endings are fantastic model for transformations material-to-tempo and vice versa.

In the starting position Black is a pawn down and another one (b6) is attacked. Let’s see what happens in case of the natural move for most of chess players. If Black goes with 1…Rd6 to protect the pawn, White will answer with 2. Ke2! first, to cover entry squares on the d-rank, and then proceed with a4-a5, which exploits the pin on the 6th rank. Black is losing another pawn with no compensation whatsoever.

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IM Nikola Karaklajic, born on 1926, is famous player, writer, lecturer, arbiter (Fischer-Spassky 1992), Olympiad captain, radio DJ and the first man to bring The Beatles vinyl in then Yugoslavia. The work he did on endgames and studies is impressive to say the least, and his engaging personality made him one of favorite characters in the chess universe.

Nikola is nowadays writing weekly chess column for newspaper “Danas”. I believe his work is better than in most of currently active online editions, but unfortunately his column is not available in English. I invite Chess Strategy readers to email the editors (desk@danas.co.yu) and ask them to provide English version of this fantastic column.

Here is only one of today’s puzzles (there are four in total), it is white to move and win. Try to solve it.

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Doubled Pawns after the Queens exchange, part 1
Doubled Pawns after the Queens exchange, part 2

Download all three articles in PGN for your game viewer. If you don’t have any, use ChessBase Light (free).

Alexander Kotov - Grigory Levenfish
URS-ch Moscow, 1949

Black has some problems with pieces coordination as Nb7 and Bd7 are not perfectly placed. Rook is tied for a6 pawn, while b4 and e4 pawns might also come under attack. Still, Black might be able to consolidate over the next few moves, for example if he plays a5-a4, weakness from a6 will be eliminated and Rook gets open file. Knight can also activate via d6.

All this means that White’s advantage is time-sensitive and he should do something over the next few moves in order to maintain or increase it. Rook is holding the open c-file and it would be nice to reach the 7th rank. However, Black Queen, the only well placed Black piece at the moment, is covering c7 square. In one of the earlier articles “Positional factors and their importance”, we said: - Always try to exchange opponent’s most active pieces. In this case, trading Black Queen would open the gates to the 7th rank and e4 pawn would become increasingly vulnerable.

28.Qd4!
Kotov is not afraid of ghosts! Doubled central pawns are not really a weakness as Black won’t be having time to attack them with Nd6-Nf5. After the Queen’s exchange, Black will have to lose moves on protecting Bd7 and pawns a6, b4 and e4.

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Doubled Pawns after the Queens exchange, part 1

Mikhail Botvinnik - Nikolay Sorokin
URS-ch Moscow, 1931

White has better development, better pieces placement and doubled Rooks on the open d-file. Black has to take care of the e5 pawn, f7 can also be a target in the future, Bc8 is still undeveloped and Nb6 is not on the best square as c6 is natural for this Knight. All this tells us that White is better, but how to progress? Black is slightly passive, but he’s holding everything under control at the moment.

20.Qe3!!
Unexpected, and at first sight, paradoxical solution. Botvinnik is allowing doubled isolated pawns in the center, but he correctly determinated that Qc5 is holding Black’s position together. After the Queens’ exchange, pawn e5 will be hanging and a5 finally becomes a threat. Furthermore, Black will be having problems with Nb6 and how to stop breach over the d-file (d6 or d7).

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Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrate them

I have found quite a few games where one of the players is offering Queen’s exchange, even if it means significant damage in the pawn structure. This will be compensated with other pluses, usually in much better pieces’ placement and coordination. The article will be posted in three parts, full PGN file in the final post.

Mikhail Botvinnik - Max Euwe
Den Haag/Moscow, 1948

Botvinnik sacrificed a pawn to bring pieces to attacking positions. Queen and Bishops are on excellent places, White only has to open files for the Rooks. It has to be done quick though, because Black can play Nd5 next and completely neutralize the pressure.

20.f3!!
20.Bxf6? Qxf6 21.Qxe4 Bf5 Black catches on with the development.

20…Nd5
There is no time to take on f3 because 20…exf3 21.Bb1! with idea Bxh7+ is crushing 21…h6 (21…fxg2 22.Rxf6) 22.Rxf3 Nd5 23.Rg3!! Qxh4 24.Rxg7+ Kh8 25.Rh7+ Kg8 26.Rh8#;
20…Be6 was decent however, 21.fxe4! it is all about one tempo (21.Bb1 Nd5 22.Qxe4 f5 with next 23…Nc3 and equal play, Botvinnik) 21…Bxa2 22.Rxf6! (22.Bxf6? gxf6 23.Rf3 Be6 24.e5 Rfe8 25.exf6 Qf8 26.Rg3+ Kh8 27.Rg7 Bf5 and now Black is winning) 22…Kh8 (22…gxf6? 23.Bxf6; 22…Be6 23.Qg3 Qd7 24.Ref1!) 23.Qg3 with attack for White.

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Magnus Carlsen - Ivan Cheparinov
2007 World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk

I was annotating this game for Chessdom, and since there were some wonderful ideas in the unbalanced endgame, I decided to share them here.

If we strictly count the units, material is even, but in the actual games evaluation depends on many relative factors such are pieces’ coordination, king safety, passed pawns etc. Two important features for White are advanced pawn on g6 and ‘one extra piece’ on the board as Knight, Bishop and King can cooperate with great effect. Black, on the other hand, has possibility to create distant passed pawn on the queenside and his Rook is pressing on the weak “a” and “c” pawns.

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