Fortress in the Endgame

" In order to improve your game, you must study endgame before anything else" - Capablanca

The Importance of studying the Endgame in Chess can never be overstated.As the Cuban World Champion has said, it is very important for every student of the game. I would like to deal with a couple of examples on the topic of fortresses in endgames. It always appeals to the spectator when a side with a material disadvantage holds his own in a seemingly lost battle. Like the attractiveness of sacrifice in chess, this too captures the imagination of players and annotators alike.

A Tale of Three Endgames

"Those who say they understand Chess, understand nothing"- Robert Huebner

The recently concluded World Cup brought a lot of joy to the spectators in the form of dramatic and captivating games. One such game was Aronian-Dubov. The endgame that arose with a Rook and Pawn versus a Bishop and Pawn looked rather simple. But as the game went on it was not at all clear whether the position was a fortress or white had a way to breach it. While discussing the game with my friends Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna and later with International Master Konguvel, I came to understand how complex the position actually was and how little was I understood when taking a casual look at the position. My Special Thanks to Vishnu for inspiring me to take a deeper look and Blog rather than being lazy and to Konguvel for pointing out Dvoretsky's Endgame and sharing his thoughts. Here are my thoughts about Aronian's endgame.

                           Aronian-Dubov 2nd Game 4th Round World Cup

A Game of Exchanges- Part 2

"There is no such thing as an even trade"- William Lombardy

In the last part we have seen some modern games. So it is now time to take a look at two classical games!

A Game of Exchanges? Part 1

"There is no such thing as an even trade"-William Lombardy

                            A Game of Exchanges?

One of the most fundamental aspects of positional chess consists of exchanges. An exchange, just like a pawn move alters the position permanently. This means that every exchange has to be evaluated very carefully and by experience we see that every exchange tilts the equilibrium one way or another even if only microscopically. The topic of exchanges in chess is vast as an ocean! In this blog I wish to briefly touch upon exchanges of Bishop for Knight only.

Chess as an Art

                                     Chess as an Art

                                       

" Chess like love,like music, has the power to make men happy"- Siegbert Tarrasch 

       So Wesley has been the most consistent player of the last year and a half. I was able to watch some of his games at the Isle of Man tournament last year. His calm and easy looks during a game concealed the tremendous concentration and intensity happening in the background. I have attempted to put myself in his shoes and arrive out at the possible reasoning behind his thought process and moves based on his game against Granda Zuniga which made a deep impression on me, even during the tournament itself. Of course, I have to make certain guesses and the annotations themselves can never be equal to a player expressing his own thoughts. Nevertheless, it was quite an experience for me to put myself in his thinking hat and in the process trying to unravel the beauty hidden behind the veil of seemingly unnatural moves.