The Practical Endgame / Instruction Keeping a Clear Head
How to use common sense, intuition, and calculation when you don’t know the theory. By GM DANIEL NARODITSKY
A SIMPLE CHESS BASE SEARCH REVEALS an intriguing statistic: before 1850, only 15 recorded games reached an opposite-colored bishop endgame. As an endgame fanatic, I find this data appalling, but perfectly explicable: chess games in the romantic era seldom reached the endgame! Even disputes between world-class players frequently ended in a sanguinary middlegame battle, with sacrifice upon sacrifice leading to a dazzling mating combination (think Steinitz-Von Bardeleben). It is particularly fascinating, then, to observe
how early maestros approached the final stage of the game. Theoretical knowledge was scant, and players who felt perfectly comfortable among epic tactical complications were often lost at sea in an outwardly simple endgame. To this end, I would like to examine a wonderfully-instructive instance of an opposite-colored bishop endgame arising in nineteenth-century tournament practice. The point of this somewhat unconventional exercise is not to denigrate or belittle the players. Rather, we will try to understand how we can use our common sense, intuition, and calculation to compensate for a deficiency in theoretical knowledge. And unless you have read and memorized Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual as well as Averbakh’s five-volume monograph, this is a problem that you will most certainly face!
ACCURACY NEEDED
Louis-Charles Mahé de Labourdonnais Alexander McDonnell London (3), 1834
and McDonnell had established total dominance over the burgeoning European chess scene, and played a staggering six matches (45 games total) between June and October of 1834. Labourdonnais emerged supreme in four of the matches (with the last one being retired), but his victories did not come easy. This game is most certainly a case in point. On paper, White’s material advantage is
decisive: he is two pawns up, and is the proud owner of connected passers that are itching to crown their bare heads. However, things are far from decided. Black has a far-advanced passer in his own right, and his pieces are ridiculously active. Indeed, the king is only a few paces away from reaching ultimate paradise on e3. Further - more, the presence of opposite-colored bishops—as we have already witnessed multiple times in this column—considerably increases Black’s drawing chances. To this end, if he could eliminate White’s passers and give his d- and b-pawns in return, the position would still be utterly drawn. It is clear, then, that McDonnell is on the verge
of holding his own, but he must still demonstrate a great deal of accuracy.
45. ... Kb4? The right idea, but a fatally misguided execution!
McDonnell is right to mobilize his king, but he must do so while keeping White’s own monarch from reaching the center. Even without any calculation, it is intuitively clear that 45. ... Kd4! is superior in every respect. The king can still access c3 if necessary, but the crucial difference is that 46. Kf2 is powerfully met with 46. ... Ke4!, sealing off White’s king and securing a positional draw.
It appears that White is on the verge of breaking
through—that he needs only one more timely check to set his pawns in motion—but there is little he can do:
A. 47. b4 Be7! and White has nothing better than to permanently cement the queenside with 48. b5, since 48. h5 fails to impress after 48. ... Bxb4 49. h6 Bc5+ 50. Kg2 Bf8 51. h7 Bg7.
B. 47. Kg2! is the only serious winning attempt, and it requires Black to act with tremendous precision. In order to draw, he must do everything in his power to mount enough counterplay to halt the progress of White’s pawns: 47. ... Ke3 48. Kh3 Kd2 49. Bh5 (49. Bf3 Bd4! and 50. g4 meets with 50. ... Ke3, when the king returns to f4 and stops the pawns for good) 49. ... Kc3 and it suddenly transpires that 50. g4 loses to the spectacular 50. ... Bg5!!.
White must burn a valuable tempo to bring
BLACK TO MOVE By the early nineteenth century, Labourdonnais
46 January 2016 | Chess Life
his bishop back to f3, and this allows Black to save the day: 50. Bf3 Kxb3 51. g4 Kxc4 52. g5 Bd4 53. h5 b5 54. h6 Be3 55. Kg4 b4 56. Kh5 b3 57.
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