The Practical Endgame / Instruction
Play Like the Romantics!
Each month GM Naroditsky will present two problems taken from actual games that illustrate the theme of this month’s column. Your task is to find the best line of play. Problem I should be solveable by a player at roughly a 1500 rating and Problem II by a player roughly at a 2000 rating.
See the solutions on page 71. BLACK TO MOVE
g6 b2 58. g7 b1=Q 59. g8=Q+ Kc3 and against all odds, Black seems to be holding on. He will give up his bishop for White’s h-pawn, but the d-pawn should give him just enough to make the draw.
Make no mistake: neither McDonnell, nor any
modern grandmaster has the mental capacity to calculate a variation of this length and complexity. However, 45. ... Kd4 can be arrived at through simple process of elimination: it has all of the benefits of 45. ... Kb4, while maintaining the possibility of shifting to the kingside. Common sense is a powerful tool in the endgame!
46. Kf2! Kc3 47. Ke3! Labourdonnais pounces immediately. Black’s
king looks intimidating, but it is sealed off from White’s pawns by its bloodthirsty vis-à-vis. Perhaps McDonnell was counting on his d-pawn to provide sufficient counterplay, but White’s bishop is always ready to sacrifice itself if the occasion calls for it.
47. ... Bd4+ 48. Ke4?! This move does not throw the win away, but
it unnecessarily complicates the situation. 48. Kf4 would have won on the spot, since Black cannot stop the pawns from reaching pay dirt and beyond. For instance, the computer initially asserts that 48. ... Kd2 maintains drawing chances, but this is nothing more than an illusion: 49. Ke4! Bf6 50. h5! puts an end to Black’s resistance. After 50. ... Kxd1 51. Kxd3, White will simply create a passer on the queenside (with b4-c5) and Black’s bishop will be utterly helpless.
48. ... Bf2 There was no need to allow this move, which
forces White to reposition his king and slows down the movement of his pawns.
49. Kf4 Kd2 50. Bf3 Kc3
(see diagram next column) In the vast majority of endgames, there eventually
comes a point that GM Edmar Mednis referred to as the “the moment of truth”: the point when you must lay your intuition aside, hunker down, and calculate. The most tempting course of action is obviously 51. h5, but it is a move that should be
calculated to the end. In all likelihood, Labour- donnais fell into a psychological trap that catches players to this day: he assumed that, for one reason or another, pure calculation is invalid in an unbalanced endgame of this sort. This is obviously far from the truth: no matter how little material is left on the board, calculation is always a valid method of resolving a dilemma and finding the correct path. Instead, Labourdonnais begins to doubt himself, and goes terribly astray.
51. Bd1? Technically speaking, this is not a mistake, since
White can simply repeat moves and get back on the right track. However, it is already a step in the wrong direction, and Labourdonnais follows up with a disastrous blunder. In fact, the “compli- cations” following 51. h5 were quite easy to calculate: after 51. ... Kxb3 52. g4 Kxc4 53. g5, it becomes clear that Black’s counterplay is a day late and a dollar short. One particularly grotesque finale would be 53. ... b5 54. g6 Bd4 55. h6 and Black is clearly not in time. As you can see, the simple act of maintaining a clear head is in itself a very big step toward mastering the practical endgame!
51. ... Kd2 52. Bg4??
After this, there is no going back. The bishop obstructs the g-pawn, and White will no longer be in time to promote.
52. ... Kc3 53. Kf3 There is no going back: 53. Bd1 would lead to
a three-time repetition after 53. ... Kd2. 53. ... Bd4 54. Bf5
Labourdonnais desperately tries to regroup,
but McDonnell spears off one of his passers with a cute little tactic. Can you find it?
54. ... d2 55. Ke2 Bf2! WHITE TO MOVE
PROBLEM I: 1500 LEVEL Carl Mayet Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa Berlin, 1839
PROBLEM II: 2000 LEVEL Moheschunder Bannerjee John Cochrane Calcutta, 1850
Boom! Just like that, White loses one of his
pawns, and—with his king immobilized as well —he is left with nothing more than a symbolic advantage.
56. h5 Bxg3 57. Kd1 Bf4 58. Be6 Bh6 59. Bf5 Bg5, Draw agreed.
As we have already discussed multiple times, endgames are not inherently special. True, they require a great deal of theoretical knowledge, but the skills that allow you to succeed in any middle game position—common sense, self-composure, and above all, accurate calculation—are very much applicable in the endgame.
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