The Practical Endgame / Instruction
Mistakes: The Best Way to Learn
The most instructive games are not always the most aesthetically pleasing. By GM DANIEL NARODITSKY
THERE IS A WELL-KNOWN RUSSIAN proverb: “On mistakes, we learn!” In chess, as in life, examining the mistakes we com- mit—and the underlying reasons behind them—greatly enriches our understanding of the game. As we are about to see, the most instructive games are not always pleasing to the eye!
Insipid?
GM Arnold Denker GM Samuel Reshevsky New York, 1959
Ke8 42. Kf2 Kd7 Black wins the pawn and the game!) 40. ... Ke8 41. Ke2 Bc6 and White has nothing better than three- fold repetition with 42. Be6 Bd7 43. Bc4. While the text move does no permanent damage, Reshevsky is definitely playing with fire by needlessly keeping his mon - arch so far away.
40. Kf1 40. Bb5 already made some sense,
although Black is able to hold the fort with 40. ... Bxb5 41. axb5 Kf7 42. Bxa5! Bd8! (42. ... bxa5? 43. b6 and White pro- motes) and luckily for Black, the absence of the a-pawn makes no difference. Judg- ing by the course of the game, though, I’m almost certain that the general possi- bility of Bxa5 slipped through the cracks of Reshevsky’s tactical radar.
40. ... Bg7??
sights on both ends. With 40. ... Bg7, Black retreats his bishop to the worst pos- sible square; Black will no longer be able to meet Bxa5 with ... Bd8.
41. Ke2?? Two can play that game! Denker makes
the same mistake, assuming that Black’s position is watertight. After 41. Bb5, Black’s position falls apart in every line: A. 41. ... Bxb5+ 42. axb5 Bf6 stops 43.
Bxa5, but White strikes from the other side: 43. d7 and the abysmal position of Black’s king does him in: 43. ... Kf7 44. Bxe5 Bd8 45. Bxf4 Ke6 46. Ke2 and the connected passers will seal the deal. B. 41. ... Be6 is far more resilient. After
42. d7 Bf6, it turns out that the immediate 43. Bxe5? is impossible due to 43. ... Bxd7! 44. Bxf4 Bxb5+ 45. axb5 c4! 46. bxc4 a4 and things are far from clear. But the subtle 43. Ke2!! leads to an unusually and aesthetically pleasing Zugzwang position.
WHITE TO MOVE After a long and colorless middlegame,
the players have liquidated into an even more insipid endgame—or so it seems. Objectively speaking, Black has indeed constructed an impenetrable fortress. But for the longest time, neither Denker nor Reshevsky realize that Black is still walking through a minefield.
39. Kg1 Kg6
Already, Reshevsky fails to identify the potential sources of danger. In fact, there is only one idea that he must watch out for: Bc4-b5, forcing a trade of bishops and clearing the way for White’s passer. To this end, 39. ... Kf8 was a far more con- vincing way to draw. With the king so close to the pawn, Bb5 is never an issue, and White cannot make progress. A pos- sible continuation is 40. Kf1 (40. Bb5?? is senseless: after 40. ... Bxb5 41. axb5
48 July 2015 | Chess Life
In the opening and middlegame, our
sense of danger is automatically alerted by certain characteristics of the position (king weakness, structural deficiency, badly-placed pieces, open files, etc.). In the endgame, on the other hand, tactical shots often emerge out of the blue. There- fore, no matter how impervious your position appears, it is crucial to scan the horizon for any and all of your opponent’s potential resources. Evidently, both players were convinced
that White cannot make progress, and this over-reliance on superficial reasoning results in several egregious tactical over-
Both of Black’s bishops must stay in
place to hold the position together, but Black’s king is unable to find an adequate retreat square: B1. 43. ... Kg5/7 44. Bxe5 Bxd7 and now 45. Bxf6+ comes with check. B2. 43. ... Kh5 44. Bxe5 Bxd7 45. Bxf6
and the king has lost contact with the f6- square, leaving White up a piece. 43. ... Kf7 is relatively best, but after
44. Bxe5 Bxd7 White has the devastating 45. Bc4+! , keeping both bishops and win- ning the f4-pawn. Following 45. ... Ke7
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