Category: The Endgame

November 4, 2021 Matthew Sadler 2 comments

ck article is in our Engine Snacks series! Leela counters a positional squeeze from Stockfish by transposing into a double-rook endgame a pawn down. To my shock and surprise, this endgame – with Stockfish having a far-advanced a-pawn – was a simple draw!
Knowing this position and its unexpected result might save you a half point or two in your career!

June 20, 2018 Matthew Sadler 4 comments

Invigorated by preparing a training on endings for some keen youngsters, I’d like to share some general thoughts about activity in endings, and in particular in rook and pawn endings. Why are endgames important to study? Mastering endgames means understanding how to maximize the mobility and activity of each of your pieces, and understanding how…

November 17, 2017 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

I’ve been spending some time looking through Muller and Konoval’s “Understanding Rook Endgames” presents findings about King, Rook & 2 Pawns versus King, Rook & Pawn endings using the latest 7-man tablebases.     One fact that amazed me was that the superior side wins 46% of King, Rook, a & b / g & h…

September 8, 2017 Matthew Sadler 2 comments

In this column, we continue our examination of episodes from the ROC Nova College Open in July. Going into the last round I was leading with 4,5 / 5 after a tightly-controlled win with Black against the second seed GM Maxim Turov. I had been expecting to play another GM but the pairing system threw…