Category: The Endgame

April 7, 2017 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

In this article, I look back to an ending I played in the 4NCL in November 2015. It was a weekend of endgames for me as the queens came off the next day as soon as move 14!   I reached the position in the diagram after 31 rather dour moves. I felt my position…

February 9, 2017 Matthew Sadler 4 comments

In this final article in this series on the rook and bishop versus rook ending, I would like to examine both some typical mistakes and some unexpected saving resources from over 600 master games.   Cochrane’s Defence. The hidden pitfall.   Cochrane’s Defence is the most reliable way to defend this ending when starting from…

February 3, 2017 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

In a previous article, I examined the winning technique from the Philidor position in detail. In the next couple of articles, I want to spend some time on the best way to defend the rook and bishop against rook ending.   To help me, I put together a database of decisive rook and bishop against…

January 27, 2017 Matthew Sadler 10 comments

Part of my routine daily work as a chess professional was to run through a set of about 100 endings and make sure they were committed to memory. These encompassed typical endings in various material configurations, and of course R&B vs R was one of them. I don’t have time to do that sort of…

December 23, 2016 Matthew Sadler No comments exist

November signals the start of the 4NCL season and I was in action on Board 1 for Guildford on the 19th & 20th November. I emerged with 2 wins from tough and fraught fights. The Saturday game featured an extremely sharp rook and knight ending which I analysed at some length with my friendly young…