Understanding Rook Endgames

by Karsten Müller, Yakov Konoval

Overview

Endgames with rooks and pawns are the most frequently occurring in chess, arising in about 1 game in 10. If you learn an important technique in this endgame, chances are you will end up using it sooner or later.

And there are a great many methods and concepts that can be mastered with a little effort. This book highlights the key themes in rook endings, and at each turn invites the reader to test his knowledge and skills with abundant exercises.

Rook endgame theory does not stand still. New practical examples illustrate novel approaches as players seek to pose problems to their opponents – Magnus Carlsen has shown that even the driest-looking positions can feature deadly traps. The ongoing creation of new endgame tablebases – of which co-author Yakov Konoval has been at the forefront – enables new classes of positions to be assessed with definitive certainty. Using six-man and the brand new seven-man tablebases, the authors re-examine many of the old evaluations and reach new and enlightening conclusions about classic rook endings. You will be startled and amazed, and soon discover that you are becoming a far more effective endgame player.

German grandmaster Karsten Müller is arguably the world’s foremost writer on chess endgames. His ‘masterwork’, Fundamental Chess Endings, is a modern endgame ‘bible’ and was studied intensively by current World Champion Magnus Carlsen in his youth.

Yakov Konoval is a Russian chess-player and programmer who studied at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. He has written programs for solving chess problems and has pioneered new techniques for generating endgame tablebases.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910093818
Publisher:	Gambit Publications, LTD
Publication date:	03/22/2016
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

German grandmaster Karsten Müller is arguably the world’s foremost writer on chess endgames. His ‘masterwork’, Fundamental Chess Endings, is a modern endgame ‘bible’ and was studied intensively by current World Champion Magnus Carlsen in his youth.

Yakov Konoval is a Russian chess-player and programmer who studied at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. He has written programs for solving chess problems and has pioneered new techniques for generating endgame tablebases.

Table of Contents

Symbols 5

Introduction 6

Foreword John Nunn 7

Sources 9

Statistics 10

1 Rook and Pawn vs Rook 11

1.1 A Centre, Bishop's or Knight's Pawn 11

1.2 A Rook's Pawn 19

1.3 Longest Wins 23

2 Rook and Two Pawns vs Rook 25

2.1 Two Connected Passed Pawns 25

2.2 Two Isolated Pawns 30

2.3 Doubled Pawns 44

2.4 Longest Wins 46

3 Rook and Pawn vs Rook and Pawn 48

3.1 Rook vs Pawn 48

3.2 Rook and Pawn vs Rook and Pawn 52

4 Rook and Two Pawns vs Rook and Pawn 63

4.1 The History of Creating Seven-Man Endgame Tablebases 63

4.2 Statistics 66

4.3 No Passed Pawns and Pawns Connected 67

4.4 No Passed Pawns and Pawns Isolated 95

4.5 The Attacker Has a Connected Passed Pawn 99

4.6 The Attacker Has a Nearby Isolated Passed Pawn 128

4.7 One Outside Passed Pawn 148

4.8 All Passed Pawns, Connected and Close Together 175

4.9 All Passed Pawns, Connected and Far Apart 180

4.10 Attacker's Pawns Passed, Isolated and Close Together 193

4.11 Attacker's Pawns Passed, Isolated and Far Apart 197

4.12 Doubled Pawns vs Pawn 204

4.13 Studies 208

4.14 Computer Games 210

4.15 Longest Wins 212

4.16 Errors in Correspondence Games 216

4.17 The Fourth Phase of the Game 217

4.18 The Single Pawn is Playing for a Win 219

5 Principles of Rook Endings 223

6 Theoretical Endgames 228

7 Historic Games 231

8 Double-Rook Endings 238

Solutions 245

Indexes 284

Players 284

Composers and Analysts 287

Longest Wins 287

Unnamed Examples 287

Editorial Reviews

You can feel confident that anything you study and learn on the basis of Müller’s book is 100% correct” – Matthew Sadler, New in Chess

From the Publisher