An unexamined life is not worth living.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Sharpen your Endgame Skills - Breakthrough in a Rook Endgame

Do you ever analyze your games with a computer and find really unusual hidden possibilities? It can be worth it sometimes!

image  Black to move

I came across this curious position while analysing one of my games from a recent tournament. Black has the initiative, but in most lines White is active enough to trade off all the pawns. The d2 pawn is a strength and a weakness at the same time. Computer found a brilliant concept:

53… g3!! You can check yourself that taking on f2, or f5 is not quite sufficient.
The idea is to win control over the e3 square, so after 54. fxg3 Re3 + Black wins the rook.

 image
The king has to stop attacking the d2 pawn, so after 55. Kc4 Re1Black wins the rook and is on time to collect White’s weak pawns. The d pawn proves to be a strength in this variation!

Click here to read more about rook endgames on my blog.

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