Brief Update: Preparing for Summer

I've had a couple posts in varying stages of completion for a while now, but between real-life distractions and the amount of work they've turned into, I've delayed posting them for a while.

I hope to post a review of Chess Endgame Training by Bernd Rosen soon (short version: me likey!) and some endgame analysis in about a week. I just wanted to confirm that I'm still alive, and also give myself a little kick in the pants to produce something worth reading soon.

I'm looking forward to summer evenings on the porch with a book and a chessboard, and putting a dent in my list of master games to play through.

Important Addition to Marin's A Spanish Repertoire for Black

I think that Marin's two-volume opening repertoire based on 1.e4 e5 (Beating the Open Games and A Spanish Repertoire for Black) is amazing, and packed full of chess knowledge. However, the two books are targeted towards either more-advanced players (particularly the latter), or the ambitious student. They're also directed towards main-line players rather than offbeat-variation players. This means that the reader has to plug a lot of holes themselves, as they find that the opponents they encounter at their level frequently play a line not covered.

I just checked qualitychessbooks.com, and found that a 25-page addendum to ASRFB is available for download in .pdf format. It covers, among other gaps, my biggest problem with that book: no discussion of the departure from the Chigorin mainline with 12.d5 (instead of 12.Nbd2). I see the former more than the latter in my online games, and it's the #2 line by statistics (74 out of 1051 Grandmaster games, according to my home-made opening book; 478 out of 6050 games total).

In other news, it appears that the first volume (BTOG) is about to be reissued as a second edition. When I bought it, it contained a 4-page insert covering two omitted lines. It sounds like a combination of popular demand and reader critique has prompted an upgrade. According to the publisher, it should be out very soon (Spring 2008).

It's annoying when you just buy a book and a new edition comes out shortly after. When the second edition of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual came out, I decided that I didn't need to worry about the second edition until I completed the first (which is still a loooooong way off). Also, I've heard the quality of print for the second edition of Dvoretsky wasn't as good. However, Marin's BTOG has become indispensable for me, so I'm looking forward to seeing what's been added in the second edition.

Real chess players will roll their eyes because I've held Dvoretsky on the back burner while salivating over an upgrade to an opening book. Well, like the banner says: Do as I Say, Not as I Do.

Polgar Error

I was going over some of the basic endgames from L. Polgar's Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games. The book's analysis for Position #5113 is incorrect: Black surprisingly can draw!

White To Play

The provided solution is 1.e8=Q, followed by 1...e1=Q(?) 2.Kf6+ and White wins.

However, Black has a surprising draw if instead they play 1...Ke3!:


At this point, I'd like to quote from Muller and Lamprecht's Fundamental Chess Endings: "If {a single pawn} has advanced to the seventh rank and is threatening to promote, everything depends on whether the attacking king can assist the queen. With a central pawn, this is almost always possible, no matter how far away the king is." I briefly touched on these endgames in this earlier post.

Here we have an exception to this "almost always" rule. It turns out that White has an unfortunate placement of king and queen. For example, 2.Kf5+ Kf2!



Black's king hides in the shadow of White's, and supports the pawn's promotion. The queen lacks any move that prevents Black from obtaining their own queen (e.g. by delivering check or by pinning the pawn to the king).

I've been entering endgame positions for books into databases. One reason is that I can later play these positions vs. the computer and practice my endgame technique. Another reason is that I can explore variations not mentioned in the books to make sure I understand the positions thoroughly. However, here we can see one final benefit, especially if you have endgame tablebases at your disposal: you can find errors in old analysis and learn new tricks.

Help Finding Pocket Set Replacement

I bought this pocket set off of the USCF web site sometime around 1995:



I still have all the pieces, which for me is some sort of miracle. However the plastic case is cracking and I'm not sure how much longer it will last.

I'm calling out to the community for help in either identifying a supplier for this pocket set, or the nearest equivalent. Here is what I find special about this set:

• The board is metal, not vinyl.
• The board does not fold.
• The board can be held comfortably in one hand.
• The magnets are very strong. There's no chance at all of the position being lost in transit.
• A plastic lid snaps on with magnets, protecting the pieces in transit.
• The set is thin... roughly 5 mm. Almost thin enough to act as a bookmark:

The only negative thing I can think of is that there is limited room to place pieces not in play. If I'm in the middle of a game and want to save it, I have to creatively place the pieces so that they avoid the spots where the lid's magnets touch the board.

My backup set is a metal case set I grabbed at Starbucks. However, the board is hinged, so there's a barrier wall that runs between the 4th and 5th ranks. The files also don't quite match up where the hinge is, and I find the slight offset a bit distracting. Finally, the magnets aren't as strong as I'd like.

This is your mission, dear readers. Can anyone tell me who the maker of my set was, and if it can still be found? Or, does anyone know of a pocket set that would be a worthy replacement?

Fly, my monkeys! Fly!

Adgj

Adgj

Edit: Wow, three responses!

I was trying to use the new remote blogging tool for Blogger, and thought I had failed at a test message from my new phone. Didn't check to verify the fail though.

The pictures that I tried to send from my phone will be in my followup post.

Interesting CTB Error

When using the program Chess Tactics for Beginners, one shouldn't unquestioningly accept their answers. Sometimes there are alternate solutions to the problems that aren't accepted as correct answers. But you should also question their evaluations of variations.

The following problem was interesting. White to draw:



Note: for the following analysis, I'm trying to abide by the Nunn Convention for annotating endgames, hence the extensive use of "!". It's not just me being over-excited. (Technically, some of them might really be "!?", because other moves waste time but don't actually give away the win, but close enough.)

The move 1.Ng1! indeed does lead to a draw, as shown by 1...c1(Q) =. However, the software also gives the following line as a draw: 1...Kf5 2.Ne2 Ke4 3.Kg1 Kd3 4.Kf1 Kd2=. I've checked this with Fritz, and 1...Kf5? actually appears to lose for Black! The main theme appears to be that the white Knight can prevent the c-pawn from promoting (either from e2 or a2, as required) while White queens the h-pawn.

After 1.Ng1!= Kf5?-+ 2.Ne2! Ke4 3.Kg1! Kd3 4.Kf2! (instead of CTB's 4.Kf1?=):



For example, 4...Kd2 5.Kf3! Kd1 6.Nc3+:



It seems clear that Black cannot queen the c-pawn. However, I wasn't ready to trust Fritz yet. I wondered: is it possible that Black can draw the rook-pawn endgame, as I discussed in my previous post? Apparently not. One line continues: 6...Kd2 7.Na2 Ke1 (7...Kd3?! 8.Nb4+. This is a common theme in this, and other knight endgames: some squares such as d3 are "mined" because a king on that square falls victim to a knight fork that wins the offending pawn.) 8.Kg3 Ke2 9.Kxh3 Kf3 10.Kh4 Kf4 11.Kh5 Kf5 12.h4 Kf6 13.Kh6 Kf7 14.h5 Kg8 15.Kg6 Kh8 16.h6 Kg8:



We've followed the drawing procedure for K+RP vs. K, and it looks like Black will draw. However, after 17.Nc1! Kh8 18.Nd3! Kg8 19.h7! Kh8 20.Ne5!:



20...c1=Q 21.Nf7#.

Totally freakin' cool.

Another Example of Applying Basic Endgame Knowledge

Here's an example from a recent game where knowledge of a basic endgame helped resolve a more complicated position.

In the case of King and Rook's Pawn vs. King, the defender draws if their king gets in front of the rook pawn. Barring that, if the king can reach the B7 or B8 squares (e.g. f7/f8 vs. an h-pawn), it prevents the attacking king from reaching the key N7/N8 squares (e.g. g7/g8 vs. an h-pawn).

{Aside: although I normally use algebraic notation, the old descriptive notation has one advantage in cases such as this: it doesn't matter if we're talking about white or black queening the pawn, or whether it's the queen's or king's rook pawn.}

For example, in the following position:



Black draws if their king gets to one of the green squares; White wins if their king gets to one of the yellow squares. For example, with Black to move in the above position, 1...Kd7 2.Kg5 Ke7 3.Kg6 Kf8! and Black's king reaches the f8 square and secures a draw:



There are two basic drawing ideas from this position: either get the defending king in front of the rook pawn, or trap the attacking king in front of its pawn.

For example, 4.h4 Kg8! and the king reaches the corner:



White, at best, can stalemate Black (e.g. 5.g5 Kh8 6.h6 Kg8 7.h7+ Kh8 8.Kh6 =).

If White tries to get his own king ahead of the pawn, it can be trapped on the h-file, e.g. after 4.Kh7 Kf7!


As long as White's king is on h7 or h8, preventing Black from reaching g8 and h8, Black keeps his king on the drawing f7/f8 squares. Eventually White will either advance his pawn as far as possible and be stalemated, or he'll try to get his king off of the h-file (e.g. moving to g6), which allows Black to play ...Kg8 and reach the previously described drawing scenario.

There is one exception to this rule that the defender will draw by getting to the B7/B8 square first:



Here, 1.h7! prevents 1...Kg8 and wins.

Studying basic endgames allows you to spot favorable transitions (or avoid unfavorable transitions) to them from more complicated endgames. An example occurred in one of my recent ICC games, where I had White:



If White chooses to capture the d-pawn, does he have to be afraid about Black trading off all the rooks and threatening to queen the h-pawn? {Fritz actually prefers 39.Rg2+!, but we'll let that slide}. No. After 39.Rxd4 Rxd4+ 40.Rxd4 Rxd4+? (Keeping a rook offers the best defensive chances for Black), 41.Kxd4+- Kxf5:


Black has traded down to a lost pawn endgame. On the kingside, we have the standard draw vs. a rook's pawn. However, White has a majority on the queen's side, which wins on its own. The game concluded: 42.b4 (no rush) Kg4 43.Ke4 (or 43.a4--still no need to rush) Kh3 44.Kf3 Kxh2 45.Kf2:


and now the win is clear. The game concluded 45...Kh3 46.a4 Kg4 47.b5 axb5 48.axb5 h4 49.b6 h3 50.b7 h2 51.Kg2 1-0.

If you've avoided studying endgames up to this point, hear me now and believe me later: mastering these basic positions will help your chess.

Reference: Secrets of Pawn Endings, by Muller and Lamprecht