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Rook vs Rook and Pawn on the 5th rank
Complementing the previous post: Once again, White to move, red squares signify Black king positions that lead to a draw with perfect play, green squares signify a Black king position leading to a win...
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Rook Pins Following Captures
I have this annoying tendency to overlook rook pins following captures, arguably one of the most common tactical motifs in chess, especially in minor piece+rook endgames. Yesterday, for example, I...
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Endgame Narrative: Rook versus Rook and Pawn on the Fourth
In my ACIS improvement plan, I mentioned “memorising certain endgame positions with the help of gifs”. Endgames, like everything in chess really, are about knowledge and technique. On the one hand,...
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Endgame Narrative: How to Pick Up a Rook with a Queen
Queen and king versus king and rook endgames are a bitch to play when the king is close to his precious rook. The amount of tactical moments that have to be heeded are so vast that construing an...
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Advance the Candidate!
Keeping it simple: advance the “candidate pawn” first. The candidate pawn is the pawn that has no opposing pawn in its way. The lesson is from Hans Kmoch’s The Power of the Pawn.
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Some Resources in Rook Endgames
I’ve been reviewing the A-section of my one and only endgame book, Silman’s Complete Endgame Course, in particular rook versus rook and pawn on the 4th/5th rank. A couple of months ago, I made some...
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Good Philidor and Bad Philidor
For some reason, this just popped into my head. Anyway! Another shout-out to Jeremy Silman’s Complete Endgame Course. Today’s topic: good Philidor and bad Philodor. The Philidor position is a key...
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Passed Pawn Chunks
A shoutout to the Dutch steps method, an excellent self-study course developed by Rob Brunia and Cor van Wijgerden. I’m currently working on the chapter “passed pawns” and thought — to learn as well as...
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Opposite-Colour Bishop Ending and Some Notes on Memorisation
The following gif exemplifies a basic drawing idea in opposite-colour bishop endings: Black wants to control the square of the pawn advance attack pawns so that the enemy king is tied down to their...
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King versus Knight Checks
A useful chunk for the endgame: If your king is exposed to checks by the enemy knight, taking the “diagonal opposition” (squares highlighted in green) to the knight forces the knight to manoeuvre three...
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