Showing posts with label endings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label endings. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Endgame mate
Mates in the endgame are often amusing and also instructive. Here white came up with a nice mating net:
1.Rh3+! Bxh3 2.gxh3 Rhc8 3.Rg2+ Kh3 4.Kf2!
It's always very aesthetic when material is sacrificed and then followed up with a quiet move. After these calm king move, black has no defence against the threat of Rg3++ followed by Rh3#
It should be noted that 2...Rb5 is a better defensive try but on the other hand instead of being immediately mated black loses material after 3.Rg8+ picking up the h8 rook.
1.Rh3+! Bxh3 2.gxh3 Rhc8 3.Rg2+ Kh3 4.Kf2!
It's always very aesthetic when material is sacrificed and then followed up with a quiet move. After these calm king move, black has no defence against the threat of Rg3++ followed by Rh3#
It should be noted that 2...Rb5 is a better defensive try but on the other hand instead of being immediately mated black loses material after 3.Rg8+ picking up the h8 rook.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Nice simplifcation pattern
Had white here in this position against an IM on ICC.
It woud be easy to wrong here with 30.Qxa6? and all of a sudden black is better after 30...Qd2! Instead I found a forced way to get a winning endgame.
30.Qxd8! Bxd8 31.Nc6 Bb6 32.cxb5 axb5 33.Bxf6 gxf6 34.a4!
It is clear now that the a-pawn just can't be stopped as the knight controls all the black squares along the way to queening. And the black king is too far away to push the knight away from it's strong post!
It woud be easy to wrong here with 30.Qxa6? and all of a sudden black is better after 30...Qd2! Instead I found a forced way to get a winning endgame.
30.Qxd8! Bxd8 31.Nc6 Bb6 32.cxb5 axb5 33.Bxf6 gxf6 34.a4!
It is clear now that the a-pawn just can't be stopped as the knight controls all the black squares along the way to queening. And the black king is too far away to push the knight away from it's strong post!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Comical finish in recent game
This position was seen in a recent game between young GM Dariusz Swiercz from Poland vs IM Twan Burg from the Netherlands.
Black is doing a great job of outplaying his opponent (the eventual winner of the tournament) and one would think that white would have to suffer for a long time in this position! Let's see what happened:
62. Ra4+ Ke3 63. Ra3+ Kd2 64. Rd3+ Ke1 65. Kg1
Hmmm...well black has activated his king but now it's a little cramped and white all of a sudden threatens Nf2 with a mate threat on d1. So black reacts, probably thinking he has this under control.
65...e4 66. Rd4 Rb6
Probably intending to meet 67. Nf2 with 67...Rb1 stopping the mate.
67.Nf4 exf3 68.gxf3
68. Nxd5 Nxd5 69. Rxd5 f2+ followed by ...Kxf1 and black wins. Now Ng2# is threatened so...
68...Bxf3
69. Be2! Ooooopps!
Suddenly mate is again threatened on d1. And stopping it with Rb1 loses the f3 bishop with continued mate threats.
69...Bxe2 70. Ng2#
A truly comical ending that deserves a diagram!
If in doubt, checkmate!
Black is doing a great job of outplaying his opponent (the eventual winner of the tournament) and one would think that white would have to suffer for a long time in this position! Let's see what happened:
62. Ra4+ Ke3 63. Ra3+ Kd2 64. Rd3+ Ke1 65. Kg1
Hmmm...well black has activated his king but now it's a little cramped and white all of a sudden threatens Nf2 with a mate threat on d1. So black reacts, probably thinking he has this under control.
65...e4 66. Rd4 Rb6
Probably intending to meet 67. Nf2 with 67...Rb1 stopping the mate.
67.Nf4 exf3 68.gxf3
68. Nxd5 Nxd5 69. Rxd5 f2+ followed by ...Kxf1 and black wins. Now Ng2# is threatened so...
68...Bxf3
69. Be2! Ooooopps!
Suddenly mate is again threatened on d1. And stopping it with Rb1 loses the f3 bishop with continued mate threats.
69...Bxe2 70. Ng2#
A truly comical ending that deserves a diagram!
If in doubt, checkmate!
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