Chessville
logo by
ChessPrints
 

Advertise
with
Chessville!!

Advertise to
thousands
of chess
fans for
as little
as $25.

Single insert:
$35
x4 insert:
@ $25 each.

From the
Chessville
Chess Store

From the
Chessville
Chess Store

Capa was Right!

 “Yet the reason why endgames are considered difficult is probably that in the
 endgame it is very small nuances that decide the game.”  –  Lars Bo Hansen

I remember I was just starting out in chess when I came across a copy of Chess Fundamentals by Capablanca.  In the very first chapter he began by teaching not how to open a chess game or how to spot tactics, but rather he started with endgame positions!?  I remember thinking how ridiculous this was.  After all, since I had so little knowledge of how to play the game there was little point in learning the endgame as I knew I would never even last until the endgame!

Aaaaah, what a difference experience makes.  Now looking back with many years of chess under my belt, I realize that learning the power of the pieces when there are just a few of them on the board is critical to becoming a good player.  And this brings us to the subject of this review: a new book on endgame play GM Lars Bo Hansen from Denmark.

However, before we get to that book, some of you may recall that last year when Hansen came out with Foundations of Chess Strategy, I not only thought it brilliant but felt it was a serious candidate for book-of-the-year.  Alas, I was a voice crying out in the wilderness, as the book (to my knowledge) received very little fanfare from the chess world.  This is a shame, as Hansen’s unique way of looking at chess through a business model raises many interesting ideas that I have not seen anywhere else.

Although I was chagrined at the book’s lack of commercial success, apparently the paucity of accolades didn’t detour Hansen, as he now has a new book out: Secrets of Chess Endgame Strategy.  This book is not designed to be a reference book like Müller’s Fundamental Chess Endings, i.e., it doesn’t have chapters on how to play specific endings, such as queen vs. rook, etc.  But rather, it is designed to teach correct overall endgame strategy as opposed to endgame technique.  What is the difference between the two?  Says Hansen in the Introduction:

Strategic endgames are endgames where the result is still ‘in play’ – you cannot look it up in an endgame book or find a database telling you the ‘right’ result and how to achieve it.  In such endgames, knowledge and understanding of general principles are paramount, and hence this book is mainly about strategic endgames.  Examples include positions where one player is trying to exploit the advantage of the two bishops or where a player is defending a position with a spoiled pawn-structure.

 

It might be clear that one of the players has the advantage and is pressing for the win, but the exact way to play and the final result are still in doubt.  But at some point in time, a strategic endgame turns into a technical endgame.  Technical endgames are those where the result is clear even against best play and which can be found in the endgame literature.  Examples include rook endings with rook and pawn against rook or queen vs rook.  For any given position the result is known and the way to win (or draw) is shown.  Consequently, most endgames start out as being strategic and only later do they become technical.

Although the line between the strategic/technical phase often overlaps, when I think of most chess endgame authors, usually their books tend to fall into the technical phase, such as those by John Nunn.  That said, one of my favorite authors, the late Edward Mednis, often touched upon the strategic phase i.e., the making of plans, in his books on the endgame.  However, other than Mikhail Shereshevsky’s Endgame Strategy, this book by Hansen is the only other book that I know of that deals specifically with the strategic aspect of the endgame.

The book’s chapters break down as follows:

1 General Principles
2 The Role of Pawns in the Endgame
3 The Minor Pieces in the Endgame—Bishops and Knights
4 The Major Pieces in the Endgame—Queens and Rooks
5 Various Material Distributions
6 Complex Endgames
7 The Four Types of Chess-Players and the Endgame

Let’s take a brief look at the first two chapters:

1  General Principles

Here Hansen gives his list of the 15 most important principles of endgame play.  They are:

• The importance of pawn-structure

• The principle of two weaknesses

• The space advantage

• Control of squares and files

• Grip and suppressing counterplay

• Domination

• Time: hurry or not?

• Making the right exchanges

• The transformation of advantages

• The two bishops

• Bishops or knights?

• King activity

• Rook activity

• Initiative and attack in the endgame

• Mate and stalemate in the endgame

This is a very useful list as it covers just about all the key principles of endgame play.  For each principle Hansen provides several game examples illustrating that principle.  While many of the examples are quite long and detailed, I will give just one relatively short and straightforward example from the section on Transformation of Advantages:

White to Move

This position is from the game Korchnoi-Lukin Stockholm 2003.  Says Hansen:

Korchnoi won a pawn on move 22, but during the following 60 moves he had not made further progress.  In this ending Black has decent drawing chances, but his last move, 81…Kg7??, was a terrible mistake.  The king should have gone to h7, because now Korchnoi exploits his chance to transform his material advantage into a more valuable one: the opposition.

82. Qf6+!

Returning the pawn to reach a winning king and pawn ending.

82...Qxf6 83.exf6+ Kxf6 84.Kf4!

Black to move

The point.  White gains the opposition and wins by advancing his f-pawn.

84…Ke6

Or 84…Kg7 85 Ke5, and the White king reaches f6.

85.Kg5 Ke5 86.f3! Ke6 87.f4 1-0

White wins after 87…Ke7 88.f5.

I like this example by Hansen because it is so clear. Once you understand the concept of Transformation of Advantages then the move 82.Qf6+! is not terribly difficult to find—especially since there really is no other way to make progress, as for instance 82.f4 leaves the white king too vulnerable to checks.

Interestingly, Shredder 10 doesn’t even see 82.Qf6+!, but instead clings to its material advantage by suggesting 82.Qd4?!, with a slight plus score for white: +1.13.  This is definitely a case of the human being able to assess a future position more accurately than a computer.
 

2  The Role of the Pawns in the Endgame

Hansen begins chapter two by pointing out three characteristics of pawn structures:

• If the pawn-structure is not healthy and connected, this leads to weak pawns, which the opponent can attack.

• A damaged pawn-structure leads to weak squares, which can be occupied by the opponent’s pieces (especially knights).

• All pawns are potential passed pawns, whose greatest desire is to be promoted to pieces!

He then goes on, somewhat amusingly, to describe pawns in an almost human fashion:

Pawns are social beings that need to operate in groups.  They should not be left on their own.  In the endgame, such lonely pawns are potential targets for the skilled opponent.  According to Nimzowitsch, such pawns should be restrained, blockaded, and destroyed.

I like the way Hansen writes; his vivid descriptions really help to get his points across.  For instance, in just one short paragraph, look how much info he gives you on king and pawn endings:

In order for the king to be active, it needs invasion squares—holes in the opponent’s pawn-structure.  A key theme when judging whether to go into a king and pawn endgame is therefore to look for holes in the pawn-structure where the king can invade - or to look for ways to ‘punch” such holes.

Let’s look at one more example from the book.  Take a look at this position (Nijboer-P.H. Nielsen, Istanbul Ech, 2003):

It’s White to play.  What would you do?  Should you trade off bishops or no?  Here’s what Hansen says:

This position arose from the Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez, which has been extremely popular in the beginning of the 2000s following Kramnik’s success with it in his London 2000 match against Kasparov.  Uncharacteristically for this opening though, it is Black who has the healthier pawn-structure, with a sound 3 vs 2 on the queenside as opposed to White’s fragmented kingside structure. White must therefore be careful.  He could keep the bishops on with, for instance, 35.Bh4.  Instead, the Dutch grandmaster goes for an exchange of the last pair of minor pieces, resulting in a pawn ending that should be drawn, but White’s margin for error is smaller than it might appear.

35.Bxb4 axb4 36.g5 Kd7 37.Kd5 c5!

Possibly White was deceived by his active king into thinking that he was in no danger.  Black’s idea is to exploit his queenside majority to liquidate all the pawns on the queenside, while his own king then goes pawn-hunting on the kingside.  White must play accurately to make sure his king returns in time.

38.h3 Ke7 39.h4 Kd7 40.a5?

This is the decisive error! 40.Kc4? loses to 40…Ke6 41.Kb5 Kxe5 42.Kxb6 c4 43.a5 c3 44.a6 c2 45.a7 c1Q 46.a8Q Qxe3+ 47.Kb5 Qxb3–+, but Nunn points out that 40.e4! Ke7 41.a5! draws.  We shall see why in a few moves’ time.

40...bxa5 41.Kxc5 a4! 42.Kxb4 axb3 43.Kxb3 Ke6 44.Kc4 Kxe5 45.Kd3 Kf5!

Here we see why White should have inserted 40.e4! before playing a5: with the pawn on e4 instead of e3 this position would be drawn.

(Here is the drawing line courtesy of Shredder 10 -MJ:  40.e4! Ke7 41.a5 bxa5 42.Kxc5 a4 43.Kxb4 axb3 44.Kxb3 Ke6 45.Kc4 Kxe5 46.Kd3 Kf4 47.Kd4 Kg4 48.Ke5 Kxh4 49.Kf6 Kg4 50.Kxf7 Kf4 51.Kg7 Kxg5 52.Kxh7 Kf6 53.e5+ Kf5 54.e6 Kxe6 55.Kxg6 ½-½)

46.Kd4 Kg4 47.Ke5 Kxh4 48.Kf6 Kg4 49.e4 Kf4 0–1
 

Index of all Reviews

Chess Books & Equipment

The
Chessville
Chess Store
 

Reference
Center
 

The Chessville
 Weekly
The Best Free
Chess
Newsletter
On the Planet!

Subscribe
Today -
It's Free!!

The
Chessville
Weekly
Archives

Discussion
Forum

Chess Links

Chess Rules

Visit the
Chessville
Chess Store