Understanding Rook Endgames PDF
Preview Understanding Rook Endgames
u n,. · rst nding Rook � ru '. i� n m· s Ed, First published in the UK-by Gambit Publications Ltd 2016 C:opyright ©Karsten Mi.iller and Yakov Konoval 2016 fhe right of Karsten Mtiller and Yakov Konoval to be identified as the authors of this work has been 1sserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. <\JI rights reserv.ed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a �etrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photoco Jying, recording or otherwise), without prior permission of the publisher. In particular, no part of :his publication may be scanned, transmitted via the Internet or uploaded to a website without the rnblisher's permission. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication nay be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage. :SBN-13: 978-1-910093-81-8 :SBN-10: 1-910093-81-5 )JSTRIBUTION: Norldwide (except USA): Central Books Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, England. rel +44 (0)20 8986 4854 Fax +44 (0)20 8533 5821.E-mail: [email protected] }ambit Publications Ltd, 99 Wallis Rd, London E9 5LN, England. �-mail: [email protected] iVebsite (regularly updated): www.gambitbooks.com �dited by Graham Burgess fypeset by Petra Nunn :over image by Wolff Morrow 1rinted in the USA by Bang Printing, Brainerd, Minnesota 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 �ambit Publications Ltd >irectors: Dr John Nunn GM, Murray Chandler GM, and Graham Burgess FM rennan Editor: Petra Nunn WFM Symbols 5 Introduction 6 Foreword by John Nunn 7 Sources · 9 Statistics 10 !Rook and !Pawn vs Rook n 1 A Centre, Bishop's or Knight's Pawn 1.1 11 A Rook's Pawn 1.2 19 Longest Wins 23 1.3 2 !Rook aiild Two Pawns vs Rook 25 2.1 Two Connected Passed Pawns 25 2.2 Two Isolated Pawns 30 2.3 Doubled Pawns 44 2.4 Longest Wins 46 Rook and IPaiwn vs Rook and Pawn 48 3 3 Rook vs Pawn .1 48 3.2 Rook and Pawn vs Rook and Pawn 52 Rook and Two !Pawns vs Rook and Pawn 4 63 The History of Creating Seven-Man Endgame Tablebases 63 4.1 4.2 Statistics 66 4.3 No Passed Pawns and Pawns Connected 67 No Passed Pawns and Pawns Isolated 4.4 95 The Attacker Has a Connected Passed Pawn 4.5 99 The Attacker Has a Nearby Isolated Passed Pawn 4.6 128 One Outside Passed Pawn 4.7 148 All Passed Pawns, Connected and Close Together 4.8 175 All Passed Pawns, Connected and Far Apart 4.9 180 Attacker's Pawns Passed, Isolated and Close Together 4.10 193 Attacker's Pawns Passed, Isolated and Far Apart 4.11 197 UNDERSTANDING ROOK ENDGAMES 4 Doubled Pawns vs Pawn 4.12 Studies 204 4.13 208 Computer Games 4.14 210 L01�gest Wins 4.15 212 ElTors in Con-espondence Games 4.16 216 The Fourth Phase of the Game 4.17 217 The "Single Pawn is Playing for a Win 4.18 219 Principles of Rook Endings 5 223 Theoretical Endgames 6 228 Historic Games 7 231 IDouble-Rool< Endings 8 238 Solutions 245 Indexes 284 Players 284 Composers and Analysts 287 Longest Wins 287 Unnamed Examples 287 Symbo�s + check ++ double check x captures # checkmate !! brilliant move ! good move (objectively) good practical decision !? poor practical decision ?! bad move (objectively) ? blunder +??- winning position for White = drawn position winning position for Black -+ DTC distance to conversion DTM distance to mate 1-0 The game ends in a win for White The game ends in a draw lf2-1h 0-1 The game ends in a win for Black Ch Championship Con. Correspondence game nth match game (11) (D) see next diagram . Note that we do not adhere strictly to the 'Nunn Convention'. in this book. Thus if we mark a move as '!', this does not necessarily imply that it is the only move that does not change the result. When we present longest wins, we give the symbols '!' and '! ! special meanings, which we des ' ctibe in those sections. There are good. reasons why it makes sense to study rook endings in detail. They occur more often in practical play than other types of endgame, and they contain a lot of concrete positions that are well worth knowing. Consequently, there already is a rich literature on rook endings. Why add an other book to this collection? Computer technology is advancing and moves endgame theory forward. Co-author Yakov Kono val and. Marc Bourzutschky have created seven-man tablebases and so the definitive verdict on all such positions and optimal lines are known for certain; now seven-man Lomonosov tablebases are available online. While this raw data makes it easy to look up the result of any seven-man position, it is hard to gain much human understanding in this way. Marc and Yakov have developed additional software which provides much more interesting information such as longest wins, zugzwangs, typi cal positions and so qn. Thanks to this software there are many new insights that we present in this book. The book follows a dual philosophy. Chapter 4 deals with the seven-man endings in detail, sorted by pawn configuration. They are often so deep that pre-tablebase analysis almost always contains mistakes. Many new discoveries are revealed here. Chapters 1-3 contain the five-man and six-man endings that a club or tournament player should_ know. But to really understand rook endings, these theoretical positions are not enough on their own. In addition to giving a mass of practical examples, exercises and guidelines throughout the theoretical sections, we have added chapters on the principles of rook endings, histmic games and double-rook endings. Finally we want to thank Gambit for their good cooperation, Graham Burgess for editing, Petra Nunn for typesetting, and John Nunn for his foreword. Karsten Muller and Yakov Konoval February 2016 Foreword by John Nunn Advances in science and technology have often been viewed with concern and even fear. Organ transplantation and in-vitro fertilization were initially highly controversial, but after a remarkably short time these techniques have become regarded as standard. It can't be proved, but I suspect that the invention of the wheel and the taming of fire provoked a similar negative reaction. In chess, the appearance of endgame tablebases and playing engines stronger than any human player triggered dire predictions about 'the end of chess', but chess lives on. Today, nobody would consider doing serious opening preparation without the use of an engine, and similarly endgame analysis without the use of tablebases is almost unthinkable. Each new generation of tablebases has led to unexpected discoveries. Even the very first four-man tablebases showed, for example, that winning vs was much harder than had been WV J;i supposed. The five-man tablebases revealed that, contrary to almost all endgame books, the end ing of2Sl vs was generally won. Six-man tablebases encroached on many endings of practical li:::i importance,. especially that of Jl+� vs Jl+�, but for me the most unexpected discovery was that the ending of V!V+g�+h� vs � was generally drawn. Now that seven-man tablebases exist for all endings of practical importance, one can expect not only new revelations, but also corrections and refinements to existing theory. However, there is one problem which already cropped up with five-man endings. Tablebases may provide an infallible or acle, but distilling anything useful from huge quantities of raw data is far from easy. My three books based around the five-man tablebases (Secrets of Rook Endings, Secrets of Pawnless Endings and Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings) provided a first insight into how tablebases could be inter preted by a human author, and the next generation has carried on the work to more complex end ings. The book you are reading represents the current pinnacle of efforts to interpret tablebases and use them to provide practical chess-improving advice. Although there is coverage of several other material balances, this book focuses largely on the seven-man ending which is probably of greatest practical importance, l:+2� vs Jl+�. It's an ending which arises frequently in practice, and is difficult enough that even the very top players make mis takes handling it (see Rublevsky-Kasparov on page 168, for example). The authors' systematic.ex ploration of this ending, based on a large number of practical examples, will benefit all players. Just as an example of the type of principle which can be easily remembered and is of real benefit, talce a look at Istratescu-Bancod on page 129. If you didn't already know the correct defensive plan of giving up the h-pawn and keeping the king on f7, it would be almost impossible to work it ·out over-the-board. Another tricky point arises in S. Cvetkovic-V. Kovacevic on page 150. It appears that Black's rook is ideally posted behind. the a-pawn, and it is hard to imagine that his first move al ready threw away the draw. The plan of playing ... lie2, threatening ....i:i e5-a5, is very hard to see. White has nothing better than to push his a-pawn, but then, paradoxically, Black's rook returns to its original post. The point is that provided Black prevents White from playing h5 (with his rook on f5), the white rook no longer has a secure spot and can be harassed by Black's king. The creation (or elimination) of stable square for the attacker's rook is an important general principle, which is .a vividly illuminated by this example. . There is similar practical advice to be found throughout the book; it may not be the easiest read, but anyone prepared to put in some effort will learn a great deal about rook endings. The large num ber of exercises, some fairly straightforward but some really challenging, are an added bonus and � will give the reader the chance to try out his (or er) new knowledge. 8 UNDERSTANDING ROOK ENDGAMES There is also light relief and some positions of no practical importance are, nevertheless, abso lutely amazing.to see. Take a look at position 4.17.04 on page 218, for example. Black's a-pawn is about to promote with check, so every white move needs to be a check, but who would guess that it takes 94 consecutive checks (without a capture) to finish Black off? The apparently endless checks seem to go round and round in circles without any apparent progress being made, but suddenly it's all over and Black is mated. In summary, Understanding Rook Endgames is a genuinely valuable contribution to the litera ture on rook endings, pushing back the theoretical boundaries while remaining rooted in the practi cal game. John Nunn Chertsey, February 2016 Books F111zdamental Chess Endings, Karsten MUiier and Frank Lamprecht, Gambit 2001 How to Play Chess Endgames, Karsten MUiier and Wolfgang Pajeken, Gambit 2008 . Understanding Cl1ess Endgames, John Nunn, Gambit 2009 Nwm's Chess Endings Volume 2, John Nunn, Gambit 2010 Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, Mark Dvoretsky, Russell Enterprises 2003, 4th edition 2014 Encyclopedia of Chess Endings (ECE) Slzak/zmatnye Okonchaniya (Volume 5: Rook Endings), Yuri Averbakh and Nikolai Kopaev, Fizkultura i Sport, 2nd edition 1984 DVDs Chess Endgames 1-14, Miiller, ChessBase Fritztrainer DVDs, Hambl.Irg 2006-13 Periodicals and Magazines Informator New in Chess Magazine ChessBase Magazine (CBM) and CBM Blog at ChessBase.com The Week in Chess Chess Today Endgame Corner at ChessCafe.com Databases and Programs ChessBase Mega Database 2014 Harold van der Heijden's study database -Komodo-8-and-9·------------------------ Deep Fritz 13 Deep Rybka4 Houdini 4 Konoval's five-man, six-man and seven-man tablebases Nalimov's five-man and six-man tablebases Syzygy five-man and six-man tablebases
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