Just The Facts: Endgame Book

Yesterday I spent my day in Casablanca and Rabat with my ward. In Casablanca, he attended his weekly Yoga-3C sessions and in the afternoon he did a two hour ice skating in Megamall, Rabat. Don't be misled, Megamall they call it but our minimall in the Philippines is even mega than theirs.

So what has the book got to do with it?

I brought my newly printed Just The Facts! Winning Endgame Knowledge In One Volume by GM's Lev Alburt and Nikolay Krogius. This is the seventh and final volume of Comprehensive Chess Course, one of the all time bestseller.

There are three distinguishing characteristics of an endgame according to them:

1. Endgames favor an aggressive King;
2. The Importance of passed pawn is greatly increased in the endgame;
3. Zugzwang- the "compulsion to move" when doing so forces a player into a worsened or even losing position - is often a factor in the endgame while almost unheard of in the other games.

I read up and finished the first chapter and early morning today, I played white with a 10 minute time control at FICS and reached this position below:

It was my 35th move and I did a Kg2 hoping to go up the rank and protect my f4 pawn then trap his N on f5. The game continued: 35...f6 36.Kf3 fxe5 37.fxe5 Ke6 38. g4 Nf6 39. exf6 gxf6 40. h4 c5 41.Ke3 f5.

I was at the crossroads between trapping his Knight and positioning my Bishop on c5 square but I chose to overpower the enemy and did the former.

After black's 41...f5



I was way up on time here, my clock was just hitting the 5 minute mark while my opponent has less than 3 minutes to use. It took me about a minute to decide whether I'll take the pawn on f5 or push my g pawn to 5th rank.

I also had to consider with fear the dominating center control of black's pawn with his King on e6. Whew!

The game continued with 42. gxf5+ gxf5 43. h5 passed pawn right? I wanted to push as much as I can to distract the black King 43...Kf6 44.Bc7 at least activate my sleeping Bishop 44...Kg5 threat on my passed pawn but I can't do anything to protect it so I tried to inch closer with another threat 45.Bd6 d4+ 46. Kf3 I did'nt want to allow his f pawn to march further on 46. Ke2 Kxh5 47.a4 Kg4 48. Bc5 a6 I thought he would move d3+ before he pushes his a pawn on the 6th rank but he did not 49. Bxd4 Kf4 Now I can breath better when I saw my Bishop controlling the a7-g1 dark diagonal. It's time to wait for the zugzwang and I think Bishops are a good piece for this.

The game continued with 51. a5 I wanted to make sure that my Bishop will be placed protected on b6 square no matter what 51...Ke4 52. Bb6 f4 From here I knew I'll take the point here or I'll draw at least.

After 52...f4



Sixteen moves later my opponent resigned with the position below:



I had to be patient as I had to wait to win any King opposition he threw but with a Bishop on my side, it was easier. Both Kings had to sway to the rhythm zugzwang and opposition were playing in the end.

The game was perfectly amateurish with a lot of wasted opportunities but I learned a lot from this game. I hope I can play more long games on FICS and read further on the book.

Bye for now! I'll go out and feel the wind and the heat of the sun. I just might watch another French film at the downtown.