Understanding Rook Endgames

288 Pages·2016·27.797 MB·English

by  Karsten Müller, Yakov Konoval

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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 [phone] Fax [phone].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