Chess: The Endgame

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Advanced strategy in the endgame by Jan van Reek

Lesson 2: The attack on the king

Anand, Viswanathan - Kasparov, Gary (1999)

The final aim of the attacker is to mate the opponent. Nevertheless a mating attack rarely occurs in the practical endgame, because an experienced player will resign before it can happen. The attack on the king with few pieces often is a part of the basic theory. An interesting direct attack on the king occurred in Linares 1999.

Ne4 ?

[Correct is Nd7 ! 38. Nb2 Nb6 Kasparov's analysis continues with 39. c4 Bxc4 ! 40. Nxc4 Nxc4+ 41. Kb3 Ne5 ! 42. Ka4 Nc6 ]

38. Nb2 ! The defence of the c-pawns has little importance. Nxc3 39. Nd3+ Ke3 40. Nc5 Bf5 41. Kb2 !A potential defender of the a-pawn is chased away. Nd5 A protection by the king loses matter. 42. Nb7 a4 43. c4 ! Nb6 44. Nd6 Bd3 45. c5 ! Nd5 46. Ka3 Bc2 47. Nb5 ! Ne7 The knight has to stop the c-pawn. 48. Na7 ?

[ Anand could have crowned his wonderful defence with 48. Nc3 ! Kd4 49. Nxa4 Kc4 50. Nb6+ Kxc5 51. Nd7+ ]

Kd4 49. c6 Nd5 50. Nb5+

[ My preference goes to 50. Kb2 ! Bf5 51. Nb5+ Kc5 52. Nc3 Nb6 53. Ka3 Black wins by Nc4+ ! 54. Ka2
[ 54. Kxa4 Bc2# ]
Be6 ! 55. Nxa4+ Kb4 56. Nb2 Nd2+ 57. Ka1 Ka3 58. c7 Nb3+ 59. Kb1 Bf5+ 60. Nd3 Bxd3# ]

Kc5 51. c7 Bf5 !

[ Bf5 ! 52. Kxa4
[ 52. Na7 Nxc7 53. Kxa4 Kb6 ]
Nb6+ 53. Ka5 Nc4+ 54. Ka4 Bc2# ]

0-1

The Endgame

	Introduction
	Struggle:
1.	Attack in the centre
	The attack on the king
3.	The flank attack
4.	Encirclement
	Prophylaxis:
5.	Blockade in general
6.	Blockade by the knight
7.	Restriction in general
8.	Restriction and time
9.	Consolidation
10.	Fortification
11.	Strong and weak squares
12.	Crossing a diagonal
13.	The battle for an important square
14.	Overprotection
15.	Conunterattack: direct confrontation
	Examples:
16.	150 commented endgames