Planning in the endgame
Lessons that can be applied elsewhere, I hope; if you have examples of games where you have struggled, send them in.
How to plan, anyway (from Jeremy Silman).
Botvinnik-Kann
Here is a breakdown of the different imbalances:
1) Material (owning pieces of greater value than the opponent's).
2) Space (the annexation of territory on a chess board).
3) Superior Minor Piece (the interplay between Bishops and Knights).
4) Pawn Structure (a broad subject that encompasses doubled pawns, isolated pawns, etc.).
5) Control of a key file or square (files and diagonals act as pathways for your pieces, while squares act as homes
6) Lead in development (more force in a specific area of the board).
7) Initiative (dictating the tempo of a game).
Recognising these imbalances (you will find definitions to all these terms in the Glossary at the end of this book) and understanding their relationship to planning will be the main focus of this book. If we are to use these things properly we must be able to break down our thinking in a way that allows us to dissect any particular position.
Here are the stages of my thinking technique that enables us to accomplish this:
1. Figure out the positive and negative imbalances for both sides.
2. Figure out the side of the board you wish to play on. You can only play where a favourable imbalance or the possibility of creating a favourable imbalance exists.
3. Don't calculate! Instead, dream up various fantasy positions, i.e., the positions you would most like to achieve.
4. Once you find a fantasy position that makes you happy, you must figure out if you can reach it. If you find that your choice was not possible to implement, you must create another dream position that is easier to achieve.
5. Only now do you look at the moves you wish to calculate (called candidate moves). The candidate moves are all the moves that lead to our dream position. This will be discussed fully in Part Three of this book.
Let's now take a look at this thinking technique in action. If it seems difficult, don't panic! It just takes practice. Nobody ever said that getting your thoughts to work in a structured way would be easy!
Complete game
Elements of endgame planning:
1. Passed pawn
2. Pawn majority
3. Rook on the seventh
4. Infiltration (Weak colour complex), blockade, breakthrough
5. Accumulation theory
6. Two weaknesses
7. Manoeuvring
8. Minority attack
9. Endgame technique
A bit of Capablanca magic
"Once in a lobby of the Hall of Columns of the Trade Union Centre in Moscow a group of masters were analysing an ending. They could not find the right way to go about things and there was a lot of arguing about it. Suddenly Capablanca came into the room. He was always find of walking about when it was his opponent's turn to move. Learning the reason for the dispute the Cuban bent down to the position, said 'Si, si,' and suddenly redistributed the pieces all over the board to show what the correct formation was for the side trying to win. I haven't exaggerated. Don Jose literally pushed the pieces around the board without making moves. He just put them in fresh positions where he thought they were needed."
"Suddenly everything became clear. The correct scheme of things had been set up and now the win was easy. We were delighted by Capablanca's mastery..."
-- KOTOV, Think like a Grandmaster, tr. Cafferty, pub. 1971 Batsford.
Alekhin plays for a win
The best books for further study of endgame planning are undoubtedly Shereshevsy's..thumbnail.jpg "3D Chinese Chess Set (detail)")
.thumbnail.jpg "South American Chess Set (rear)")
.thumbnail.jpg "Dolls House Chess Set (magnetic)")
.thumbnail.jpg "Chinese Chess Set (2D)")
.thumbnail.JPG "Chess Set for Makruk (Thai or Cambodian Chess)")
