Why is it that most amateur chess players love opening and middlegame tactics but hate endgames? Why do you usually look at only a couple of pages in any endgame theory book you see? Sit back, forget about theoretical endgames, and enjoy the entertainment of real life chess in Endgame Tactics !
There is no substitute for hard work in getting better at chess, as a wise grandmaster once said. But you always work harder at something you enjoy. Make the first step towards improving your endgame play (and beat more opponents) by learning to love the endgame. Endgames are fun, and the examples from everyday practice in Endgame Tactics prove it.
Foreword
'Endgame Tactics' is the result of approximately 30 years of collecting, analysing and categorising. It has grown into a collection of endgames that have a particular charm for me on account of their special character. I have cast them into a framework and lit-tle by little, a course of instruction developed, treating manyl varieties of tactical possibilities that occur in endgame practice. I have drawn on every source I could find. Original analyses I have often rewritten or placed in a different context. I have used the original manuscript for a series on the endgame in the Dutch correspondence chess magazine Schaakschakeringen. Relevant reactions by readers I have later incorporated in this book.
Many players consider the study of the endgame a necessary evil. Resignedly, they plough their way through one or more standard works, restricting themselves to basic positions or, on the contrary, a few exceptionally ingenious studies. Most of them do not find it very exciting.
Actually this is a pity, for in the endgame, too, there is a lot to be enjoyed and a thorough study of a great number of practical fragments has taught me that even this phase of the chess struggle can produce many different types of drama. Clever tactical tricks, gruesome blunders and other tragicomic scenes, it's all possible. When after many hours of toil the end of the game is nigh, it is a difficult task for many to keep a clear head, to control their nerves and to make optimal use of the opportunities that present themselves.
Especially a well-developed feeling for the multitude of tactical possibilities contained in the endgame often signifies the difference between a full point and an annoying zero!
Of course, an investigation like this can always be continued, supplied and extended with new and previously undiscovered older material. I don't know if I will be able to do this, or if others will take over. But it is clear to me that it is important that the entire field of tactical possibilities is charted and will be in the future.
I owe many thanks to the New In Chess staff, who have cooperated with me, screened my work scrupulously and moulded it into a form which suited my purposes perfectly.
I sincerely hope that the reader will derive as much pleasure from studying the presented material as I have derived from writing it.
G.C. van Perlo
Preface to the new, improved and expanded edition
For this new edition of Van Perlo’s Endgame Tactics we have prepared a special surprise for you: an extra part with almost 300 fresh examples!
In 1998, after Wim Andriessen had started working on the first edition of this legendary tome, Ger van Perlo sent him another 100-page manuscript which had not yet been published in Dutch. It consisted of some fantastic new material in rook
endgames, organized in the same structure as Part III in Endgame Tactics, which corresponds with booklets 2 and 3 of the version that had been published in Dutch in the 1990s. The Dutch correspondence chess grandmaster and chess author suffered a stroke shortly afterwards and passed away in 2010.
At the time it was decided not to include this new part into the compilation, for various practical reasons. First we wanted to see if there was a market for this work at all. Well, as you may know, worldwide the reactions exceeded all expectations. So now that the time came for a fourth edition, six years after the third, we decided to take another plunge and add Van Perlo’s ‘secret book’ to the manuscript, expanding it to a whopping 600-odd pages.
We could have added this material to the chapters in Part III, but decided against this as Van Perlo had written it as an independent new book in Dutch, and in order to keep the work ‘pure Van Perlo’ we thought it better to present it as a separate part in the back of this book. As a new feature, the Dutchman had added a series of exercises for the reader to test himself with. You’ll find all this in Part V from page 465 in this edition!
Also in this new part you will find a fresh number of exciting endgame struggles, brilliancies and tragic mistakes, all celebrated by Van Perlo in his contagiously humoristic style. This part has also been scrutinized by my colleague René Olthof with the help of Houdini 1.5 and the tablebases. And, infected by Van Perlo’s enthusiasm, we couldn’t help but make an addition here and there. For example, when I saw position 1294 (Smyslov-Flohr), I was immediately reminded of the very recent fragment Peng-Burg, played in Groningen last year.
And then of course there were still enthusiastic readers from all over the world who kept writing through the years, enriching and refining the already published material. With the help of Steve Murdoch we were able to refine the analysis of fragment
127 (Zhilin-Chernov), and both Eckhard Hoffman and David Hotham pointed out to us that in Smirin-Polovodin we had given a wrong line. Karsten Müller told us that Grünfeld may not actually have resigned in fragment 5, against Colle, and Hans Ree
told us how his victory over Polugaevsky actually went (diagram 439).
And so we’re getting ever closer to the truth, although, like Achilles in the race with the Tortoise in Zeno’s paradox, we will never quite catch up with it!
Many thanks to all these contributors to this wonderful project, which will un doubtedly remain alive for years to come.
Peter Boel
New In Chess
March 2014
Content:
017 Part I Pawn Endgames
018 Chapter 1 More than Meets the Eye
018 A) Is it really all that simple?
020 B) Trompe l'oeil
023 Chapter 2 Typical Motifs
023 A) Zugzwang
027 B) Breakthrough
031 C) Outside passed pawns
036 D) Pawn sacrifices
040 Chapter 3 Upsets
040 A) Marvellous tricks
043 B) A few more blunders
045 Part II Queen Endgames
046 Chapter 1 Pure Queen Endgames
048 A) Zugzwang
049 B) The march of the passed pawn
050 C) Mating attacks
052 D) Stalemate tricks
060 E) Pawn sacrifices, liquidations and other goodies
063 F) Some more blunders to round off
066 Chapter 2 Queen + Minor Piece versus Queen + Minor Piece
067 A) Queens with Bishops of opposite colour
070 B) Queens with Bishops of the same colour
074 C) Queen + Knight versus Queen + Knight
080 D) Queen + Bishop versus Queen + Knight
088 Chapter 3 Queen + Rook versus Queen + Rook
088 A) Mating attacks
090 B) Queen sacrifices
093 C) Rook sacrifices
098 D) Stalemate combinations
100 E) Queen + Rook versus Queen + Rook: Miscellaneous
104 Chapter 4 Queen Endgames: Various Types
104 A) Queen + Rook versus Queen + Bishop
108 B) Queen + Rook versus Queen + Knight
110 C) Queen versus Rook + Minor Piece
117 D) Queen versus Two Rooks
121 E) Queen versus other material
133 Part III Rook Endgames
134 Chapter 1 Introduction
136 Chapter 2 Pure Rook Endgames
136 A) Disappointment, despair and discontent
138 B) Stalemate tricks
152 C) Rook Endgames with equal number of Pawns
168 Chapter 3 Pure Rook Endgames with Extra Pawn(s)
168 A) Rook + 2 Pawns versus Rook + 1 Pawn
178 B) Rook + 3 Pawns versus Rook + 2 Pawns
186 C) Rook + 4 Pawns versus Rook + 3 Pawns
193 D) Rook with 5 or 6 versus Rook with 4 or 5 Pawns
198 E) Two or more extra Pawns
203 Chapter 4 Rook + Minor Piece versus Rook + Minor Piece
204 A) Rooks with Bishops of the same colour
219 B) Rooks with Bishops of opposite colour
231 C) Rook + Knight versus Rook + Knight
243 D) Rook + Bishop versus Rook + Knight
264 Chapter 5 The Exchange - Rook versus Minor Piece
264 A) Rook versus Bishop
275 B) Rook versus Knight
283 C) 2 Rooks versus Rook + Bishop
291 D) Two Rooks versus Rook + Knight
294 E) Rook and Minor Piece versus Two Minor Pieces
299 Chapter 6 Other Endgames of Rooks with Minor Pieces
299 A) Rook versus Bishop pair
302 B) Rook versus 2 Knights
303 C) Rook versus Bishop and Knight
308 D) Rook + Bishop versus Rook
314 E) Rook + Knight versus Rook
318 F) Bizarre curiosities
319 Chapter 7 Endgames with 4 (or 3) Rooks
319 A) Rampant Rooks
325 B) Mating attacks
330 C) Other tricks
337 Chapter 8 Rook versus Pawn(s)
337 A) Rook versus 1 Pawn
340 B) Rook versus 2 Pawns
345 C) Rook versus 3 or more Pawns
347 D) Rook with Pawn(s) versus Pawns
355 Part IV Minor Piece Endgames
356 Chapter 1 Pure Bishop Endgames
356 A) Bishops of the same colour
373 B) Bishops of opposite colour
386 Chapter 2 Pure Knight Endgames
404 Chapter 3 Bishop versus Knight
406 A) The Bishop side dominates
416 B) The Knight side dominates
430 Chapter 4 Endgames with More Minor Pieces
430 A) The possession of the Bishop pair
436 B) The possession of Two Knights
439 C) Knight + Bishop versus Knight + Bishop
443 D) Various Endgames with Minor Pieces
445 Chapter 5 Minor Piece(s) versus Pawn(s)
445 A) Bishop versus Pawns
454 B) Knight versus Pawns
462 C) More Pieces against Pawns
465 Part V More Rook Endgames
466 Chapter 1 Introduction
468 Chapter 2 Pure Rook Endgames
488 Chapter 3 Pure Rook Endgames with Extra Pawn(s)
502 Chapter 4 Rook + Minor Piece versus Rook + Minor Piece
536 Solutions to Exercises
544 Chapter 5 The Exchange - Rook versus Minor Piece
562 Chapter 6 Other Endgames of Rooks with Minor Pieces
574 Chapter 7 Endgames with 4 (or 3) Rooks
588 Chapter 8 Rook verus Pawn(s)
591 Solutions to Exercises
592 Index of Names
605 Glossary of Terms
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