Endgames from the FIDE Grand Swiss.


Developments at the FIDE Grand Swiss currently taking place in Uzbekistan, show once again that knowledge of the endgame is so important if you want to make progress in chess.



White thought for 16 minutes here, which at least shows that he realized the importance of the decision, but still went wrong with Bxf6?? When Bc1! which have enabled him to hold. Which just goes to show that however strong you are, calculating these endgames can be extremely difficult, especially when under the pressure of ticking clock and determined opponent.



The mistake in Shankland-Firouzja was no less significant. Shankland went wrong here with bxa5?? which lost to ... bx5 Kd4 Kf3! when presumably what the American overlooked, that when black queens on h1, it will come with check.  Instead of taking on a5, then Ke2! holds. One of the main points if Ke2! ... Ke4 b5! ... d4 cxd4 ... Kxd4 Kf3! and if the black king goes to take the a-pawn, then the white king will march to b6 and grab the b-pawn.


Shankland took only two minutes of his considerable time to make the losing blunder, but I'm not sure what this indicates. Had he switched off after Firouzja's long think, or did he just want to escape the mental pressure of this difficult endgame?


In any case the fact that a 2600+ Grandmaster found it tricky to navigate what on the face of it looks like a relatively simple king and pawn endgame, shows that in fact these endings are often nothing but.




This is another tricky endgame and one of the stars of the tournament so far in Divya Deshmukh, failed to hold it from the white side. In fairness it is probably the weakest part of her game- she clearly flourishes in the middlegame.  The ending looks at first glance to be a dead draw, because we have a rook endgame with level pawns. But then dig deeper and it is clear that black is much more active and white has to defend carefully. 


In the game Divya played f5? But that turned out to be a losing mistake after the accurate response ... g5! when the black king can march to f6 in many lines and win the f-pawn.


Instead, a better defence was to play the rook to a1 in the initial position. No doubt Divya was concerned about the possibility of black playing ... f5, followed by ... Kf7, ... Ke6, ... Kd5, when the white position looks very passive. However at some moment later, white will be able to play a4! and activate the rook, after which many checks will come and black will have to leave the kingside to be taken, if they want to run the king up the board. 




                                          Even the mighty Divya, still needs to do work on the endgame.


All these examples demonstrate that even the best players in the world have to keep working on the endgame. 



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