Quality preparation for your opponent today plays a vital role in being successful at the board.
Opening preparation has become a habit for any active player. That's why many chess players spend an impressive number of hours before the game trying to find an idea that will allow them to take their opponent away from his familiar "territory".
In the "previous article", we suggested that by analyzing notable endgames as played by chess masters, you keep learning the finer points of endgame tactics. We are showing you two positions where you can see how sacrificial attacks can be launched against the King’s position. In the first game, both Kings are relatively exposed but one player took advantage of it. While his opponent got a pawn promoted to Queen, he got his pawn promoted to a knight after making some sacrifices to create the opportunity!
We have discussed at length about basic chess endings with Rook and Pawn as also some special techniques for handling a few typical situations. We also said that with Rooks present, a majority of one or two pawns often do not yield much benefit and such chess endgames are more likely to result in a draw, especially if the pawns are on the same side with their Kings close at hand. But that is only a general observation. In this article we go through the lengthy process...
We have shown you "a few endgame compositions" which brought out some specific ideas that could very well be used in some of your endgames. Endgame studies by Grandmasters like "Lasker" and "Reti" are rich in ideas as good as in many of the games they won in tournaments. Genrikh Kasparyan (1910-1995) won Armenian championship several times but not much success in USSR championship and so had to remain satisfied with the title of an International Master.