Title: Chess Endgames 4: Strategical Endgames
Author: Karsten Müller
Publisher: ChessBase
Genre: Endgame/Strategy
Level: Mostly for intermediate players (except for chapter 12, which is for advanced players)
Here is a classic scene from Superman 1: A nuclear missile blows up, causing an earthquake. The earthquake breaks a piece of train tracks. Oh no! A train is running towards the broken tracks! If the train could only pass the broken piece of rail it would continue its journey safely, if not, the train and all the passengers are lost. On the very last second, Superman arrives at the scene and lets the train ride on his back thus filling the gap between the two parts of missing track.
Many chess players feel like the driver of that poor train when they arrive at the beginning of the endgame. Many of us have experienced something like the following scenario: the opening went pretty well, in the middlegame you even succeeded in grabbing a pawn, or maybe your opponent sacrificed a pawn for an attack that did not go well. In any case you have, say, a queen, a bishop and five pawns to your opponent’s Queen, knight and four pawns.
Your endgame knowledge tells you that the pawn endgame is won for you. You are not sure if you would win if the queens were swapped or if the knight and bishop would be off the board but you would definitely have the advantage. However, you also know that a queen and a knight are better than a queen and a bishop but how important is it? Is this enough to compensate for your opponent’s lost pawn? Are you playing for a win or for a draw? If you could only find somebody to advise you on the next five moves you would be back on track.
Well, these moments in the early endgame are exactly where Müller’s DVD, Chess Endgame 4: Strategical Endgames, becomes handy. These early endgames are not taught enough because they are less technical and thus harder to teach than the basic endgames. Alas, you have to survive them in order to get to the technical endgames that you already know and Müller plays Superman pretty effectively so that you get to those endgames. To make things clearer let me tell you what materials are covered in the DVD:
Rook and Minor Piece vs. Rook (16 lectures)
Rook vs. Bishop and Knight (8 lectures)
Rook and Minor Piece vs. Rook and Minor Piece (10 lectures)
Queen and Knight vs. Queen and Bishop (8 lectures)
Bishop Pair (9 lectures)
Double Rook (10 lectures)
You get a total of 61 one lectures that average around ten minutes. Each lecture revolves around one endgame position. All chapters are of extreme practical importance for intermediate players (1500-2000 ELO) except for the first chapter (Rook and Minor Piece vs. Rook). In my practice, I never arrived at a position of Rook and Minor Piece vs. Rook without any pawns on the board. I think these positions are more often seen in rapid master games than in intermediate players’ games so I don’t recommend watching that chapter until you reach a 2200 ELO.
As I said, the other lectures are highly educating for the intermediate player. For example, consider this position (Paaske-Lund, Politiken Cup, 2003). Imagine that you are White and it is your move.
You probably know that with pawns on both sides the bishop is better than the knight. However your knight and king are located nicely in the center. Is this enough for full compensation? And how about the rooks, do you want to exchange one pair of rooks? Exchange two pairs of rooks? Do the rooks intensify the bishop’s advantage or diminish it? And what about the pawns, do you want to move them forward or leave them where they are? All these decisions are pretty hard to make on the board, without knowing the rules that Müller gives us.
It is not as if Müller invented the rules for this DVD but he explains them very well. Most of the times Müller uses rules that are well known for masters and he is the first to admit it but as far as I know this is the first time that strategical endgames have been handled in the user friendly format of a DVD. For example, Müller talks about the “Fischer Endgame” and uses examples from Shershevsky and many different chess publications (Schach Magazin 64, Informator and others) but he always gives credit to his sources and he organized them together in a fashion that would save the average amateur a lot of time of searching and combining all the rules into one big picture. What I like the most about the presentation of the material is that Müller asks many questions during the lecture and the viewer is prompted to pause the video and think for himself on what is the right move in the given position. Müller is persistent about asking questions, which makes the viewing interactive and creates a mood of active learning. The learning experience also benefits from the complete smoothness of the software – the videos run well, the sound is good, you can open and close the program forever (as I did) and it never crashes and last but not least, the user interface of the light Fritz is easy and intuitive. For maximum pleasure and for maximum profit, I recommend users to move the video so that it hides the text on the right side (this will prevent you from peeking at the course of the game and make you think for yourself when Müller asks a question).
If you flow with Müller’s system and you pause and try to answer the questions for yourself you will find your understanding grows rapidly. My own moment of satisfaction came in the sixth lecture of the Double Rook chapter.
In the following position, taken from a game between Grischuk and Shirov (Linares, 2001) I succeeded, as Black, to find the defense Shirov missed. Later, answering other questions, I found Grischuk’s key move and what Grischuk would play on the different replies by Shirov. All my correct answers were simply based on implementing the principles set by Müller in the preceding five lectures – a most gratifying learning experience.
Another similarity between Superman and Müller is that both are pretty serious. While this is understandable from Superman who has to save the world from complete destruction it is less so from Müller who just tries to save some chessbugs, like myself, from exchanging the wrong pawn. It is not that Müller does not have a sense of humor (he can tell you how White takes Black’s pawns as if they were “ripe fruit”) it is only that his jokes do not really work. Nevertheless, Müller’s attempts have their grace – they will remind you of that high-school teacher (usually a teacher of math or science) who makes jokes that are funny because they are so unfunny. In any case the students like that teacher since they know how much he helped them improve their achievements in the subject. Cape or no cape, Müller is the endgame superman.
The Good Things:
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Müller interacts with the viewer, asks many questions and keeps you thinking and not just passively watching
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The Fritz Reader interface is extremely easy to use
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The software runs smoothly and does not crash even when you “torture” it
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The covered material is crucial for intermediate players who want to go beyond the technical endgames and into complex endgames
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A very long DVD – runs for about 6 hours
The Bad Things:
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Müller is extremely grave – do not expect many laughs in this DVD
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The Rook and Piece Vs. Rook endgames are for more advanced audience than the rest of the DVD
Quote: “Calculate to the end, take your time, push the ‘pause’ button”
The Bottom Line: Chess Endgames 4 is a great DVD for practical intermediate players who want to improve their achievements with endgames where both sides have two pieces (Rook + Minor Piece, Queen + Minor Piece, Double Rook endgames, Bishop Pair)
Rating: 9/10
Review written by Moshe Rachmuth.
More about Endgames in our June Endgame Mania