Most people invest time in openings and mid-game study, because that´s where most games are decided. You don´t suck at end-game. You just haven´t been willing to invest more time in the many end-game studies there are out there. By the way, I consider end-game to be the very essence of chess. It´s ´soul´, so to speak. Cheers.
On the other hand, it's really easy to improve on endgames. Openings have so many variations within them, middlegame requires lots of calculation and knowledge... of course endgames as well, but very often you are winning if you just know the basics and your opponent is just flailing around not knowing what to do.
Yes, I found this video to be very instructive. Today I learned that I don't have the patience to get much better at chess. I have barely played in a couple of decades. I've always enjoyed chess puzzles, learning chess tactics, and messing around with seeing if I can improve my record against a program... but chess will always be a simple pastime for me. I can't imagine ever wanting to study it seriously.
When I first saw this I figured everyone would consider it a win for White after getting his king down to c1 but then I saw black's move to rd4 followed by rc4ch, qxc4 and stalemate - it never once crossed my mind to promote to a rook which prevents the stalemate and threatens checkmate - a great lesson in thinking outside the box!
There is actually another twist. At the beginning, after Kb5, black can pull his rook back to d2 and if white queens, then black can almost keep the king boxed in with checks on a2 and b2. This would draw if the king were on b1 instead of a1. But, with the black king on a1, the white king can zig-zag down to reach c3 where the checks run out.
You weren't lying, this is truly fascinating. I started playing chess on 5th May 2021 and I am in love. So much to explore, to seek to understand. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
The Barbier-Saavedra position! There is an interesting history to this problem. Barbier first published this in a Glasgow newspaper: He was an accomplished chess problemist. There he said it was a draw due to the stalemate trick at the end. Barbier then went to France on holiday (where he was from originally) where he died after a short illness. A Spanish priest called Saavedra, who was also living in Glasgow at the time, then sent in his revised solution to this problem with the rook promotion. Saavedra was far from a strong player, yet found the solution to this hard endgame!
Isn't it a very basic thing, to promote rook instead, as the diagonal is only thing which is creating trouble. M very beginner but as soon as I saw there was stale mate, I thought okay, I can replace it with rook.
@@grizzii2149 If I were ever in a position where promoting to a Queen lead to stalemate, and promoting to a Rook led to a win -- and I REALIZED it in time to win -- I would be SOOO proud of myself. :)
@@UTU49 literally, I am the guy whose queen 30% times die because I could not see basic fork, pin, pawn attacks etc. I always check for stale mate, because I win less, and so when m winning, I make sure to check stale mate at every move 😂.I think may be at that time there was no rule that u can bring anything, later because of this game, maybe they changed the rule
Brilliant! This is why I like long time controls in chess. It allows you to calculate your opponent's next moves and find clever solutions, and that's what I enjoy most. No one has time to calculate all of these positions in blitz or bullet, so this beautiful puzzle would end in stalemate on one of the first moves, which isn't as exciting. Thank you, NM Nelson!
I really like 10 minute games. Some room for cleverness, but stays at a good pace. If i think too much, it's kinda tiring, so longer games can be draining for me
That is actually amazing. The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason. Every time I've ever promoted under a q it's not been necessary, I just did it for style. This study it's essential. It's very interesting because the stalemate would have got me without doubt....it won't now thanks to this video. Thanks
Often times engines will under promote because having a rook makes calculations easier, and there's no functional difference between winning with a queen or winning with a rook. There's value in removing your ability to accidentally stalemate an opponent.
@@alexlowe2054 I often think about promotion to a rook but something tells me it's not worth the "risk" and to just get the Queen. No idea why, because what you say is true and its easy enough to mate with rook. Next time I will go with rook for fun, u didn't see any difference at my level. 1250-1350
@@Nuffsed81: "The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason." Another huge exception is when making your pawn a knight gives you an instant checkmate. I always like to keep in mind that the Knight is the only piece that can regularly move in ways that the Queen cannot. (I say "regularly", to account for the special moves: castling, and the 3 special pawn moves.)
@@Nuffsed81 I'm referring to the optional 2-square first move, pawn promotion, and the en passant capture. If you're unfamiliar with any of these moves, there should be lots of videos that cover them.
the most amazing thing with this composition is that the author created it as a 'fancy sequence of moves' leading to the draw after the stalemate. and it was another person who had the idea of promoting to a rook. it is the only case in the history of composition that I have heard such a story
i´ve made a study with the ending of this Saavedra position and published it in The Problemparadise. If the black king would on b1 or other squares, the Saveedra position does not work
Stockfish actually sees that if black plays 2... Kb2 instead of 2... Rd4+, mate is postponed by 2 moves, and even with Kb2 it still doesn't show this line of play in this, but it is fun to see how black prevents the pawn from promoting to a queen. I have to work on my queen vs rook endgame. I remember this position in the book All About Chess by IA Horowitz. I used to get it at the library. That book had some great endgames like the 5 vertical black pawns, 3 underpromotions in 1, I'd love to get that book again.
I get a different analysis in Stockfish which is way more complex: 1. Kb5 Rd5+ 2. Kb4 Kb2 3. c8=Q - mate in 24. That’s definitely not easy for a human. Does demo how tricky this problem is!
Imagine how many 7 minute videos you'd need to analyze your endgame when a random pawn move or random king move is a "Blunder!" according to the engine and you're just like "wdym computer? It's just some random move cuz I'm low on time"
Had a fun one where I managed to safety get my pawn through my opponents pieces and promoted it into a knight of all things which ended up being the deciding factor when I pushed my opponent's king into the same corner using his own pieces and the ones defended by my knight to pin him into a loss.
The real fun begins when u try to play this position against stockfish 8, he actually lets u make a queen without stealmate and in 50 moves u have to give a checkmate with a queen against rook which is not easy :D
Wow! I remember seeing this study in a book when I was a child and not getting it even after I read the solution but now it looks so simple! (I’ve got the sequence except the stalemate trap almost immediately and the later mentioned and the rest in ~ a minute when you said “*seemingly* winning”.) Thank you for posting this!
I seem to recall reading (a long time ago) that the composer published this as White to play and draw; it was some time before some smartie figured out that White actually wins.
It wasn't a very difficult study, you can always find the right move by process of elimination. But the amount of tricks ends up being significant. A really cool study.
At 3:40 Kc3 deserves a little more analysis, I think; by that point, if the opponent plays Rd1 you can play Kc2 and it stops the skewer. However, they can then play Rb1; you can promote, but they can check on b2, recheck on the a file or the back rank if you try to use them, and skewer you again unless you play exactly Kc3. From there, I think you'd have to maneuver your queen to either c1 or a3 with the right set of circumstances to take the rook; moving the king away lets them check you again until you re-threaten the rook at which point it pisses off back to b2, and the king can just cycle between a1/a2/b1 unless you start applying queen checks. There's either a mate sequence from there or Black can keep evading forever, but it's like 1AM and I'm too tired to try and sequence the whole thing. I'm sure the analysis has been done on the position elsewhere, but still.
Yes, Kc3 can be played as well as Kb3, since the skewer try after Rd1 is thwarted by Kc2. However, we've reached the same position as in the main line, so Black can still go for the stalemate trick with Rd4. A K+Q vs K+R tablebase confirms that any move along the first rank (Rb1, Rf1, etc.) is losing, but some technique is required - winning this endgame isn't easy.
Nelson, since you are such a fan of Mark Liburkin's endgame compositions, I think you'd find his variation on the Saavedra position quite interesting. As you'd expect from Liburkin, he adds an amazing new wrinkle to the position, in this case a second underpromotion! You can find the study in the Wikipedia article for the Saavedra Position.
Great position, great analysis and video! I found the correct moves, but not from the starting position. I only saw until Kc2 and thought white was winning, but there were several more accurate moves required. That’s deep 😅
6:20 I guessed that one correct!! Yay! I'm so happy! 😛 This is a very helpful video! Thank you very much! I need a lot to learn from this situations and I've been in this type of situations in several games lol some I've won some I've lost
I learnt that from a chess book in early 90's. Those days we had no any computers, but solved some problems in weekly magazines, etc. Today is totally different then 30 years ago, but chess is timeless.
I really apreciated how taking a queen leads to a draw, instead you need a rook. Very clever, I didn't see that coming (I'm not that good at chess, I know)
I found all the moves here but the problem is that in a real endgame, you don't know you have a win and you also have a clock so I'm 90% sure I'd have drawn this
Now that you know this pattern, you’ll be able to recognize similar situations in your games. You won’t have to calculate as much since you’ll know how this position works.
Interesting to note that if the black king was in B1 instead of A1 this position would be a draw because the Rook can come to D2 and start checking the white king until he either accepts the draw by perpetual check or line up in front of the pawn/promoted piece
I always had one question on this study. After : Kb4, Rd4+; Cannot white play Kc3 with the exact same solution. Kc3, Rd1 Kc2, Re5 & we have reached the same position. My lingering doubt has been is there something else after W plays Kc3 Compositions many times have 1 & only 1 solution. That’s y I was wondering. But Kc3 after Rd4 also looks good to me.
1:15 "Believe it or not, even though white only has the pawn, white's actually trying to win this position". Perhaps you meant to say "black's actually trying to draw this position". Of course white wants to win. The key point however is that for black, hoping for victory is setting his sights too high and is happy to settle for a draw, while white shouldn't just TRY to win but should NOT settle for a draw.
I never thought that an under promotion to a rook or a bishop would ever be a best move, knight is obvious as it has distinct movement options that a queen doesn’t have, but a piece that is strictly less versatile made no sense to me. But when I saw the solution of promoting to a rook my jaw dropped because I was so surprised to see that as an option. That is genuinely incredible. I’d also love to see a situation where promoting to a bishop manages to be the best choice, that would be super cool too.
Good commentary on c5. I thought c5 because if b5, draw by perpetual check is an option or a few moves later the same situation of draw/win for black as explained for c5. BTW, the skewer doesn't have to be c1, any spot on the c file more than one space behind the king will suffice.
4:14 Seeing the line of 'promote to rook' from white if black plays Rd3d4, black can survive much longer by playing Rf3 instead and allow the queen promotion. Mate-in-20 vs mate-in-7.
5:11 you could down promote to a rook or a bishop or a knight (personally I like the knight idea because I like to jump around but that’s just my opinion)
I did not see most of these moves!! First I planned to move the king to the left and support the pawn and did not expect the basic pin….. etc etc. I spent most of the lockdown watching professional players playing each other. I should have concentrated on this channel.
4:27 how about walking the king up, attacking the rook? If he moves one higher, walk again until he runs out of space. If he moves two, you just Queen and there is no stalemate anymore. This was actually first thing that came to my mind.
Won't work because Black just plays the rook to d1 followed by rc1 check when the pawn queens.- White could even lose the game if he followed the rook too far up the c file, he'd lose the pawn whether it got promoted or not.
My favourite endgame study is W: Kd7, c7 B: Kf3, Bg6, b7. White to play and draw. An endgame study expert once told me that this was originally just a variation in a study beginning several moves earlier, and so even more difficult to find. Hint: On nearly any move from White, Bf5 is a devastating response. So... ?
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov had his first win against Korcnoi in his first candidate tournament in similar position. He was down two points but after that win he managed to turn the table.
Definitely an “Amazing End Game” analysis, yet I’m slightly puzzled. As somewhat a novice, unless there was substantial transitions of pieces during this game (white & black on absolute opposite sides of this board) it would appear that the white pawn would need to be advancing towards the 6 to 1 rows! Did I miss something?
You aren’t missing anything, it’s just that you seem to be ruling out “substantial transitions of pieces” for some reason. That’s how endgames go - kings move all over the place, and it’s even potentially common for the kings to swap places as they try to protect pawns. Now, it is a bit odd that the black king is in the corner like that, but that could be explained in any number of ways.
Who made the study? One of the first books I read as a kid was by Chernev, "Practical Chess Endings", which was actually a book mostly of studies. I was amazed!
Hey... That ending is always good. Only you have to play exactly. Example: if King b5... The correct move is D2 Tower. If you decide to enter the pawn and ask for a Queen... Black only has to hit Jake on B2 and then A2 and there will be perpetual Jake. That is, tables!!
0:52 For a moment, I thought moving the king forward was the best move, but then I realized what Black could do in response even without Nelson explaining it. A few calculations later, I found out what the right move was: Kc5. Edit: Nvm.
Black should've just gone down to d2 with the rook after white moved king to b5. If white queens then you just constantly check whites king until stalemate or whites king moves in front of the queen then has to move again and takes the queen, and the same thing basically applies if white doesn't queen.
Interesting... but no! After white queens you move Rb2+, but then: Ka4, you continue checking with Ra2+, Kb3, Rb2+, after Kc3 you are out of checks that preserve the rook, and there is no stalemate.
@@0FFICERPROBLEM Ah yes I see what you're talking about. I figured most people tend to retreat their king instead of move their king up. I don't know why but I thought this was a blitz game (maybe because I just played a blitz game haha) and most people under time probably wouldn't notice it, but yeah you're right, nice catch.
Interesting how in this "simple" position you have to play just the right moves, or you get a draw.
Or you lose
It is an endgame. Super complicated no matter what. You can get a draw in a QK v K.
@@swapnaganguly1073 you mean, king queen and king pawn, right?
@@satwik1268 not only that endgame but also a king alone endgame
@@satwik1268 he's talking about the stalemate if you promote to a queen instead of rook in this puzzle
This was great, but kind of depressing in making me realize how terrible my endgames are.
Same feeling
Yep. I watched and realised I could never think this out for myself.
Most people invest time in openings and mid-game study, because that´s where most games are decided. You don´t suck at end-game. You just haven´t been willing to invest more time in the many end-game studies there are out there. By the way, I consider end-game to be the very essence of chess. It´s ´soul´, so to speak. Cheers.
On the other hand, it's really easy to improve on endgames. Openings have so many variations within them, middlegame requires lots of calculation and knowledge... of course endgames as well, but very often you are winning if you just know the basics and your opponent is just flailing around not knowing what to do.
Yes, I found this video to be very instructive.
Today I learned that I don't have the patience to get much better at chess.
I have barely played in a couple of decades. I've always enjoyed chess puzzles, learning chess tactics, and messing around with seeing if I can improve my record against a program... but chess will always be a simple pastime for me. I can't imagine ever wanting to study it seriously.
When I first saw this I figured everyone would consider it a win for White after getting his king down to c1 but then I saw black's move to rd4 followed by rc4ch, qxc4 and stalemate - it never once crossed my mind to promote to a rook which prevents the stalemate and threatens checkmate - a great lesson in thinking outside the box!
Am 64th like
There is actually another twist. At the beginning, after Kb5, black can pull his rook back to d2 and if white queens, then black can almost keep the king boxed in with checks on a2 and b2. This would draw if the king were on b1 instead of a1. But, with the black king on a1, the white king can zig-zag down to reach c3 where the checks run out.
I think there is a break there when white king reaches c2 or c3. Then white can make queen.
@@kvlpnd The rook would then check the king and take the queen for the draw.
@@TheDandonian yupp didn't see that.
was thinking the same thing
@@alexsunrick3079 but the rook will get eaten at c3 cuz the black king no longer protects it
You weren't lying, this is truly fascinating. I started playing chess on 5th May 2021 and I am in love. So much to explore, to seek to understand. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Thats my birthday!!
Watch the movie Fresh
@@miserableenclosure Mine too
I started about the same time too! What's your rating?
Happy one year anniversary of playing chess
In other words: Never leave your king on A1.
Joke aside, cool study. Thanks for sharing.
Never leave the king on a corner piece.
Never leave your black king on a1
The Barbier-Saavedra position! There is an interesting history to this problem. Barbier first published this in a Glasgow newspaper: He was an accomplished chess problemist. There he said it was a draw due to the stalemate trick at the end. Barbier then went to France on holiday (where he was from originally) where he died after a short illness. A Spanish priest called Saavedra, who was also living in Glasgow at the time, then sent in his revised solution to this problem with the rook promotion. Saavedra was far from a strong player, yet found the solution to this hard endgame!
Isn't it a very basic thing, to promote rook instead, as the diagonal is only thing which is creating trouble. M very beginner but as soon as I saw there was stale mate, I thought okay, I can replace it with rook.
@@grizzii2149 you gotta see that the rook against rook is not a draw snyways
@@grizzii2149 chess theory has obviously advanced since the origin of this particular study in the latter part of the 19th century
@@grizzii2149
If I were ever in a position where promoting to a Queen lead to stalemate, and promoting to a Rook led to a win -- and I REALIZED it in time to win -- I would be SOOO proud of myself. :)
@@UTU49 literally, I am the guy whose queen 30% times die because I could not see basic fork, pin, pawn attacks etc. I always check for stale mate, because I win less, and so when m winning, I make sure to check stale mate at every move 😂.I think may be at that time there was no rule that u can bring anything, later because of this game, maybe they changed the rule
This is my favorite composition of all time. Crazy how much tactics there can be with so few pieces.
This is super simple tactic. I'm a chess hustler
4:24 Eric Roses loves this move
Brilliant!
This is why I like long time controls in chess. It allows you to calculate your opponent's next moves and find clever solutions, and that's what I enjoy most. No one has time to calculate all of these positions in blitz or bullet, so this beautiful puzzle would end in stalemate on one of the first moves, which isn't as exciting.
Thank you, NM Nelson!
Once you've played against many cheaters, you'll value bullet and blitz.
@@jamesmakume2630 then the final best option is over-the-board with long time controls. (maybe not so much during the pandemic though...)
I really like 10 minute games. Some room for cleverness, but stays at a good pace. If i think too much, it's kinda tiring, so longer games can be draining for me
@Ruhan Time control???? You need time to look at an engine duh. Even the engines that automatically play moves can’t keep up
I think titled players can all see through this to the end in a couple seconds
That is actually amazing. The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason. Every time I've ever promoted under a q it's not been necessary, I just did it for style. This study it's essential. It's very interesting because the stalemate would have got me without doubt....it won't now thanks to this video. Thanks
Often times engines will under promote because having a rook makes calculations easier, and there's no functional difference between winning with a queen or winning with a rook. There's value in removing your ability to accidentally stalemate an opponent.
@@alexlowe2054 I often think about promotion to a rook but something tells me it's not worth the "risk" and to just get the Queen. No idea why, because what you say is true and its easy enough to mate with rook. Next time I will go with rook for fun, u didn't see any difference at my level. 1250-1350
@@Nuffsed81: "The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason."
Another huge exception is when making your pawn a knight gives you an instant checkmate.
I always like to keep in mind that the Knight is the only piece that can regularly move in ways that the Queen cannot. (I say "regularly", to account for the special moves: castling, and the 3 special pawn moves.)
@@UTU49 what are the three special pawn moves?
@@Nuffsed81
I'm referring to the optional 2-square first move, pawn promotion, and the en passant capture.
If you're unfamiliar with any of these moves, there should be lots of videos that cover them.
the most amazing thing with this composition is that the author created it as a 'fancy sequence of moves' leading to the draw after the stalemate. and it was another person who had the idea of promoting to a rook. it is the only case in the history of composition that I have heard such a story
This is a really neat study, I be always loved under promoting because it’s so rare, but this is a realistic position that could occur in game.
These are my favorite kinds of videos! Thanks for sharing!
I love this study. I learned it from Irving Chernev's "Practical Chess Endings." So glad you shared it!
i´ve made a study with the ending of this Saavedra position and published it in The Problemparadise. If the black king would on b1 or other squares, the Saveedra position does not work
I could understand your explanation even though I'm not good at English!
Thanks for your brilliant tip and easy-to-understand pronunciation!
Now that I'm thinking about it. You should make your top five or top 10 chess movies and or book lists Nelson.
Lol, i saw the position and immediately thought “there’s no way this is not a draw”…. You learn something every day hahah
Hope you will share more about end game and opening tactics. There are so many things to learn for a beginner like me.
We're all learning, there's no end in sight.
Wow that stalemate trick was awesome very nice example of a super tricky endgame.
i almost always take tower insteed of queen just to avoid those problems.
Tower??
See this is the difference between Nelson and many other channels. His thumbnails are never clickbait. That was truly AMAZING!!!
Hello.
I gave your comment a thumbs up before noticing that it was you.
cutmrw fmw
In an actual game under time pressure it can go either way. Wow even a seemingly simple position has so much depth.
Under time pressure, I doubt anyone short of a titled player could convert Queen vs Rook.
Stockfish actually sees that if black plays 2... Kb2 instead of 2... Rd4+, mate is postponed by 2 moves, and even with Kb2 it still doesn't show this line of play in this, but it is fun to see how black prevents the pawn from promoting to a queen. I have to work on my queen vs rook endgame. I remember this position in the book All About Chess by IA Horowitz. I used to get it at the library. That book had some great endgames like the 5 vertical black pawns, 3 underpromotions in 1, I'd love to get that book again.
A good example of how rich the game of chess can be. Stockfish 14, after evaluating a mere 2 BILLION moves, has a forced mate in 25, lol!
Nelson, I'm a fellow NM & I'd like to say what a FANTASTIC job you did in this video of this classic composition. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, mate!
I get a different analysis in Stockfish which is way more complex: 1. Kb5 Rd5+ 2. Kb4 Kb2 3. c8=Q - mate in 24. That’s definitely not easy for a human. Does demo how tricky this problem is!
Great lesson man!
Imagine how many 7 minute videos you'd need to analyze your endgame when a random pawn move or random king move is a "Blunder!" according to the engine and you're just like "wdym computer? It's just some random move cuz I'm low on time"
Good old Saavdedra position! And there's Liburkin's variant that involves promotion to all three of queen, rook and bishop in its various lines!
This is amazing how much is going on with only a king and a pon !
Pawn
@@et6910 thanks
@@et6910 pon! Do ye not understand mere mortal?!?!?!
@@edvinkarlsson9368 lol. You silly
Had a fun one where I managed to safety get my pawn through my opponents pieces and promoted it into a knight of all things which ended up being the deciding factor when I pushed my opponent's king into the same corner using his own pieces and the ones defended by my knight to pin him into a loss.
Minor promotion, major result! Remember that the King has enormous value in the endings.
The real fun begins when u try to play this position against stockfish 8, he actually lets u make a queen without stealmate and in 50 moves u have to give a checkmate with a queen against rook which is not easy :D
except it is
Wow! I remember seeing this study in a book when I was a child and not getting it even after I read the solution but now it looks so simple! (I’ve got the sequence except the stalemate trap almost immediately and the later mentioned and the rest in ~ a minute when you said “*seemingly* winning”.) Thank you for posting this!
White should move rook to g2 after King c2 and then try endgame 50 moves rule or obtain stalemate staying on g 2 a2 line
I seem to recall reading (a long time ago) that the composer published this as White to play and draw; it was some time before some smartie figured out that White actually wins.
Didn't know that!
Drawing is so easy that even 800 could do it against Magnus so that can't be right
@@onniruusunen9444 What game was that one? I would love to see it!
@@micahdietrich7166 ???
@@onniruusunen9444 Suppose you put the rook on d5 and say Black to play and draw? Now it's an interesting study ruined by the underpromotion.
It wasn't a very difficult study, you can always find the right move by process of elimination. But the amount of tricks ends up being significant. A really cool study.
Yes, the Saavedra position. I like this puzzle and the Réti endgame study.
THAT WAS AWESOME!
Thank you for your efforts. May you and yours stay well and prosper.
Very comprehensive end-game miniature. Great stuff.
At 3:40 Kc3 deserves a little more analysis, I think; by that point, if the opponent plays Rd1 you can play Kc2 and it stops the skewer. However, they can then play Rb1; you can promote, but they can check on b2, recheck on the a file or the back rank if you try to use them, and skewer you again unless you play exactly Kc3.
From there, I think you'd have to maneuver your queen to either c1 or a3 with the right set of circumstances to take the rook; moving the king away lets them check you again until you re-threaten the rook at which point it pisses off back to b2, and the king can just cycle between a1/a2/b1 unless you start applying queen checks. There's either a mate sequence from there or Black can keep evading forever, but it's like 1AM and I'm too tired to try and sequence the whole thing.
I'm sure the analysis has been done on the position elsewhere, but still.
That would result in an endgame of queen vs rook. White should win that, but it can take many moves. Getting a rook is a sure win right away.
Yes, Kc3 can be played as well as Kb3, since the skewer try after Rd1 is thwarted by Kc2. However, we've reached the same position as in the main line, so Black can still go for the stalemate trick with Rd4. A K+Q vs K+R tablebase confirms that any move along the first rank (Rb1, Rf1, etc.) is losing, but some technique is required - winning this endgame isn't easy.
Nelson, since you are such a fan of Mark Liburkin's endgame compositions, I think you'd find his variation on the Saavedra position quite interesting. As you'd expect from Liburkin, he adds an amazing new wrinkle to the position, in this case a second underpromotion! You can find the study in the Wikipedia article for the Saavedra Position.
Thanks, Zanti, I'll check it out!
Great position, great analysis and video! I found the correct moves, but not from the starting position. I only saw until Kc2 and thought white was winning, but there were several more accurate moves required. That’s deep 😅
Old but great indeed! It's nice to recall it. Thank you, master Lopez!
Super cool study and good pedagogy. Keep it going man
Omg, this is amazing, please more of these studies
Thank you for sharing, I don’t have the depth of knowledge to have made the correct moves in this scenario but you did open my mind.
Endgames are technical as hell and they are the hardest. There is no leeway for errors. Also there are nowhere near enough videos on endgames.
fascinating .....thank you Nelson for all these great videos! ive learned more from watching and applying these principles than anything else
This is the most eye-opening video I've ever watched about endgames.
5:56 Black also has Rd8. It’s much more obvious how that option loses, but it’s an option.
6:20 I guessed that one correct!! Yay! I'm so happy! 😛
This is a very helpful video! Thank you very much! I need a lot to learn from this situations and I've been in this type of situations in several games lol some I've won some I've lost
Me too
It was probably the most intuitive one
I learnt that from a chess book in early 90's. Those days we had no any computers, but solved some problems in weekly magazines, etc. Today is totally different then 30 years ago, but chess is timeless.
I really apreciated how taking a queen leads to a draw, instead you need a rook. Very clever, I didn't see that coming (I'm not that good at chess, I know)
I think I remember this. It’s something like 1. Kb5! Rd5+ 2. Kb4 Rd4+ 3. Kb3 Rd3+ 4. Kc2 Rd4! 5. c8=R!! Ra4 6. Kb3 and White wins, right?
3:37 White can play Kc3 here as well since after Rd1 there is Kc2.
I found all the moves here but the problem is that in a real endgame, you don't know you have a win and you also have a clock so I'm 90% sure I'd have drawn this
Now that you know this pattern, you’ll be able to recognize similar situations in your games. You won’t have to calculate as much since you’ll know how this position works.
@ 6:08 I figured it out!! I even kinda figured out the starting moves..... Well, GREAT explanation sir!!!!
Interesting to note that if the black king was in B1 instead of A1 this position would be a draw because the Rook can come to D2 and start checking the white king until he either accepts the draw by perpetual check or line up in front of the pawn/promoted piece
I always had one question on this study.
After : Kb4, Rd4+;
Cannot white play Kc3 with the exact same solution.
Kc3, Rd1
Kc2, Re5
& we have reached the same position.
My lingering doubt has been is there something else after W plays Kc3
Compositions many times have 1 & only 1 solution. That’s y I was wondering.
But Kc3 after Rd4 also looks good to me.
1:15 "Believe it or not, even though white only has the pawn, white's actually trying to win this position". Perhaps you meant to say "black's actually trying to draw this position". Of course white wants to win. The key point however is that for black, hoping for victory is setting his sights too high and is happy to settle for a draw, while white shouldn't just TRY to win but should NOT settle for a draw.
This wasn't too hard to figure out but I definitely would have thrown the game if I actually encountered this in a match :)
I never thought that an under promotion to a rook or a bishop would ever be a best move, knight is obvious as it has distinct movement options that a queen doesn’t have, but a piece that is strictly less versatile made no sense to me. But when I saw the solution of promoting to a rook my jaw dropped because I was so surprised to see that as an option. That is genuinely incredible. I’d also love to see a situation where promoting to a bishop manages to be the best choice, that would be super cool too.
Bishop underpromotion is in one of the recent videos!
@@ChessVibesOfficial Oh! Thank you I’ll be sure to watch that!
There's a third reason to underpromote; sometimes when you're behind an underpromotion stalemates immediately, while a queen would lose later.
I would never imagine that a position that looks so simple could hid such a methodic study! amazing!
Good commentary on c5. I thought c5 because if b5, draw by perpetual check is an option or a few moves later the same situation of draw/win for black as explained for c5. BTW, the skewer doesn't have to be c1, any spot on the c file more than one space behind the king will suffice.
I noticed a ton of GMs saying to master your endgame fundamentals before anything else - this here is good evidence to why.
4:14 Seeing the line of 'promote to rook' from white if black plays Rd3d4, black can survive much longer by playing Rf3 instead and allow the queen promotion. Mate-in-20 vs mate-in-7.
Nice! Contains some practically useful themes instead of artificial problem moves.
A really mindblowing strategy.
Thanks for sharing and your awesome explanations.
Great content. Love your straight forward manner of presenting information, it's got a more educational vibe.
Loved it. I'll definitely try to play ny endgames more carefully next time.
5:11 you could down promote to a rook or a bishop or a knight (personally I like the knight idea because I like to jump around but that’s just my opinion)
Look, that's a 1 elo chess player
In the last position when it was either stopping checkmate or losing the rook after Rb4,Kxb4,Kb2 stops mate atleast for some time
Nice. I met this problem about 52 years ago...
I did not see most of these moves!! First I planned to move the king to the left and support the pawn and did not expect the basic pin….. etc etc. I spent most of the lockdown watching professional players playing each other. I should have concentrated on this channel.
Awesome video thanks, Nelson, just when I though it was over it kept going 😁
After king b4 black can go king b2 meaning white cant move anymore. White can still promote but it will be a draw.
4:27 how about walking the king up, attacking the rook? If he moves one higher, walk again until he runs out of space. If he moves two, you just Queen and there is no stalemate anymore.
This was actually first thing that came to my mind.
Won't work because Black just plays the rook to d1 followed by rc1 check when the pawn queens.- White could even lose the game if he followed the rook too far up the c file, he'd lose the pawn whether it got promoted or not.
That was insane! I feel both smarter and stupider.
😂
Never would have thought about it. Thanks
My favourite endgame study is W: Kd7, c7 B: Kf3, Bg6, b7. White to play and draw. An endgame study expert once told me that this was originally just a variation in a study beginning several moves earlier, and so even more difficult to find.
Hint: On nearly any move from White, Bf5 is a devastating response. So... ?
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov had his first win against Korcnoi in his first candidate tournament in similar position. He was down two points but after that win he managed to turn the table.
This is definitely a game for sure! Thank you very much for this gem!
I have this position in a "Chess Positions" book printed in 1973. A very cool one. Classical.
Im so proud of myself. I'm a novice but by watching many of these vids i finally saw some of the optimal moves beforehand.
Wow, it's a huge leap of faith to move the king away from the pawn and leave it so isolated. Would never have believed it without seeing it.
Definitely an “Amazing End Game” analysis, yet I’m slightly puzzled. As somewhat a novice, unless there was substantial transitions of pieces during this game (white & black on absolute opposite sides of this board) it would appear that the white pawn would need to be advancing towards the 6 to 1 rows! Did I miss something?
You aren’t missing anything, it’s just that you seem to be ruling out “substantial transitions of pieces” for some reason. That’s how endgames go - kings move all over the place, and it’s even potentially common for the kings to swap places as they try to protect pawns. Now, it is a bit odd that the black king is in the corner like that, but that could be explained in any number of ways.
@@superkaeldev861 Thanks for the explanation & some clarification SuperKael.
Dude your channel is so rad. Wish I found it sooner. Thanks for all the 10/10 content
Thanks a lot for the video this will help me get better and my endgames
famous sketch from my childhood. last move Rc4 Qxc4 stalemate
Who made the study? One of the first books I read as a kid was by Chernev, "Practical Chess Endings", which was actually a book mostly of studies. I was amazed!
look up Saavedra endgame. probably the most famous endgame study ever
Hey... That ending is always good. Only you have to play exactly. Example: if King b5... The correct move is D2 Tower. If you decide to enter the pawn and ask for a Queen... Black only has to hit Jake on B2 and then A2 and there will be perpetual Jake. That is, tables!!
At 3:42 I think you can go Kc3 and if black go Rd1 you can go Kc2.
It’s a very good idea and it’s very interesting, thanks !
Great video, loved this analysis. Thank you so much, Nelson!
I had the exact same reaction when I saw that in my copy of endgame manual
0:52 For a moment, I thought moving the king forward was the best move, but then I realized what Black could do in response even without Nelson explaining it. A few calculations later, I found out what the right move was: Kc5.
Edit: Nvm.
Black should've just gone down to d2 with the rook after white moved king to b5. If white queens then you just constantly check whites king until stalemate or whites king moves in front of the queen then has to move again and takes the queen, and the same thing basically applies if white doesn't queen.
Interesting... but no! After white queens you move Rb2+, but then: Ka4, you continue checking with Ra2+, Kb3, Rb2+, after Kc3 you are out of checks that preserve the rook, and there is no stalemate.
@@0FFICERPROBLEM Ah yes I see what you're talking about. I figured most people tend to retreat their king instead of move their king up. I don't know why but I thought this was a blitz game (maybe because I just played a blitz game haha) and most people under time probably wouldn't notice it, but yeah you're right, nice catch.
Really amazing endgame thank you !
No ví la última, la amenaza a la torre, exelente!!!!