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Topic: Improvement plan
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azarisFinland flag
Tablebases still won't help you when there are pawns on the table. For example, see what Ruffian says about this position:

6R1/P1k5/r7/5N1P/r7/p7/7K/8 w - - 0 1
White to play and draw

(White: King on h2, rook on g8, knight on f5, pawns on a7 and h5
Black: King on c7, rooks on a4 and a6, pawn on a3)

AlopintoColombia flag
You are absolutely correct and that's why I decided to include books on endgames in the plan as well. Either way I need to play through the endings and I haven't found a friend willing to do it [Most of the time I end up playing blitz at Barnes and Noble and the intentions of studying the ending end up in just that: intentions] I also tried to study the ending online with friends but nobody has been consistent thus far... What then? Play against the engine and verify the results with the book analysis! I have collected about 300 psitions with pawn endgames. Yesterday I played through 10 of them using 5 minutes in the clock. I am not going to say that I rocked but the training was beneficial because I was able to see that I do not understand corresponding squares...

So, to summarize, I agree: engines + tablebases are just a kludge but considering the options I can't see any other way to practice the theory.

Many thanks for the reply!

Chesser_CatEngland flag
Hi! For several years I had severe problems with my endgame skills but then I started studying the end of games first! I look up a game which have
been won using one of my favourite openings and go right to the end of the game, and see if I can win this "won" game against FRITZ, quite often I can't. OK chance to learn something :-). Spending whatever time it takes to consult books etc. I strive to learn the necessary skills before the "rematch". Often I do win this time. Sometimes though I have to go to FRITZ and "ask" him "Ok, how would you do it" I play the defence. If I CAN win from the last position in a game then I move back a few moves (making the win further away)repeating this idea of moving further back several times, sometimes as far back as the opening! I remember using "Capablanca's Best Chess Endings" as my first book used for this idea. Using an annotated book such as this will further help clarify what schemes are required. :-)

Hoping this is of interest.


AlopintoColombia flag
"Hoping this is of interest." Very much so. I haven't seen the book you mention with Capablanca's endgames but that's one of my model players. I do have a collection of games by Ulf Andersson, Salo Flohr, Jose R. Capablanca, and Smyslov. I specially like that game (please don't ask me for specifics now... I have that game at home with my database...) against Gligoric where Smysov drew an endgame of K+R vs K+R+2P (bishop and rook pawns) Talk about a cool game! Altough, not a perfect solution, I do agree that playing endgames against Fritz, Ruffian or any other decent engine, is a good approach to learning the endgame. Consulting books is a must as you say and I do take the time to go through them. I even downloaded all the lectures by Karsten at chess cafe:

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/archives.htm#Endgame%20Corner

Boy! has it been a good exercise?

Thanks very much for the reply. I shall see if I can post good examples of my learning experiences...

Regards

A | 0 P 1 N 7 o

lordvhinPhilippines flag
FUCK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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