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The Endgame's

The Endgame's

Only Chess

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-Before we Start

#1 If there are any endgame's you think could be used in this thread, pm me the game as I need more endgame's to use.

#2 If anyone wants to try out any of these endgame's, send over a set piece with the title "endgame", and I'd be more then happy to play through it.

#3 Most of these endgame's will be taken from a 1600 player who was rated much lower when these were done, they won't be perfect, so If you see any improvement I don't see, please share them.

#4 Post any thoughts, ideas, moves, or who you think is winning about these examples, I won't be right all the time and your thoughts can help us come together to find the right moves and ideas.

#5 No bashing people here!

lets start the endgame madness 😀

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Endgame #1



White has just traded rooks on b6 and is looking to gain a pawn after the discovered attack to blacks knight. Notice blacks back rank weakness. There are two ways for for white to gain a pawn going into the rook endgame. White to move, what would you play and whats your idea.
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Make sure you thought about this before going on. Theres a reason teachers don't let you look at the answers immediately after reading a question, they want you to think for yourself.

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Originally posted by hammster21
Endgame #1

[fen]6k1/5ppp/pr6/8/P2n4/3B1P2/5P1P/3R1K2 w - - 0 1[/fen]

White has just traded rooks on b6 and is looking to gain a pawn after the discovered attack to blacks knight. Notice blacks back rank weakness. There are two ways for for white to gain a pawn going into the rook endgame. White to move, what would you play and whats your idea.
Bxa6 is much better than Bxh7.

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Originally posted by Korch
Bxa6 is much better than Bxh7.
Why is it better. This thread is suppose to help people learn why certain moves in the endgame are better then others. Share your ideas so others can see them and see your thinking process when choosing between two moves which might look the same to a beginner, after all, both moves win a pawn right?

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Originally posted by hammster21
Why is it better. This thread is suppose to help people learn why certain moves in the endgame are better then others. Share your ideas so others can see them and see your thinking process when choosing between two moves which might look the same to a beginner, after all, both moves win a pawn right?
Bd3f5

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Bxa6 is much better than Bxh7 because it preserves the black king's confinement behind the pawns, leading to an easier back-rank mate.

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Originally posted by McDutchy
Bxa6 is much better than Bxh7 because it preserves the black king's confinement behind the pawns, leading to an easier back-rank mate.
That's definitely why I would prefer Bxa6.

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ok, so is keeping the possibility of a back rank mate the only reason why we want to take the a pawn?

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Originally posted by hammster21
Why is it better. This thread is suppose to help people learn why certain moves in the endgame are better then others. Share your ideas so others can see them and see your thinking process when choosing between two moves which might look the same to a beginner, after all, both moves win a pawn right?
I would prefer Bxa6 because it creates passed pawn for white - after Bxh7 white will have much more problems to use their extra pawn due to their bad king side pawn structure.

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Originally posted by Korch
I would prefer Bxa6 because it creates passed pawn for white - after Bxh7 white will have much more problems to use their extra pawn due to their bad king side pawn structure.
I also like it because it limits the freedom of the black rook to some extent, taking it off the open file.

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and blacks king will be cut off from the queenside at least for a while,and wont be able to help stop the pawn.

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I still think mine is the best option

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Originally posted by rmacken
Bf5
Unless it's mate, no move is a good move unless you can prove it.

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Originally posted by mcreynolds
and blacks king will be cut off from the queenside at least for a while,and wont be able to help stop the pawn.
*** Answer to endgame #1 ***

Great observation!! Everyone thus far has looked at the immediate exchange. But theres still a lot to be done, even after white is up an outside passed pawn. bxa6 is the correct move here because...

-White has an outside passed pawn
-Blacks rook will be stuck defending it from advancing
-Blacks king is still stuck on the 8th rank while...
-Whites king can quickly centralize and either aid in advancing the pawn or rounding up king side pawns while blacks defenders round up the a pawn

Position after the bxa6 line

It's black move but white has gone from an even endgame to what looks like should be a win. My opponent was not willing to wait and see if I could win two in a row against him so he created counter chances, which leads us into endgame #2

Good job everybody on #1

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Endgame #2


White to move

This is a continuation from #1. Black has used his rook to take the white h pawn, then traded it off for whites a pawn which was about to queen. Now white is up a rook but black his trying to queen his own h pawn, the question is, how do you stop it. White should win this game and anything else will be a disappointment. (why draw when you can win)

This endgame isn't as easy so calculation may be necessary. It's up to you guys to figure out what white should do, I only spotted 2 moves here but CM9000 gives me a third I didn't see. Two of these draw and one wins. I, of course, picked the winning move, now it's your turn. White to play and win.

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