Making a plan.

Just as in the middlegame, when we make a plan in the endgame it needs to be based on the characteristics of the position.

Richard Reti, a true endgame artist.

Bishops endgame

This one is very nice:

Capablanca vs Yates, Hastings 1930

If you don’t find this a beautiful endgame you should give up chess!

Botwinnik vs Vidman.

Botwinniks knight being superior  to his opponents rook.

Janovsky vs Schlechter. How to win a won ending.

Here is a clear example of how to create weaknesses and exploit them.

Everyone can make mistakes…

Here is an example of a big mistake in an endgame of Capablanca.

Endgame tactics. Magnus Carlsen vs Alex Onischuk, 2007.

The endgame in this video was played yesterday in the fifth round of the grandmasters tournament in Biel, Switzerland. Magnus surprises us with a pawn sacrifice and makes use of some tactical ideas to win this endgame in an excellent way. Watch how the future world champion wins this game:

The importance of studying endgames.

Some time ago a friend told me that learning rook endings is one of the most important things in chess. The reason for this is that rook endings are very common and if we put some energy in studying practical endgames we can get a lot in return. Here is an example of a game that I played in a correspondence tournament at Chessworld.net. After having been in trouble in the middlegame we reached a drawish endgame that I won because of a big mistake of my oponent.

Menchik vs Capablanca: 4 positional concepts in one endgame.

In this example we see how different positional concepts arise in the endgame. It’s a very instructive example from the game between Vera Menchik and José Raúl Capablanca, 1931.