how to play chess endgames book

8 Prophylaxis and Prevention of
Counterplay
To demand of a piece only direct attacking activity
is the stamp of a mere wood-shifter. The
keener chess mind quite rightly demands of the
pieces that they also undertake preventive action.
ARON N!MZOWJTSCH
You never play a game of chess on your own,
but always in combat with an opponent. He too
will be trying to give of his best. He will try to
implement his own strategies and plans and do
everything to mould the course of the game in
accordance with his own ideas. It is therefore in
the nature of things that you can only be successful
if you manage to come to grips with the
intentions your opponent and combat them effectively.
And so, of course, first of all you must
discern them.
Many of the opponent's ideas are quite obvious
on the basis of your prior chess know ledge.
You apprehend others intuitively or you discover
them by calculating variations. In addition,
there is another important aid to detecting
the opponent's intentions more effectively.
We are talking here about the technique
known as 'prophylactic thinking'.
By this is meant the skill of regularly asking
yourself during a game: what is my opponent
planning? What would he do, if it were his turn
to move?
Only by conducting this sort of interior
monologue during a game, regularly asking
yourself these or similar questions, can you
penetrate really deeply into your opponent's
thinking.
Applying this way of thinking is of special
importance in the endgame. Since both players
in the middlegame and in the opening usually
have several plans and ideas available,
you don't generally manage to eliminate all
the opponent's options. In the endgame, however,
owing to the reduced material, the range
of possibilities worth considering is generally
much narrower. Here if you are able to foil the
opponent's intentions then success is generally
not far away. In addition, this thinking method
also helps you spot zugzwang positions.
Prophylactic thinking is extraordinarily important
in converting an advantage. In such situations
it is often an urgent necessity to recognize
the opponent's possible counter-chances at the
right moment and nip potential counterplay in
the bud.
Try to learn this technique. Study the games
of the great prophylactic players such as Karpov
or Petrosian and then always pay attention
to what your opponent's last move threatens or
plans.
A) Foiling the Opponent's
Plans
Has this ever happened to you? Just when you
get a good idea, your opponent makes a move
that stops everything and you are frustrated.
In the following example, Black was deprived
of his last glimmer of hope by a prophylactic
move.
White's main plan obviously consists of exploiting
the pin. But after the immediate 1
~a4? Black escapes with 1...tal4. Of course,
White would then avoid the exchange of rooks,
but he would still have to work hard for the full
point in the~+~ vs ~+ltl ending. However,
since he has time due to the fact that Black has
no way to escape the pin, he simply rules out
Black's escape clause: