how to play chess endgames book

How TO PLAY CHESS ENDGAMES
B
1.10
N.Short- A.Beliavsky
Linares 1992
In this type of endgame, the king should as a
rule blockade the enemy passed pawn, so that
the rook can remain active. Incidentally, this
consideration matches the order of priority for
activating the pieces that we gave in the introduction
to this chapter: an active rook is usually
even more effective than an active king.
t ... 1le6! 2 @f2
2 a5 1la6 3 @f2 @e6 4 @e3 @d5 = (Ribli in
CBM).
2. .. 1la6 3 @e3 @e6 4 @d41la5 5 @c4 @d7
6@b41le5!
Now, since the king is now close enough to
the a-pawn, the rook can take up an active role
once more and Black holds the draw effortlessly.
7 a5 @c8 8 a6~b891lcl Ite210 a7+ @a8!
10 ... @xa7? 11 ~xc7+ @b6 121hg7 ±.
11 1lxc7 112-112
Of course it can also happen that a king advances
too far into the enemy camp and is subjected
to a sacrificial counter-attack, as in the
following diagram.
With his dangerous passed pawns and active
king, White has a clear advantage. He proceeds
impeccably:
1 bS Ab7 2 lbd5 f6+!?
With the idea that after 3 lbxf6 lbxf6 4
@xf6 Axg2 5 .i.f5 the white bishop does not
control the queening square of his h-pawn and
so Black has the possibility of giving up his
bishop for the b-pawn. Actually White need
not be afraid of this variation, since the position
should be an easy win with sound technique.
Short, however, treated his opponent's
defensive idea with a degree of respect and decided
that he should first make his king even
more active. The king paid for it with his life.
The game continued:
3 @e6?? .i.c8# (0-1)
Such oversights are by no means unusual in
the endgame and happen time after time. The
reason is obvious: in view of the reduced material
and the well-centralized king, it is hard for
our brain co conceive a possible mating pattern.
So watch out for this!
In the position on the following page, for example,
it is not clear how to assess the situation
of the. black king. Some circumspection is required,
since there is still quite a lot of material
left on the board.
1 ... 1lbc8!
Excellent! Black must seek to ease the pressure
through exchanges. The more pieces that
disappear from the board, the better it will be
for his king.
2 ~xc8 1lxc8 3 l:lxa6
Now Black must make a vital decision:
3 ... ~d8!
Once again Svidler reacts carefully. Counterplay
is what is required just now! However, the
h4-pawn is shielding the black king: 3 ...@xh4?
would just open the floodgates; for example, 4