how to play chess endgames book

16 The Art of Defence
Defence demands great courage and great selfcontrol.
EMANUEL LASKER
Defence is an essential component of chess.
Anyone who seriously strives to master chess
must learn the art of defence. Without the ability
to defend tenaciously, resourcefully and
sometimes patiently, waiting for your chance
for hours at a stretch, success in many positions
is simply not possible.
From the psychological point of view, in
chess it is much more difficult to defend than
to attack, since the freedom of action of the defender
is usually limited in many respects.
Normally he has to follow the path prescribed
for him by his opponent and thus he often has
to make forced moves and concessions. When
a game follows this course it frequently leads,
especially with young and inexperienced players,
to a weakening of fighting spirit and concentration
and thus errors are likely. It is no
accident that it is in disadvantageous defensive
positions in particular that the most blunders
are committed.
Therefore, you need to make sure that if you
find yourself on the defensive you stay especially
alert. Always believe that there will be a
way out - you actually always get at least one
little opportunity. Pay attention first and foremost
to the concrete calculation of variations.
Always try to present your opponent with the
greatest possible difficulties in converting his
advantage. Make concessions to the opponent
only if there is absolutely no way to avoid
them.
Before we examine some practical examples,
we would like once again to alert you to
some possible thematic overlaps with other
chapters. In particular we have already examined
some important aspects of defence: the
'fortress' theme was talked about in Chapter
11, 'stalemate' in Chapter 12, 'counterplay by
activating the king or the rook' in Chapter I,
'defensive power of the bishop-pair' in Chapter
9 and 'exchanging pawns as a defensive
idea' in Chapter 4.
A) Defend Actively
The basic idea of every defence consists of first
eradicating the defects of your own position
and then ideally even to go over to the counterattack.
Therefore, even if you find yourself on
the defensive, you should never give up thinking
about your own active possibilities. Also on
purely psychological grounds an active defensive
strategy is advantageous. Your opponent
will generally have substantially more difficulties
if he also has to always take into account
your active possibilities.
It is almost always fatal, especially in positions
with serious structural weakness, to be
completely reduced to passivity. In such cases it
can often even be advantageous to give up the
weakness that the opponent is besieging at an
appropriate moment, in order to become active.
Usually then the pieces which previously were
occupied exclusively with defence develop a
hitherto unimagined activity. The following example
demonstrates such a case (see diagram
on next page).
White should abandon the weakness at a3
and activate his long-range bishop.
1.af4+
Not I @d3? lZ:le5+ 2 @e2 lZ:lg6 3 .ag5 ~a4,
when White is unpleasantly passive.
1...@c6 21;lb8! 1;lxa3
2 ... lZ:lxa3 31;lh8 lZ:lb5 41;lxh5 =.
3@d3?!
3 1;lc8+!? is more accurate, since the black
king has no good flight-square: 3 ... @d5 41;ld8+
@e6 5 1;le8+ and after both 5 ... @f7 61;lc8 and