The Tactical Endgame series: The 2 Jans against 2 Knights

Another episode of the on-going serie about interesting Endgame studies aimed at improving your tactical imagination and calculation skills (if you need to be convinced, just read here!).

No need to present the famous bishop pair which is extremely powerful is open positions. It is even more true when the position is open AND they are facing 2 knights. The 2 knights have usually a hard time to cope with the bishops' long range firepower.
One world championship game illustrates that very well:  the well-known 22nd Botvinnik vs Bronstein World Championship game.

Below is a list of studies that will hone your skills and will demonstrate how nasty the bishop pair can be!


In case you are wondering, why the "2 Jans"? It's the bishop pair's nickname! It comes from David Janowski who "was known as a sharp tactician who was devastating with the bishop pair."

Enjoy below a neat piece of his handy work!

The Tactical Endgame series: The crazy rodeo: 2 Knights against a Rook!

Another episode of the on-going serie about interesting Endgame studies aimed at improving your tactical imagination (if you need to be convinced, just read here).

This 2 Knights against a Rook is an interesting fight...and quite painful for the weaker side!

Even though the bishop pair can be extremely powerful in open positions, the 2 knights duo are monsters in blocked or "messy" situations!

Also you certainly don't want to face them at the end of a Blitz game or in Zeitnot!

Below is a list of studies that will hone your skills and should demonstrate how powerful and difficult to face this duo can be.

A special mention of Alexey Troitsky (composer of two studies below) who is considered the father of the modern endgame study. If you are interested to know more about him, here is an interesting article about his work and legacy.

Enjoy!

The Tactical Endgame series: The deadly Triumvirate, 2 Bishops an Knight, against Queen

Another episode of the on-going serie about interesting Endgame studies aimed at improving your tactical imagination.

2 Bishops and Knight against Queen is an interesting fight: where the queen is unsually viewed as supremely powerful (and from a purely math standpoint, the material balance is there), the 3 minor pieces are most of the time superior to the Queen.

Below is a list of studies that will excerce your skills and uncover some interesting abilities of my favorite trio. Most of those patterns used in these studies are omnipresent in regular games.

A special mention of Henri Rinck (composer of three studies below) who was one of the greatest composer of all time

Enjoy!

The Tactical Endgame series: The devilish Bishop duo vs. the clumsy Rook

Here we are: the first hands-on session on endgame studies!

After my lenghty, and hopefully convincing, post about including endgame studies in your Chess training, below is the first serie of endgame studies for you to practice ... and enjoy!

Beware that after working hard on those puzzles, you may experience serious improvements in your tactical abilities! :-)

The Bishop pair

I chose to start those endgame studies series with a special piece duo: the Bishop pair.
Often, the bishop is viewed or considered as a definitive asset in open positions but not that often we see it operating at full force.....now it is time with those great studies!


Should you know other interesting studies of this kind, feel free to share!
To wrap this up, below is a nice game showing the power of the "duo inferno" from a player who is largely overlooked, Rashid Nezhmetdinov, but who was one of the greatest attacking player of all time!
Cheers!

Endgame Studies...Really?

Why on earth would we want to solve endgame studies to improve our chess skills?

Well...this is not exactly a theoretical novelty and I am not exactly the first one to talk about that...
In fact, the famous chess trainer Mark Dvorestsky advocates quite heavily solving endgame studies to improve our Chess skills in his book "Secrets of Chess Training".

So what's the big deal about endgame studies?

There are a number of reasons why those are so useful for your chess development and your over-the-board (OTB) skills:

• Improves your calculation skills: Endgame studies often require accurate and lengthy calculation.
• Enriches your tactical imagination: Endgame studies often feature usual or imaginative ideas or unexpected solutions to common problems. They also favor non straightforward patterns or means to achieve a surprising outcome.
• Get to know each piece better: Solving Endgame studies will show you on a different light the pieces you thought you knew. Knights' forks, Bishops' double attacks and rooks' short moves will keep you awake at night!
• (Re)-Discover how a set of pieces can really work together: The bishop pair or the knights duo will shine differently when you see them in action! Discover how the rook and knight team can be devastating against the (not-so-often) powerless queen.
• Get use to material imbalance: A lot of endgame studies feature unconventional material balances: NNB vs. Q, BB vv. RR, etc: this will help you getting used to unusual material imbalance and also help you wrestle your way out of tricky situations or, on the contrary, baffle your opponents with surprising sacrifices. All in all, you will be more confident in your ability to navigate in muddy waters and find either the decisive move or the saving one!
• Strengthen your intuition: Being exposed to so many unusual and unconventional ideas will broaden your intuition and help you come up with imaginative solutions during your own games

...and, best of all, they are fun!

To wrap this up, below is a well-know, yet amazing, study from Alexey Troitsky who "is considered to have been one of the greatest composers of chess endgame studies. He is widely regarded as the founder of the modern art of composing chess studies" (Wikipedia).

 
More to come on this topic in the following weeks.

Finally, I cannot resist to show you a great and entertaining game demonstrating, once again, the power of the bishop pair: Ravinski - Panov, it should make your day!
Cheers!