What I realised last week when I got to play a fascinating final round game
I won a local FIDE-rated tournament over the weekend. Though I was lucky not to lose in Round 3, I was on 5/5 facing a talented, (severely) underrated junior in the last round which turned into a long and absorbing game. This game made me think about endgames in my chess in a new light.
In general, the endgame isn’t as popular as the opening or middlegame
A part of this is because you simply don’t get enough focused practice on the endgame in tournaments. Many of your games are done by the middlegame, or even if you get to the endgame, you have too little time and can’t immerse yourself in it so it’s difficult to gauge if you really like or are good at endgames
Players who like keeping the tension and tend to avoid exchanges (sometimes too much—I am one of them) also miss out on getting enough endgame practice
Some people avoid endgames because they assume that they’re all ‘drawish’. Far from the truth. Sure, some endgames are drawish, but so are some middlegames. When you start playing and studying practical endgames when you have plenty of time to think, you’ll see how much scope there is to create chances
In this day and age, when knowledge and ease of study of openings have improved, being strong in endgames can differentiate you from the pack
As world-renowned coach, GM RB Ramesh said in a Pro Chess Training session in January 2022:
if you’re confident in endgame skills, exchanging often makes sense. Experienced players like doing this—you don’t need an advantage in the endgame if you have belief. You just need some imbalance in the structure or piece configuration etc.
Here’s the final round game from last weekend:
https://lichess.org/study/MHR4h3zg/pWTpRaX6
You can play through some of the games from the tournament here.
If you'd like to receive posts like this in your inbox, you can subscribe to my newsletter (where I write for 750 readers) at https://juntaikeda.substack.com/.
