Books > BO-Endgame

Title: Starting Out: Pawn Endgames Author: Glenn Flear Language: Pages: 144 Cover: Paperback Published: 2004 Publisher: Everyman Chess Homepage: http://everymanchess.com Price: £ 12,99 ISBN: 1-85744-362-4 Reviewed by: Lars Hansen Date: 21/2 2005

Starting Out: Pawn Endgames

When I was young (and when I started getting old) I repeatedly pronounced: "The endgame is so far away. Why bother ?"

Well we are all getting older and wiser.... and little by little my curiosity for endgames developed. I seriously started thinking about studying endgames. But where should I start? I mean, studying endgames is like walking into the jungle without a machete...

• What was the best way to improve my endgames skills?
• Should I study a little of this and a little of that?

I started out that way, and hopefully it hasn’t been a totally waste of time. However, during the years I had come to this conclusion: What I really needed was a kind of basic knowledge, as well as I became aware that some positions contained more information than others from which I could be taught key principles.

So my first job was to find the right positions, containing the best thematic examples. Or even better to find a book where someone had done it for me. In that perspective I started reading Glenn Flear’s : "Starting out – pawn endgames"

Flear’s object with this book is to outline the key principles and rules in pawn endgame with thematic examples. Flear points out that pawn endings are building blocks upon which all endgames are built, so they are an ideal place to start learning about the latter phase of the game.

Contents

1. Pawn Endings are Special
2. The last Pawn
3. Play in limited area
4. The Power of the passed pawn
5. Passed pawns Galore
6. Races
7. Maneuvering Monarchs
8. Pawn Tower
9. Further positional themes
10. When pawns become Queens
11. Exchanging into pawn Ending

• Additional exercises
• Solution to exercises

Inside the book

Chapter 1 - Pawn endings are special
is a presentation/ introduction of the various terms used in pawn endings, a so-called taste of what to come.

Chapter 2 - The last Pawn
Flear starts with the simplest of positions (king and pawn versus king) and only gradually the positions becomes more and more challenging. It could be tempting, if you are an experienced player, to skip those chapters, but watch out, it might be possible to pick up some useful knowledge!

"Bahr's rule"
These two positions introduce "Bahr's rule".

White to move - but draw

1.Kd5 Kf6 2.Kc5 Kxf5 3.Kb5 Ke6 4.Kxa5 Kd7 5.Kb6 Kc8 ½-½

White to move - but draw

1.h4+ Kh5 2.Kh3 Kg6 3.Kg4 Kh6 4.Kf5 Kh5 5.Ke5 Kxh4 6.Kd5 Kg5 7.Kc5 Kf6 8.Kb5 Ke7 9.Kxa5 Kd7 10.Kb6 Kc8 ½-½

With the a-pawns at the halfway mark the result is in doubt. Imagine a line from c8 to h3 . In an analogous position where any "decoy" pawn is on or further advanced than this imaginary line black is able to capture the pawn and come back in time to defend.

Chapter 4: "The Power of the passed pawn"

"the common square" - These two positions introduce “ The common square”.

White to move - and draw (Diagram 3)

1.Kf4 Kc6 2.Kf5 Kb7 3.Kf6 Kc6 4.Kf5 d5 5.Ke5 h5 6.b7 Kxb7 7.Kxd5 h4 8.Ke4 h3 9.Kf3 ½-½

White to move - and win (Diagram 4)

1.Ke4 h4 2.Kf3 Kb7 3.Kg4 e4 4.Kh4 e3 5.Kg3 1-0

The "common square" can be defined as a imaginary square. In diagram 3 it would be from d6–h6 (five files) –h2 (five files) –d2 (five files) –d6 (back again to complete the square).

In diagram 4 it would be from e5-h5 (four files) –h2 (four files) –e2 (four files) -e5 (back again to complete the square).

The rules that help you to judge split pawns at glance:

1. Unsupported split pawns one, three or more files apart mutually support themselves if they're on the same rank.
2. If the common square of any split pawns reaches as far as the eight rank then the pawns can promote unaided.
3. If the pawns are two files apart and as far back as the fourth rank they do not support themselves and can be picked off in certain circumstances.

Chapter 10: "When pawns become queens" 
Another chapter worth mentioning because it outlines some general rules in queen versus pawn endings and in queen and pawn versus queen endings.