[Author's note: We'll have a bonus post for you tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this one ...]
White to play
Aronian - Anand, London Chess Classic 2012
Chess books seem to divide rook endgames into the theoretical (endings with a rook and a single pawn, or perhaps two, against rook - e.g. Random Rook Endings: Lesson Number One; BORP? XVI) and the practical (games played out with rooks and multiple pawns on each side). I suppose Aronian-Anand, from last year's Classic, falls somewhere in between.
At first sight White looks in a spot of bother although, as it turns out, the draw is not that far away. It all seems rather simple when you see how the game finished, but, straightforward or not, when Angus showed the game to me at one of our coffee shop/endgame study meets it took me quite a while to strip away the fluff and work out the right line all the way to the end.
Rook and pawn Index
1 comment:
Looking through the whole game, White gave up a pawn for initiative and later space. With that theme, you would hope as White to be able to steer the game to the safe haven of a drawn rook and pawn ending. The final idea of sheltering the king behind the f pawn is neat.
RdC
Post a Comment