A Brilliant Endgame Study

[@Moiaija]

Interesting how in this "simple" position you have to play just the right moves, or you get a draw.

[@felipao2134]

Or you lose

[@swapnaganguly1073]

It is an endgame. Super complicated no matter what. You can get a draw in a QK v K.

[@satwik1268]

@@swapnaganguly1073 you mean, king queen and king pawn, right?

[@swapnaganguly1073]

@@satwik1268 not only that endgame but also a king alone endgame

[@dariogreggio7981]

@@satwik1268 he's talking about the stalemate if you promote to a queen instead of rook in this puzzle

[@kruksog]

This was great, but kind of depressing in making me realize how terrible my endgames are.

[@mugbhary]

Same feeling

[@albertbatfinder5240]

Yep. I watched and realised I could never think this out for myself.

[@PinkasBrown44]

Most people invest time in openings and mid-game study, because that´s where most games are decided. You don´t suck at end-game. You just haven´t been willing to invest more time in the many end-game studies there are out there. By the way, I consider end-game to be the very essence of chess. It´s ´soul´, so to speak. Cheers.

[@jarirepo1172]

On the other hand, it's really easy to improve on endgames. Openings have so many variations within them, middlegame requires lots of calculation and knowledge... of course endgames as well, but very often you are winning if you just know the basics and your opponent is just flailing around not knowing what to do.

[@UTU49]

Yes, I found this video to be very instructive. Today I learned that I don't have the patience to get much better at chess. I have barely played in a couple of decades. I've always enjoyed chess puzzles, learning chess tactics, and messing around with seeing if I can improve my record against a program... but chess will always be a simple pastime for me. I can't imagine ever wanting to study it seriously.

[@RAFAELSILVA-by6dy]

There is actually another twist. At the beginning, after Kb5, black can pull his rook back to d2 and if white queens, then black can almost keep the king boxed in with checks on a2 and b2. This would draw if the king were on b1 instead of a1. But, with the black king on a1, the white king can zig-zag down to reach c3 where the checks run out.

[@kvlpnd]

I think there is a break there when white king reaches c2 or c3. Then white can make queen.

[@TheDandonian]

@@kvlpnd The rook would then check the king and take the queen for the draw.

[@kvlpnd]

@@TheDandonian yupp didn't see that.

[@alexsunrick3079]

was thinking the same thing

[@amongaming2660]

@@alexsunrick3079 but the rook will get eaten at c3 cuz the black king no longer protects it

[@JoanDArc77]

When I first saw this I figured everyone would consider it a win for White after getting his king down to c1 but then I saw black's move to rd4 followed by rc4ch, qxc4 and stalemate - it never once crossed my mind to promote to a rook which prevents the stalemate and threatens checkmate - a great lesson in thinking outside the box!

[@jennifermeech4006]

Am 64th like

[@benoitb.3679]

You weren't lying, this is truly fascinating. I started playing chess on 5th May 2021 and I am in love. So much to explore, to seek to understand. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

[@miserableenclosure]

Thats my birthday!!

[@BenLaSoul908]

Watch the movie Fresh

[@djordje6937]

@@miserableenclosure Mine too

[@siddhantjhaveri]

I started about the same time too! What's your rating?

[@vessaryanbernard7594]

Happy one year anniversary of playing chess

[@user-eh9gk5uq2r]

In other words: Never leave your king on A1. Joke aside, cool study. Thanks for sharing.

[@walterkoziol3822]

Never leave the king on a corner piece.

[@lammatt]

Never leave your black king on a1

[@RMF49]

This is my favorite composition of all time. Crazy how much tactics there can be with so few pieces.

[@wooshbait36]

This is super simple tactic. I'm a chess hustler

[@yyyyyk]

Brilliant! This is why I like long time controls in chess. It allows you to calculate your opponent's next moves and find clever solutions, and that's what I enjoy most. No one has time to calculate all of these positions in blitz or bullet, so this beautiful puzzle would end in stalemate on one of the first moves, which isn't as exciting. Thank you, NM Nelson!

[@jamesmakume2630]

Once you've played against many cheaters, you'll value bullet and blitz.

[@yyyyyk]

@@jamesmakume2630 then the final best option is over-the-board with long time controls. (maybe not so much during the pandemic though...)

[@reed6514]

I really like 10 minute games. Some room for cleverness, but stays at a good pace. If i think too much, it's kinda tiring, so longer games can be draining for me

[@guywithnoname9302]

@Ruhan Time control???? You need time to look at an engine duh. Even the engines that automatically play moves can’t keep up

[@lammatt]

I think titled players can all see through this to the end in a couple seconds

[@Nuffsed81]

That is actually amazing. The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason. Every time I've ever promoted under a q it's not been necessary, I just did it for style. This study it's essential. It's very interesting because the stalemate would have got me without doubt....it won't now thanks to this video. Thanks

[@alexlowe2054]

Often times engines will under promote because having a rook makes calculations easier, and there's no functional difference between winning with a queen or winning with a rook. There's value in removing your ability to accidentally stalemate an opponent.

[@Nuffsed81]

@@alexlowe2054 I often think about promotion to a rook but something tells me it's not worth the "risk" and to just get the Queen. No idea why, because what you say is true and its easy enough to mate with rook. Next time I will go with rook for fun, u didn't see any difference at my level. 1250-1350

[@UTU49]

@@Nuffsed81: "The only time I've seen an under-promotion for a good reason." Another huge exception is when making your pawn a knight gives you an instant checkmate. I always like to keep in mind that the Knight is the only piece that can regularly move in ways that the Queen cannot. (I say "regularly", to account for the special moves: castling, and the 3 special pawn moves.)

[@Nuffsed81]

@@UTU49 what are the three special pawn moves?

[@UTU49]

@@Nuffsed81 I'm referring to the optional 2-square first move, pawn promotion, and the en passant capture. If you're unfamiliar with any of these moves, there should be lots of videos that cover them.

[@Creeperking-bw7wi]

4:24 Eric Roses loves this move

[@ThePawnslayerChessVideos]

The Barbier-Saavedra position! There is an interesting history to this problem. Barbier first published this in a Glasgow newspaper: He was an accomplished chess problemist. There he said it was a draw due to the stalemate trick at the end. Barbier then went to France on holiday (where he was from originally) where he died after a short illness. A Spanish priest called Saavedra, who was also living in Glasgow at the time, then sent in his revised solution to this problem with the rook promotion. Saavedra was far from a strong player, yet found the solution to this hard endgame!

[@grizzii2149]

Isn't it a very basic thing, to promote rook instead, as the diagonal is only thing which is creating trouble. M very beginner but as soon as I saw there was stale mate, I thought okay, I can replace it with rook.

[@worldofwarpool5379]

​@@grizzii2149 you gotta see that the rook against rook is not a draw snyways

[@johncarlisle621]

@@grizzii2149 chess theory has obviously advanced since the origin of this particular study in the latter part of the 19th century

[@UTU49]

@@grizzii2149 If I were ever in a position where promoting to a Queen lead to stalemate, and promoting to a Rook led to a win -- and I REALIZED it in time to win -- I would be SOOO proud of myself. :)

[@grizzii2149]

@@UTU49 literally, I am the guy whose queen 30% times die because I could not see basic fork, pin, pawn attacks etc. I always check for stale mate, because I win less, and so when m winning, I make sure to check stale mate at every move 😂.I think may be at that time there was no rule that u can bring anything, later because of this game, maybe they changed the rule

[@Kubooxooki]

I love this study. I learned it from Irving Chernev's "Practical Chess Endings." So glad you shared it!

[@armandasrumsas7520]

the most amazing thing with this composition is that the author created it as a 'fancy sequence of moves' leading to the draw after the stalemate. and it was another person who had the idea of promoting to a rook. it is the only case in the history of composition that I have heard such a story

[@YonyBear]

These are my favorite kinds of videos! Thanks for sharing!

[@ajarnray4115]

Wow that stalemate trick was awesome very nice example of a super tricky endgame.

[@pascaldegroote9813]

i almost always take tower insteed of queen just to avoid those problems.

[@welhalm8278]

Tower??

[@levistepanian5341]

This is a really neat study, I be always loved under promoting because it’s so rare, but this is a realistic position that could occur in game.

[@jackdesparrow3284]

Hope you will share more about end game and opening tactics. There are so many things to learn for a beginner like me.

[@3trilogy]

We're all learning, there's no end in sight.

[@seilaoquemvc2]

Lol, i saw the position and immediately thought “there’s no way this is not a draw”…. You learn something every day hahah

[@krishradio1]

In an actual game under time pressure it can go either way. Wow even a seemingly simple position has so much depth.

[@warmike]

Under time pressure, I doubt anyone short of a titled player could convert Queen vs Rook.

[@cfgauss71]

See this is the difference between Nelson and many other channels. His thumbnails are never clickbait. That was truly AMAZING!!!

[@UTU49]

Hello. I gave your comment a thumbs up before noticing that it was you. cutmrw fmw

[@yongzarizeternalv5536]

I could understand your explanation even though I'm not good at English! Thanks for your brilliant tip and easy-to-understand pronunciation!

[@petersiegfriedkrug]

i´ve made a study with the ending of this Saavedra position and published it in The Problemparadise. If the black king would on b1 or other squares, the Saveedra position does not work

[@Interesting_Failure]

At 3:40 Kc3 deserves a little more analysis, I think; by that point, if the opponent plays Rd1 you can play Kc2 and it stops the skewer. However, they can then play Rb1; you can promote, but they can check on b2, recheck on the a file or the back rank if you try to use them, and skewer you again unless you play exactly Kc3. From there, I think you'd have to maneuver your queen to either c1 or a3 with the right set of circumstances to take the rook; moving the king away lets them check you again until you re-threaten the rook at which point it pisses off back to b2, and the king can just cycle between a1/a2/b1 unless you start applying queen checks. There's either a mate sequence from there or Black can keep evading forever, but it's like 1AM and I'm too tired to try and sequence the whole thing. I'm sure the analysis has been done on the position elsewhere, but still.

[@Grimlock1979]

That would result in an endgame of queen vs rook. White should win that, but it can take many moves. Getting a rook is a sure win right away.

[@zanti4132]

Yes, Kc3 can be played as well as Kb3, since the skewer try after Rd1 is thwarted by Kc2. However, we've reached the same position as in the main line, so Black can still go for the stalemate trick with Rd4. A K+Q vs K+R tablebase confirms that any move along the first rank (Rb1, Rf1, etc.) is losing, but some technique is required - winning this endgame isn't easy.

[@BenLaSoul908]

Now that I'm thinking about it. You should make your top five or top 10 chess movies and or book lists Nelson.

[@aleksandaraleksovski2423]

Minor promotion, major result! Remember that the King has enormous value in the endings.

[@jrousselle7828]

Nelson, I'm a fellow NM & I'd like to say what a FANTASTIC job you did in this video of this classic composition. Keep up the great work!

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Thanks, mate!

[@wixom01]

A good example of how rich the game of chess can be. Stockfish 14, after evaluating a mere 2 BILLION moves, has a forced mate in 25, lol!

[@Eliseo_M_P]

3:37 White can play Kc3 here as well since after Rd1 there is Kc2.

[@donsmith3857]

fascinating .....thank you Nelson for all these great videos! ive learned more from watching and applying these principles than anything else

[@doubleinstruments6453]

White should move rook to g2 after King c2 and then try endgame 50 moves rule or obtain stalemate staying on g 2 a2 line

[@isavenewspapers8890]

5:56 Black also has Rd8. It’s much more obvious how that option loses, but it’s an option.

[@AM-vr9sc]

I always had one question on this study. After : Kb4, Rd4+; Cannot white play Kc3 with the exact same solution. Kc3, Rd1 Kc2, Re5 & we have reached the same position. My lingering doubt has been is there something else after W plays Kc3 Compositions many times have 1 & only 1 solution. That’s y I was wondering. But Kc3 after Rd4 also looks good to me.

[@zanti4132]

Nelson, since you are such a fan of Mark Liburkin's endgame compositions, I think you'd find his variation on the Saavedra position quite interesting. As you'd expect from Liburkin, he adds an amazing new wrinkle to the position, in this case a second underpromotion! You can find the study in the Wikipedia article for the Saavedra Position.

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Thanks, Zanti, I'll check it out!

[@kevingrupa6197]

I seem to recall reading (a long time ago) that the composer published this as White to play and draw; it was some time before some smartie figured out that White actually wins.

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Didn't know that!

[@onniruusunen9444]

Drawing is so easy that even 800 could do it against Magnus so that can't be right

[@micahdietrich7166]

@@onniruusunen9444 What game was that one? I would love to see it!

[@onniruusunen9444]

@@micahdietrich7166 ???

[@kevingrupa6197]

@@onniruusunen9444 Suppose you put the rook on d5 and say Black to play and draw? Now it's an interesting study ruined by the underpromotion.

[@wiscorpio72]

Stockfish actually sees that if black plays 2... Kb2 instead of 2... Rd4+, mate is postponed by 2 moves, and even with Kb2 it still doesn't show this line of play in this, but it is fun to see how black prevents the pawn from promoting to a queen. I have to work on my queen vs rook endgame. I remember this position in the book All About Chess by IA Horowitz. I used to get it at the library. That book had some great endgames like the 5 vertical black pawns, 3 underpromotions in 1, I'd love to get that book again.

[@classymofo1059]

Imagine how many 7 minute videos you'd need to analyze your endgame when a random pawn move or random king move is a "Blunder!" according to the engine and you're just like "wdym computer? It's just some random move cuz I'm low on time"

[@patrikkupec]

4:27 how about walking the king up, attacking the rook? If he moves one higher, walk again until he runs out of space. If he moves two, you just Queen and there is no stalemate anymore. This was actually first thing that came to my mind.

[@JoanDArc77]

Won't work because Black just plays the rook to d1 followed by rc1 check when the pawn queens.- White could even lose the game if he followed the rook too far up the c file, he'd lose the pawn whether it got promoted or not.

[@Carl-Gauss]

Wow! I remember seeing this study in a book when I was a child and not getting it even after I read the solution but now it looks so simple! (I’ve got the sequence except the stalemate trap almost immediately and the later mentioned and the rest in ~ a minute when you said “*seemingly* winning”.) Thank you for posting this!

[@Markyto973]

This is amazing how much is going on with only a king and a pon !

[@et6910]

Pawn

[@Markyto973]

@@et6910 thanks

[@edvinkarlsson9368]

@@et6910 pon! Do ye not understand mere mortal?!?!?!

[@reed6514]

@@edvinkarlsson9368 lol. You silly

[@Thikron]

Good old Saavdedra position! And there's Liburkin's variant that involves promotion to all three of queen, rook and bishop in its various lines!

[@bobing1752]

It wasn't a very difficult study, you can always find the right move by process of elimination. But the amount of tricks ends up being significant. A really cool study.

[@arrestmenot]

At 3:42 I think you can go Kc3 and if black go Rd1 you can go Kc2.

[@wiktor1272]

The real fun begins when u try to play this position against stockfish 8, he actually lets u make a queen without stealmate and in 50 moves u have to give a checkmate with a queen against rook which is not easy :D

[@нермид]

except it is

[@DougCube]

4:14 Seeing the line of 'promote to rook' from white if black plays Rd3d4, black can survive much longer by playing Rf3 instead and allow the queen promotion. Mate-in-20 vs mate-in-7.

[@N8570E]

THAT WAS AWESOME! Thank you for your efforts. May you and yours stay well and prosper.

[@cd31000]

Had a fun one where I managed to safety get my pawn through my opponents pieces and promoted it into a knight of all things which ended up being the deciding factor when I pushed my opponent's king into the same corner using his own pieces and the ones defended by my knight to pin him into a loss.

[@yakzivz1104]

Endgames are technical as hell and they are the hardest. There is no leeway for errors. Also there are nowhere near enough videos on endgames.

[@perseusgeorgiadis7821]

I found all the moves here but the problem is that in a real endgame, you don't know you have a win and you also have a clock so I'm 90% sure I'd have drawn this

[@GrapeCheckerBoard]

Now that you know this pattern, you’ll be able to recognize similar situations in your games. You won’t have to calculate as much since you’ll know how this position works.

[@RikMaxSpeed]

I get a different analysis in Stockfish which is way more complex: 1. Kb5 Rd5+ 2. Kb4 Kb2 3. c8=Q - mate in 24. That’s definitely not easy for a human. Does demo how tricky this problem is!

[@for4for4]

This is the most eye-opening video I've ever watched about endgames.

[@medexamtoolscom]

1:15 "Believe it or not, even though white only has the pawn, white's actually trying to win this position". Perhaps you meant to say "black's actually trying to draw this position". Of course white wants to win. The key point however is that for black, hoping for victory is setting his sights too high and is happy to settle for a draw, while white shouldn't just TRY to win but should NOT settle for a draw.

[@MistaMasta12]

Great position, great analysis and video! I found the correct moves, but not from the starting position. I only saw until Kc2 and thought white was winning, but there were several more accurate moves required. That’s deep 😅

[@SuperFerz]

Yes, the Saavedra position. I like this puzzle and the Réti endgame study.

[@PinkasBrown44]

Very comprehensive end-game miniature. Great stuff.

[@Coq7]

Super cool study and good pedagogy. Keep it going man

[@EliteCameraBuddy]

5:11 you could down promote to a rook or a bishop or a knight (personally I like the knight idea because I like to jump around but that’s just my opinion)

[@iwillnotwritemyrealnameher452]

Look, that's a 1 elo chess player

[@drat7646]

Definitely an “Amazing End Game” analysis, yet I’m slightly puzzled. As somewhat a novice, unless there was substantial transitions of pieces during this game (white & black on absolute opposite sides of this board) it would appear that the white pawn would need to be advancing towards the 6 to 1 rows! Did I miss something?

[@superkaeldev861]

You aren’t missing anything, it’s just that you seem to be ruling out “substantial transitions of pieces” for some reason. That’s how endgames go - kings move all over the place, and it’s even potentially common for the kings to swap places as they try to protect pawns. Now, it is a bit odd that the black king is in the corner like that, but that could be explained in any number of ways.

[@drat7646]

@@superkaeldev861 Thanks for the explanation & some clarification SuperKael.

[@Vearru]

I never thought that an under promotion to a rook or a bishop would ever be a best move, knight is obvious as it has distinct movement options that a queen doesn’t have, but a piece that is strictly less versatile made no sense to me. But when I saw the solution of promoting to a rook my jaw dropped because I was so surprised to see that as an option. That is genuinely incredible. I’d also love to see a situation where promoting to a bishop manages to be the best choice, that would be super cool too.

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Bishop underpromotion is in one of the recent videos!

[@Vearru]

@@ChessVibesOfficial Oh! Thank you I’ll be sure to watch that!

[@ralphmerridew]

There's a third reason to underpromote; sometimes when you're behind an underpromotion stalemates immediately, while a queen would lose later.

[@bachianm2375]

Old but great indeed! It's nice to recall it. Thank you, master Lopez!

[@reflexrefractor]

In the last position when it was either stopping checkmate or losing the rook after Rb4,Kxb4,Kb2 stops mate atleast for some time

[@Bushchannel]

Great lesson man!

[@Lordmewtwo151]

Good commentary on c5. I thought c5 because if b5, draw by perpetual check is an option or a few moves later the same situation of draw/win for black as explained for c5. BTW, the skewer doesn't have to be c1, any spot on the c file more than one space behind the king will suffice.

[@a.gabrielarchibald5291]

Interesting to note that if the black king was in B1 instead of A1 this position would be a draw because the Rook can come to D2 and start checking the white king until he either accepts the draw by perpetual check or line up in front of the pawn/promoted piece

[@saimon174666]

Omg, this is amazing, please more of these studies

[@ultrametric9317]

Who made the study? One of the first books I read as a kid was by Chernev, "Practical Chess Endings", which was actually a book mostly of studies. I was amazed!

[@vinesthemonkey]

look up Saavedra endgame. probably the most famous endgame study ever

[@Ratlins9]

Thank you for sharing, I don’t have the depth of knowledge to have made the correct moves in this scenario but you did open my mind.

[@jrviade85]

6:20 I guessed that one correct!! Yay! I'm so happy! 😛 This is a very helpful video! Thank you very much! I need a lot to learn from this situations and I've been in this type of situations in several games lol some I've won some I've lost

[@AlokSingh-ld5zt]

Me too

[@abeke5523]

It was probably the most intuitive one

[@aleksandaraleksovski2423]

I learnt that from a chess book in early 90's. Those days we had no any computers, but solved some problems in weekly magazines, etc. Today is totally different then 30 years ago, but chess is timeless.

[@johndrake3472]

I noticed a ton of GMs saying to master your endgame fundamentals before anything else - this here is good evidence to why.

[@kabooby0]

Great content. Love your straight forward manner of presenting information, it's got a more educational vibe.

[@Haufen110022]

Hey Nelson, i just saw an old video of you from one year ago. Wow! You did really get much!!! better in terms of sound quality, ambiente, upload times etc. Success is like a ketchup-bottle, you knock on it again and again and some day it all comes out :) Keep going! Cheers

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

Thanks, Daniel!

[@leonardocavalieri526]

I really apreciated how taking a queen leads to a draw, instead you need a rook. Very clever, I didn't see that coming (I'm not that good at chess, I know)

[@reinhardtwilhelm5415]

I think I remember this. It’s something like 1. Kb5! Rd5+ 2. Kb4 Rd4+ 3. Kb3 Rd3+ 4. Kc2 Rd4! 5. c8=R!! Ra4 6. Kb3 and White wins, right?

[@Mykareyu]

I would never imagine that a position that looks so simple could hid such a methodic study! amazing!

[@ethan073]

The stalemate threat was sixk

[@allanfifield8256]

Nice! Contains some practically useful themes instead of artificial problem moves.

[@hanswust6972]

A really mindblowing strategy. Thanks for sharing and your awesome explanations.

[@franklinturtle9849]

3:42 Kc3 is winning as well. Try it out.

[@sandman0829]

Dude your channel is so rad. Wish I found it sooner. Thanks for all the 10/10 content

[@mekkler]

I've always found end games to be the most complicated.

[@reed6514]

I do find endgames rather difficult too. With so much open on the board, just too many possibilities!

[@blacknwhite5451]

Wow, it's a huge leap of faith to move the king away from the pawn and leave it so isolated. Would never have believed it without seeing it.

[@sulye4277]

But in this position 2:45 what if Rd2? if white promotes the rook will check until kc3 but kb1 what happen next?

[@free3793]

The king will chase the rook until there are no checks

[@scolley0616]

Have you done a video on the Reti Position? White Kh8 Pawn c6, Black Ka6 Pawn h5?

[@carlosgaytanacevedo3712]

Amazing position, congrats for your job, Would you be so kind to explain M. S. Liburkin, Shakhmathy vs SSSR 1931 (second price) ? It is very similar to the Saavedra Position. Best regards.

[@jackmatthew1880]

At 3:42 is Kc3 really a problem?

[@timotheeastier249]

Looks like it also works and leads to the same position after Kc3 Rd1 Kc2 Rd4.

[@Grimlock1979]

Then black can move the rook to h4. If white gets a queen, black will give check on c4, leading to the stalemate. If white does not get a queen, the rook will move to h8 and then b8.

[@timotheeastier249]

@@Grimlock1979 Kc3 Rh4 c8=Q Rc4+ Kxc4 (and not Qxc4) and there is no stalemate.

[@Grimlock1979]

@@timotheeastier249 Oh yeah, oops. Ignore that.

[@eliyasne9695]

5:20 What if you just played a waiting move like king to c1, making black move a piece, thus ruining his plan?

[@Grimlock1979]

Then the black rook will go to c4, giving check and then taking the pawn.

[@zanti4132]

There's better waiting moves, but they don't work either: Kb3 is met by Rb3+, repeating an earlier position. Kc3 allows Rc1. Then after Kc2 Black returns to the stalemate trick with Rd4! The only move to make progress is c8R!

[@julianooms327]

This wasn't too hard to figure out but I definitely would have thrown the game if I actually encountered this in a match :)

[@TmanWdaPlan]

That was insane! I feel both smarter and stupider.

[@ChessVibesOfficial]

😂

[@anomanderrake440]

I’ve seen this before. Maybe in Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual? Can’t remember if it’s in there or not but I think so.

[@houtansadeghi]

I did not see most of these moves!! First I planned to move the king to the left and support the pawn and did not expect the basic pin….. etc etc. I spent most of the lockdown watching professional players playing each other. I should have concentrated on this channel.

[@jatinverma7967]

Loved it. I'll definitely try to play ny endgames more carefully next time.

[@skakdosmer]

My favourite endgame study is W: Kd7, c7 B: Kf3, Bg6, b7. White to play and draw. An endgame study expert once told me that this was originally just a variation in a study beginning several moves earlier, and so even more difficult to find. Hint: On nearly any move from White, Bf5 is a devastating response. So... ?

[@perfectionbox]

the bestest endgame is where you let your opponent get his hopes up for as long as possible and then destroy him out of nowhere 🤣

[@kidtruck9157]

Im so proud of myself. I'm a novice but by watching many of these vids i finally saw some of the optimal moves beforehand.

[@customarylover3857]

0:52 For a moment, I thought moving the king forward was the best move, but then I realized what Black could do in response even without Nelson explaining it. A few calculations later, I found out what the right move was: Kc5. Edit: Nvm.

[@YaNykyta]

Nice. I met this problem about 52 years ago...

[@Trikedin]

Kb5 because if other kingmoves it will be a pin to the king or an check from behind

[@jessesnyder4566]

I had the exact same reaction when I saw that in my copy of endgame manual

[@williamsmith8640]

This brilliant endgame study speaks for itself

[@Thebiggestgordon]

Now can you make a tutorial on how to reach this position from the starting position? Thanks for making chess fun.

[@streetpokerlive7034]

famous sketch from my childhood. last move Rc4 Qxc4 stalemate