Ten members tore themselves away from the tennis and/or their gardens last Thursday to test their endgame skills on a series of fascinating real game positions unearthed by Richard. They were divided into two teams of roughly equal grade and rotated through the evening. I’m afraid I can’t remember which team won but the two best performances were by John and Callum – leaving higher graded players in their wake. The solutions were very often counter intuitive – pawns had to be ditched, Kings had to charge off in what seemed like the wrong direction etc – all explained by Richard after each round on the demonstration board. Either he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of endings or he had put in a lot of work to achieve a terrific evening much enjoyed by everyone.
Members will be pleased to hear that Tony Lawrence was back after illness – not yet 100% but on the way.
Some members have never been to one of these evenings – why not try next Thursday when Steve Ledger will be organising an evening of gambits – both fun and education are guaranteed!
Peter Gill 14/07/2018
For those that didn’t attend, Richard’s approach is as follows:-
- Keep the positions simple
- Short solutions or main lines
- No studies – often actual games
- Practical so may be useful when it occurs in a game
- Review and discussion of the position afterwards
You can try them here:-