[chess] averbakh, yuri l. - comprehensive chess endings

8/12/2019 [Chess] Averbakh, Yuri L. - Comprehensive Chess Endings

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FOREWORD

by Yuri L. Averbakh

The first English edition of Comprehensive Chess Endings was published almost twenty years ago. Since

then, the rapid proliferation of computer technologyhas affected many aspects of life. Indeed, chess is noexception to this rule. A computer program has alreadydefeated the world champion, and now computers areinfallible in the late endgame, when very few piecesremain.

Furthermore, ever faster time controls have led to adrastic acceleration of play ad!ournments andresumptions are now a thing of the past. "reviously,one could ad!ourn the game and analy#e the positioncalmly, but now play must continue without abatement.This means that a good fundamental $nowledge of

basic endgames is even more important.

The main ob!ective of this new edition is to unite theexperience accumulated by many generations of chess

players with the latest computer technologies. Thus it isreleased not as a printed boo$, but as a software

product, and is made in co operation with the famouschess software company Convekta . Together we havedone the following%

&. 'e have corrected all the previous edition(sshortcomings discovered by readers.Additionally, two supplementary articles areincluded, by )* Sergey Shipov and I**axim +ot$in.

. All positions with five or less pieces on the board have been verified with the +alimovendgame tablebases. The most significantchanges were made in the two sections%- ueen and pawn vs. /ueen0 and - ueen vs.roo$ and pawn0.

1. All positions with a larger number of pieceson the board were chec$ed by playing

programs. Furthermore, whenever animprovement was suggested by an engine, itwas verified by a human player.

As a result, about 22 examples have been corrected.Since there are over 3,&22 examples in total, the readercan !udge the wor$ we did in the &452(s and &462(s,when we did not have the benefit of computer

assistance. That is why much of the text remainsunchanged, and often times, we only needed to supplya few corrections. These are highlighted and mar$edwith the sign -770. 8aving reached this sign, an

interested reader can compare the human investigationswith the computer verdict.

Acknowledgements

First of all I would li$e to remar$ that the first threevolume edition of Shakhmatnye Okonchaniya ,

published in &459 &49 , was prepared with theassistance of the Soviet masters +.:opayev,;.


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Contents1. Software License Agreement 32. Introduction 5

.&. System 7e/uirements 9

. . Technical Support 9

.1. Installation 9

.3.


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2. INTRODUCTIONYour C3 includes7

"rogram files%Catabase management system< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S H"laying engines < 7AFTB andC7A)D+ .

Cata%A;E7@A:8 database, the latestedition of five volume< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S edited by Buri Averba$h,thoroughly revised and updatedHSample E A*" ES databaseH


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Type in your (ame and CompanyoptionallyG.

Select &nsta ation )irectory .< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S is installedin the M


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Each branch can be folded and unfolded by doubleclic$ing on it, clic$ing on the -O0 or - 0 signs, or byusing the left and right arrow $eys. Bou can movealong the


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*odify the list window to suit your taste. For example,clic$ing on the divider and moving it in the title barwill change the width of any column. Furthermore, thenumber and order of columns may also be changed.

7ight clic$ on it, select This 0indo0s properties , andthe roperties window will appear.

oo$ at the Order o% %ie ds in ist section. The Se ectedwindow shows the displayed columns. If there is acolumn you don(t wish to see, move it to the (ot

se ected window. In order to do this, clic$ on theundesirable item in the Se ected window and press the

button. Should you wish to hide all the items, press

the button. The and buttons will do theopposite. To change the order of columns, clic$ on one or

several items and move them with the and buttons.

In the $enera , Chessboard settings , 9ie d options ,Chess notation and Start notation %rom sections youcan set many different options to modify the listaccordingly. In the 4ackgro#nd type drop down listyou can choose between 4 ack and 0hite , Co or , :ood ,

1arb e and 9rom 9i e .

'hen you open a new list, its appearance will dependon the options set in the Tools | Options | List window.To copy the options you have set for the active windowto other lists, press the Copy to g oba options button.

Split mode

Bou can move along the list and at the same timereplay games and annotations on the chessboard. To do

this, select the Sp it command in the local menu or press the JShiftK JF5K $ey combination. This will dividethe list window into two parts. ?se the JTabK $ey toswitch between the top and bottom parts of the screen.3.4 VIEW MODE

To access a single game, use the /ie0 mode. There aretwo ways of switching from the list to the /ie0 mode%

&.


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3.5 USING THE TABLEBASES

The endgame tablebases will tell you exactly how to play out any position once a certain amount of pieces isleft on the board. For the time being, the +alimovtablebases include all positions with 1, 3, and 5 piecesand a comparatively small number of positions with 9

pieces on the board. If you want to have the five piecetablebases available on your hard dis$, note that theyoccupy 6 )@ the six piece tablebases occupy &22)@QG.

Curing preparation of the A ;E7@A:8 database, all positions with five or less pieces on the board have been verified with the +alimov endgame tablebases. +evertheless, it ma$es good sense to lin$ the tablebasesto < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S . This can be done

either during installation see Section !.3 &nsta ationfor detailsG, or at any moment later by selecting the Engines | Link tablebases command in the main menu.

After you have lin$ed the +alimov endgametablebases, you can see drawing and winning #ones inendgames with five or less pieces on the board. These#ones can be displayed for every piece.

'=am"le 17

Dpen the /ie0 window with E;amp e - in the


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Statistics of your progress are given above. Cependingon your results, positions are included either into the


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In /ie0 mode the current set is the one from which the/ie0 mode was called. The program always rememberswhere a game was called from. This information isdisplayed on the ob!ect bar as 6 (-7(! , with (!

standing for the amount of games in the original set and (- for the current game number in this set.

4. SEARCThere are six types of search in < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S % Beader , osition , 1ateria ,

Advanced? 9or Comments and 9or 1ane#vers H allthese types may be combined.

4.1 HEADER SEARCH

This type of search is based on -header0 information,such as the players( names, result, year, place, etc.

Select Sear ! | "eader in the main menu. Bou can

also clic$ on the small down arrow next to the iconon the toolbar and select Beader search in the dropdown listG. The Search dialog box appears, with theheader fields listed on the left.

>hite7 The player playersG with the white pieces.

5lack7 The player playersG with the blac$ pieces.0esult7 The possible values are% -=, , ,=- , -7!=-7! , or anevaluationH @ stands for an un$nown result.

'C/7 Dpening index according to the


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There are &3 mar$ers of different colors. The currentcolor is indicated below the chessboard. To define thefirst area, clic$ on all the s/uares you want to include,then set the material restrictions for the selected area as

described above. 'ith the help of the local menu youcan Shi%t markers% 'e%t ,


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"ress the Search button. A list with the onlyfound game will appear @rowne C.)urevich, ?SA &463G.

In this example we combined several types of search"osition O *aterial O Advanced O For bishops of

opposite colors O For hori#ontally and verticallysymmetrical positionsG.

. COMMENTINGTo comment a game in /ie0 mode, !ust clic$ on theComments tab in the left part of the toolbar and theComments toolbar will appear.

5.1 ANNOTATING MOVES

To annotate a move, clic$ on the icon. A smalldrop down menu will appear. Select Annotate moveand you will get the Annotations editor dialog box .

The Informant style symbols may be used in shortcomments. 8ighlight Short 4e%ore if you wish to inserta symbol before the current move or Short A%ter toinsert one after, then clic$ on the appropriate symbol.Bou can also press the Eva #ation tab and select thedesired evaluation.

Bou may also insert any text in the notation. To do this,clic$ on 'ong 4e%ore or 'ong A%ter and type the textcommentary in the text window. ?se the &ntrod#ctionand A%ter0ord tabs to insert annotations before the first

and after the last move of the game.To delete annotations, clic$ on the icon and select

)e ete annotations in the small drop down menu. "ressthe JCeleteK $ey if you wish to delete the currentcommentary directly in the notation.

To insert a diagram, clic$ on the icon, and todelete a diagram, clic$ on it again.5.2 ADDING VARIATIONS

To comment a move with a variation, place the cursor before the move in the notation window and !ust playout the variation on the chessboard.

'ntering moves

All moves are entered with the mouse. In order to ma$ea move, move the cursor to a piece, press and holddown the mouse button, drag the cursor to thedestination s/uare, and then release the mouse button.

Commenting the last move in the game

If you place the cursor after the last move and enter anew one, it will be added to the main body of the game.To avoid this, press J


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the left and the color mar$ers on the right. This windowcontains five tabs% 1arkers ( 'ines ( 4 ocks ( Chars andTe;t that allow to place various color ob!ects on thechessboard.

5.3 WORKING WITH THECLIPBOARD

Bou can use the standard ' I+CD'S clipboard whichallows one to copy games and analysis from theI +TE7+ET and other sources, and to paste them to theA ;E7@A:8 or E A*" ES database. 'ith its help youcan also export data from < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S to other programs, and last but not least, itlets you share data inside < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S .The ")+ and E"C formats are the de facto standardfor sharing information between different chess

programs. They are also the standard formats for

posting games and analysis on the I +TE7+ET . The. ")+ and . E"C files are text files which can be editedmanually with a text processor. They can also be

produced by chess programs, which support theseformats.

")+ stands for -portable game notation0, and isintended for exchanging game scores and analysis.E"C stands for -extended position description0 and isintended for exchanging board positions.

+o e="ort a game from C / &0'6' SI8' C 6'SS ' 3I )S to the &) format7

&G Dpen the/ie0 window with this game.G To copy the game to the clipboard, press

J


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6.1 LINKING PLAYING ENGINES

< 7AFTB and C 7A)D+ are built in and do not re/uirelin$ing. All other programs you plan on using, must be

lin$ed to < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S accordingto the following procedure. +aturally, the programyou(re lin$ing to < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S must already be installed on your computer.The Engines window, which is intended for lin$ing

playing engines, can be called up in five ways% @y selecting Engines | Engines setup H @y selecting Tools | Options | Engines H @y selecting Tools | '!ess engines setup H @y clic$ing on the small arrow to the right of

the icon in the toolbar and selectingChess engines set#p from the drop downmenuH

@y pressing JAltK JF&&K.

6.2 AD#USTING PLAYINGENGINES

After you have lin$ed the desired engines to< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S , you can ad!ustthem. Dptions, which are common for all the lin$edengines, are ad!usted in the $enera ana ysis optionsand ay Options panes. Specific options of individual

programs are ad!usted with the help of the ersona ities button.

6.3 PLAYING AGAINST ANENGINE

To start a new game from the starting position, select Engine | #la) against an Engine | #la) *rom starting position in the main menu, or clic$ on the icon onthe toolbar, or press JF&&K. To start a new game fromthe current position in /ie0 or Tree modeG, select

Engine | #la) against an Engine | #la) *rom urrent position in the main menu or press JShiftK JF&&K. In

/ie0 or Tree mode, you can also clic$ on theicon in the Engines section on the toolbar and thenselect #la) *rom urrent position or #la) a new gamefrom the drop down list.

In all cases, the Start#p window will appear, allowingyou to select an engine, set time control and ad!ustsome other options.

Select an engine from the drop down list, ad!ust othersettings and press Start . The program will open the

base E +)I+E ) A*ES if it was not already openG and thewindow for the new game. To play as 'hite if youselected B#man D Comp#ter G, simply ma$e your firstmove, and to play with the blac$ pieces, press theJSpacebarK or select Comp#ter B#man beforehandG.

In the pane below the notation the program displays thelines it considers the best, with the evaluations andcalculation depth in half movesG to the left. The timespent by both players is shown above. Two button bars

below the chessboard were described in Section 3./ie0 1ode .

?se the buttons below the chessboard, toolbar iconsand hot $eys.

To set up a position to play, clic$ on the

small arrow to the right of the icon onthe toolbar and select the desired commandfrom the drop down menu.

To set time control, clic$ on the icon onthe toolbar.

To stop the cloc$ for a while, no matter who

is to move, clic$ on the icon, and toresume the game, clic$ on it again.

Bou can save the game in the E +)I+E ) A*ES base and optionallyG fill in the game headerfields. If the game is not finished yet, but youdon(t want to continue it, press JEscK, and the

program will offer you to Assign game res# t ."ress one of the four radio buttons -=, , F ,,=- , or (one G, clic$ on O , and the Stop

game window will appear. Select the desiredaction and press O .

To ad!ourn the game, !ust save it in theE +)I+E ) A*ES base as described above. Toresume it, open the desired game in /ie0

mode and select Engines | #la) against anengine | Resume in the main menu or pressJShiftK J


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after you pressed the JSpacebarK, a pane with results ofthe analysis will appear.

The program shows the lines it considers the best, withevaluations and depths of these lines to the left. Theupper variation is bold facedH it is the main one becauseit is the deepest, and after the analysis is finished, itwill be inserted into the notation as a comment.To /uic$ly switch between positions in the analysislines, use the arrow $eys or !ust clic$ on any move inany line in the analysis pane, and the position after thismove will appear on the chessboard. *a$e your movefrom this position on the board, and the engine willimmediately start to analy#e it.

6.5 USING THE DGT BOARD

If you find it unpleasant to play on the screen and missthe feel of a wooden board, you can connect the C)T

board and play on it instead. The C)T board is anelectronic wooden auto sensory chessboard by C)T"ro!ects from the +etherlands. Dnce connected to yourcomputer, it permits you to play against the built inengines, analy#e with them, and input your analysis.

hat@s the difference between highlightedBand colored B

The highlighted games are mar$ed only until the nextoperation is executed. The games selected and coloredwill remain colored in the dataset in which you mar$edthem, for as long as the dataset is open. "lease note that

they will not stay colored in the database list. If youwant to mar$ a game in the database, you shouldinclude this game into a class.

To highlight a game, clic$ on a cell with the gamenumber. To select a game by coloring it, clic$ on thisgame in the list and press the JInsertK $ey. If severalgames are highlighted, pressing JInsertK will color themall.

'hen the re/uired games have been mar$ed in someway highlighted or coloredG, choose one of thefollowing commands in the main menu% Dataset |'reate dataset *rom | 'reate dataset *rom !ig!lig!ted

games or Dataset | 'reate dataset *rom | 'reate

dataset *rom olored games . Bou can also call thesecommands from the local menu or by hitting JF4K. +otethat the new set will be displayed in the same windowand the original set will be erased.

6ow can I Duickly select succession of games

First you have to highlight the games. To do this, clic$on the first game and then, pressing the JShiftK $ey,clic$ on the last game of the succession. To highlightthe entire list, clic$ on the cell above the game numberson the title bar. "ress JInsertK when the desired gameshave been highlighted. If there are both selected andnon selected games among the highlighted ones, youwill be as$ed to choose Se ection type .

If the colored games were highlighted then pressingJInsertK would cancel the selection. To cancel the wholeselection, call the Edit | 'lear sele tion command.

.2 CLASSIFYING GAMES ANDPOSITIONS

To speed up access to games in a database, your chessdatabase management system should have convenienttools for classifying games and positions, and< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S offers you two such

tools% the ' I+CD'S E " D7E7 style classifier andstandard classes.

The ' I+CD'S E " D7E7 style classifier is based onthe printed edition and cannot be altered see Section3.! 4ro0sing the Contents for its descriptionG.

The standard classes allow you to classify gamesaccording to any criteria. A class may include anygames that you want, and of course the same game may

be included in several classes.

< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S offers you 12standard classes.


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Two numeric boxes in the 'ayo#t section allow you toad!ust the number of classes displayed in the 'istwindow in the cells next to the game numbers. Theclasses are also displayed in the /ie0 window in the$ame header section below the chessboardG.

If you want a class to be displayed, you have to attachsome color to it. To do this, right clic$ on the classname in the Avai ab e c asses list and clic$ on one ofthe Co ors . To -uncolor0 a class, clic$ on the icon.

ote7Dne of the standard classes iscalled 1arked . Con(t confuseit with games mar$ed withcolor. The blue mar$s areforgotten as soon as thewindow is closed but theclass is stored for future use.

Bou can include into classes not only entire games, but positions as well. For example, if there are severalinstructive test positions in a game, you can mar$ themall. To do this, -color0 the Tests class in the Avai ab ec asses list and ma$e sure that it is displayed in the

'ayo#t section. Then, while in the /ie0 window, clic$

on the Comments tab in the $ame header section belowthe chessboard. "lace the cursor after the move, whichhas led to the first test position, in the (otation pane.


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.3 OPERATIONS WITHDATASETS

Select Dataset | Disk operations | Ot!er Theoperations used most often, Save to disk and 'oad %romdisk , are put as separate items though they can bereached by selecting Other tooG.

The )ataset operations dialog box will appear. Itdisplays the C#rrent dataset aboveG, Operation on thedrop down listG, second operand in the Se ected lineG,and the resulting set.The following current database ob!ects are includedinto the Operands list%

All open windowsH All existing classesH All previously saved datasets.

In the Operation drop down list you can select thefollowing logical operations with datasets% Goin,

&ntersect , S#btract , 'oad , Save .

6. C ESS TREESA chess game may be considered as a set of positions

connected by moves, and a se/uence of moves thatleads from one position to another. et(s call thisse/uence of moves a path . Thus every game may beconsidered as a path that begins at the starting positionand ends at the final one.The same approach may be used for a set of games andeven for an entire database, because every database is aset of games. As far as we $now, each game is a set of

positions connected by pathsH conse/uently, a databasemay be considered as a set of positions connected bydifferent paths.

If one approaches a database from this point of view,it(s /uite possible that the same position may occur inseveral different games but the paths leading to this

position are different. i$ewise, there might be several paths from any position or, in other words, severalmoves have been played.

Therefore, there are two possible approaches% everydatabase may be considered either as a set of games oras a tree , i. e. a set of positions connected by different

paths. < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S offers yougood tools for operating the chess trees.

Ope$%ti!" % T$ee

To enter the Tree mode, select the Sear ! | Tree

command in the main menu or clic$ on the icon,and the Tree window will appear.

There are several types of trees, but functionally theyare nearly identical from the user(s point of view. In thedrop down box you can select one of them% C#rrentbase tree , B#ge base tree , )irect tree , Eva #ations , or

&nde;er .

The diagram displays the current position, with buttons below the chessboard similar to those in /ie0 mode.The path leading to the current position is shown in thelower pane, and the statistics of the current position are

present in the lower left hand corner. Bou can movealong the tree either by replaying moves on thechessboard, or with the arrow $eys, or by doubleclic$ing on the desired moveH the tree willautomatically update the information.

The 1ove column displays a list of moves from this position, some of which are evaluated. Cetailedstatistics for the current move are shown to the rightand below the list.

The "Dty column displays the number ofgames in which a move occurred.

The H column shows the percentage ofsuccess for each move calculated as W ofwon games O W of draws divided in G.

The following column displays the


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The Theory column shows information fromthe +alimov endgame tablebases.

The Comp#te column displays evaluationsobtained with the help of computer analysiswithin < D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S .

The Annotations column shows the user(scomments.

@elow the list you can see how many gameswith the current move were won by 'hite,won by @lac$, or drawn as numbers and as a

percentageH the red bar stands for won games,yellow for draws, green for losses, and

blue bar for games with an undefinedresultG.

@elow the words Other moves you can see all themoves available in the other trees, which weren(t

played in a game of the current database.

D%t%+%*e it' m%*te$ e(%l)%tio!*< D*"7E8E+SI;E < 8ESS E +CI+)S incorporates adatabase with opening evaluations. About &12,222opening positions and more than &52,222 moves have

been evaluated by our openings experts internationalmastersG.

In fact, the database with the master evaluations is a )irect Tree that is stored in the E ;A .8S8 andE;A .E * files. These evaluations are accessible from

both databases and are shown next to the moves in the 1ove column in any mode that displays the Tree pane.If they disturb you, !ust turn them off.

CAP d%t%


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and 3rd pattern ine. To access any of these three lines, press the corresponding small button with dots. Thiswill bring up the Edit pattern dialog box, similar to theone described in the previous section.

Bou can specify the 'ine spacing in ha %D ines as wellas whether you wish the (ame %ormat to be 9# or

artia by pressing one of the two radio buttons. Thecontents of the Empty p ayer string will be printedinstead of an undefined player name, while the contentsof the Empty %ie d string will be printed in the otherundefined fields. If the Empty %ie d string is empty,I@J will be printed in undefined fields.

To ad!ust the appearance of game notations, clic$ onthe $ame notation tab.

P$i!t p$e(ie

To see how the games will appear in print, call #rint | #rint pre&iew , and the rint revie0 window willappear. In the Koom box you can enlarge or reduce the

picture on the screen this does not affect the printingG.To print all the pages, clic$ on rint A , or to print thecurrent page, clic$ on C#rrent .

The left box in the age section shows the current page number, while the right window displays the totalnumber of pages. Bou can turn the pages over byclic$ing on the U and buttons. Bou can also type the

page number in the left box and press JEnterK. The UUand buttons !ump to the first and last pagescorrespondingly. To close the rint revie0 window,

press C ose or hit JEscapeK.

E9po$ti!"

The #rint | Export | Ri ! Text Format menu commandconverts a current set of games to the 7TF format,which is widely used in des$top publishing. Selectingthis command will bring up the Save as window inwhich you can set the exported file name.

To ad!ust the layout of the 7TF documents, select #rint | #rint options in the main menu and then clic$on the RTF setup tab.

1:. MISCELLANEOUS

OPTIONSSelect Tools | Options in the main menu or press JAltKJF4K, and the Options window will appear. It has ninetabs that allow you to ad!ust the appearance of differentwindows in different modes. For example, to choosefonts and colors for the chessboard, notation, list etc.,clic$ on the 9onts and co ors tab.

The ob!ects that can be modified are displayed in the E ement section.


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Chess Assistant(.1

?niversal program for amateur and professional chess playersG

'verything a chess "layer needs E

Catabase management system C6'SSASSIS+A +

"laying programs C6'SS +I)'0 1$9+I)'0 )A 5I+ III904!!IA 1.-9

[chess] averbakh, yuri l. - comprehensive chess endings

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