This course is based on a totally different, a much more effective approach hands-on learning. IM Asaf Givon teaches you how to study and understand the endgames in an engaging, easy-to-follow, step-by-step way.
Practical Endgames with IM Asaf Givon
The endgame is a very important part of chess, perhaps even more so than the opening and the middlegame. Contrary to what many club players think, learning endgame is not hard. Why are the most club players struggle when it comes to the endgame?
The answer is simple. The endgame books are either very difficult to understand or they are plain boring.
This course is based on a totally different, a much more effective approach hands-on learning. IM Asaf Givon teaches you how to study and understand the endgames in an engaging, easy-to-follow, step-by-step way.
This course is right for you if you…
- have trouble finding the best move in endgames
- find the endgame study materials boring or difficult to understand
- don’t know what to focus on and how to study an endgame
- want a simple and practical method to learn endgame correctly
This course is designed mainly for students at a 1300-2100 rating level. However, it will still be useful for higher-rated students as well.
Understanding practical endgames
testing your abilities in evaluating an endgame. He will give you eight positions from the different types of endgames and from the different levels of players and different eras of chess.
He then reveals the process of understanding and evaluating those positions.
The unanswered questions
- How to evaluate an endgame
- What are the principles of weaknesses?
- How to use space advantage?
- How to activate your king?
- What defensive technique to use in Endgames with a material disadvantage?
Test your skills
Introducing ‘Test Your skills’, a new and better way to digest the course materials and to have fun along the way.
This section contains 3 video lessons with PGN files where Asaf provides various examples to test your skills.
Contents:
- LESSON 1 How to evaluate an endgame
This is the starting point of our course about understanding better practical endgames. I think it would be good to start with testing your abilities in evaluating an endgame. - LESSON 2 The principle of two weaknesses (Karpov’s classics) This lesson will be dedicated to the principle of two weaknesses with two different examples.
- LESSON 3 Pawn structure (weaknesses) In this lesson, we are going to talk about pawn structure, more specifically pawn weaknesses. In the endgame, one of the most important aspects, maybe besides the piece’s activity, is the pawn structure –which side has better or weaker pawns.
- LESSON 4 Space advantage In this lesson, we are going to see some positions from two games. One is a very classical game between Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca, two former world champions, in 1914. The second is from a more recent game between Anish Giri with the white pieces and Johan Sebastian Christiansen.
- LESSON 5 King activity In this lesson, we are going to talk about the king’s activity and the king’s marches in the endgame. So, as we have seen before, the king is the most important piece in the endgame and it’s very important to activate it as much as possible.
- LESSON 6 Pawn majority In this lesson, Asaf will show you some plans that you can use when having a queenside pawn majority.
- LESSON 7 Defensive techniques We are going to examine situations in which we stand in the inferior positions and we try to hold on, at least, to make a draw.
- LESSON 8 General tips for successful endgame playing Here I’m going to talk about some general practical advice and tips about playing the endgame from my experience. The first thing I wanted to teach you is being practical – trying to know which endgame to go with.
IM Asaf Givon
Asaf Givon is an International Grandmaster has played for the Kfar Saba team in the first Israeli chess league. He got his IM title in 2013, and he currently has 2 Grandmaster norms. He started teaching chess since he was 16.
