Foreword

By IM Georgios Makropoulos (FIDE Deputy President & President of the Greek Chess Federation)

In the summer of 1984 the Greek Chess Federation decided to send Vasilios Kotronias
and Efstratios Grivas to Moscow. Our two then young hopefuls had the opportunity to be
trained by the famous Soviet School and to properly learn the secrets of our sport from
some great trainers, including Lev Polugaevsky, Artur Yusupov, Eduard Gufeld, Mark
Taimanov, Oleg Romanishin and Yuri Razuvaev, as well as several other top Russian
players and coaches.
This training session bore fruit, as both Grivas and Kotronias eventually obtained the
highest chess title: that of International Grandmaster. In the years that followed, these two
players significantly contributed to the Greek National Team, as well as to the populariza-
tion and development of chess in our country.
A few years ago, in 1999, Efstratios offi cially retired from the Greek national team.
Since then his competitive appearances have been scarce, but he has started a new career,
that of a trainer and an author, with the ambition of enj oying success similar to that in his
competitive one . Indeed, as a chessplayer he achieved numerous successes, most notably
fourth place in the World Junior Championship in 1985, the gold medal on board 3 in the
European Team Championship in 1989 and the silver medal at the Chess Olympiad in
1998.
Efstratios has at times co-operated with the Greek Chess Federation in multiple training
projects, helping young, talented chessplayers to discover and realize their potenti al. After
all, his firm belief in the motto ' talent is the ability to realize your potential' has accompa-
nied him throughout his entire career. Since 2002 the Greek Chess Federation has enjoyed
a constructive and permanent collaboration with Efstratios, first in various training pro-
jects all over the country and then in federal training squads. Today Efstratios occupies
various posts in both the Greek and the Turkish national training schemes, preparing the
next generation of the respected national teams .
Every self-respecting trainer invests great effort in creating and realizing his concepts.

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Thus, Efstratios's exposition in written form of his soul-searching regarding the proper
training methods was but a natural consequence.
Mastering the Basics was written in only nine months. In fact, this period may be sym-
bolic, as the book is essentially the mental child of a chessplayer who wrote his own chap-
ter in chess history. This period may also be considered too small, as it is not easy to de-
scribe all the secrets of chess endgames in such a short time frame . However, nine months
was long enough for Efstratios to write up all the knowledge and experience which he has
accumulated during a competitive chess career spanning thirty years.
Mastering the Basics includes all that an aspiring chessplayer would like to be ac-
quainted with and learn in the endgame. Within its pages one can find all the key strategic
and tactical themes of the endgame, and this rich and valuable material is accompanied by
an enormous number of games and examples. In simple words, this encyclopaedia of Ef-
stratios's greatly enriches Greek chess (with the Greek publication) and now world chess.
FIDE and the Greek Chess Federation, in their constant efforts for the development of
chess, especially among the younger ages, have found in the publication of Practical End-
game Play- Mastering the Basics a valuable ally ...

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 Introduction

By Sotiris Logothetis

The third World Champion, the Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca, once expressed the opin-
ion that the study of chess should commence with the third and final phase of a chess
game: the endgame . The Cuban himself was a renowned master of this stage and his ad-
vice was undoubtedly based on his personal experience . Many words have been spoken
about the significance of endgame knowledge and experience in practical play - there is no
point in repeating them here. The book you are holding aims to arm you as well as possi-
ble for this phase of the game .
Many people think that the qualities of a grandmaster, compared to an ordinary player,
mostly consist of superior opening preparation, greater calculating ability and deeper un-
derstanding of typical middlegame positions. If you, however, take a closer look at games
from, say, a strong open tournament, you will notice several cases where the grandmaster
outplays a weaker player (or even a fellow grandmaster) in the endgame from more or less
an equal position. You are often left wondering how on earth one could lose such a simple
position with so few pieces on the board.
And yet, in my personal experience, the last part of the game is where a well educated
player can set the opponent the most problems. As the weight of each move increases, any
mistake can prove very costly and great accuracy is required . In our times, with the aboli-
tion of adjournments and increasingly faster time-controls, endgame knowledge has ac-
quired greater significance than ever before.
Many games never reach the endgame . However, every good chesspl ayer, even in the
heat of the battle, must consider the endings that can possibly arise in the course of the
game . Our opening moves must take into account the consequences they may impose on a
future ending. Doubled, isolated, immobilized or passed pawns, strong and weak squares
- in general, all the positional elements, positive or negative, must be considered and
evaluated. Anti cipation of a favourable ending or fear of an inferior one will often influ-
ence our decisions in the middlegame, in the sense of selecting or rejecting certain con-

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tinuations . When dissatisfied with a prospective ending we will often opt for unclear com-
plications or serious material or positional concessions. In the end, our evaluation of the
endings that may arise will affect the entire course of the battle.
I have known Efstratios for many years and consider myself his student, although not
perhaps in the strictest sense of the term. From our endless conversations on chess over the
years, I have learned many things about all aspects of the royal game. In recent years I
have also had the pleasure of collaborating with him on his writing projects. A pleasure it
is indeed, because he takes this work very seriously and tends to be meticulous and very
accurate . Having spent countless hours with him, checking and rechecking every single
variation and position presented in his books, I can assure you that the writer has worked
conscientiously to produce the best possible result.
Efstratios has always been considered an endgame authority, as can be observed by a
detailed look at his games. He has possessed a deep and detailed education on the end-
game ever since I first met him, which was many years ago. Now he has taken this a step
further. The preparation of thi s book has stretched over several years, during which time
Efstrati os has delved deeply into existing endgame theory and has discovered - and cor-
rected of course ! - several important errors. Use has been made of every modern analysis
tool (particularly tablebases), in order to get closer to the absolute truth. At the same time,
with his usual thoroughness and perfectionism, Efstratios has sought to organize and pre-
sent the material in this book without leaving any black holes. I would like to draw your
attention particularly to the section on rook endings, arguably the most difficult type of
endgame, which can justifiably claim to be the most informative work on the subject ever.

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 Chapter One

The Golden Rules of the Endgame

The endgame is the moment of truth. It is the phase of the game in which we try to reap
the seeds of our efforts, regardless of whether that is for the full point and victory or a half
point for a draw. In the endgame the significance of any error increases, as there are few
opportunities to correct them.
The following rules are considered to be the Golden Rules of the Endgame. They were
recorded by GMs Reuben Fine and Pal Benko, two of the world's greatest experts in thi s
field:

1. Start thinking about the endgame in the middlegame.

2. Somebody usually gets the better deal in every exchange.

3. The king is a strong piece. Use it!

4. If you are one or two pawns ahead, exchange pieces but not pawns.

5. If you are one or two pawns behind, exchange pawns but not pieces.

6. If you have an advantage, do not leave all the pawns on one side.

7. A di stant passed pawn is half the victory.

8. Passed pawns should be advanced as quickly as possible.

9. Doubled, isolated and blockaded pawns are weak. Avoid them!

10. The easiest endings to win are pure pawn endings .

11. Passed pawns should be blockaded by the king. The only piece that is not harmed by

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blockading such a pawn is the knight.

12. Two bishops against bishop and knight constitutes a tangible advantage .

13. Bishops are better than knights in all except blocked pawn positions.

14. Do not place your pawns on the colour of your bishop.

15. The easiest endings to draw are those with bishops of opposite colours.

16. Rooks belong behind passed pawns.

1 7. A rook on the seventh rank is sufficient compensation for a pawn.

1 8. Not all rook endings are drawn!

19. Perpetual check looms in all queen endings.

20. Every move in the endgame is of the utmost importance because you are closer to the
moment of truth.

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