Lightning Speed Endgame Technique

Koji Tanigawa, Meijin

Part Three: Winning Endgame Technique

Chapter 1: Setting the Requirements

"Checking is just chasing." You have probably heard this Shogi proverb before and experienced it directly a couple of times. It contains two lessons: (1) When there is no need to deliver mate immediately, don't chase the enemy king too far; and (2) The more you chase the king, the harder it may be to catch it. In view of this, it's essential to consider what situation will arise after you have chased the king around.

However, there are circumstances in the endgame when the wisdom of proverbs or common practice is overturned. When the kings are near each other in the middle of the board, checking is not just chasing. In such a situation, repeatedly checking the enemy king is often a very effective way of escaping from a tight spot. The theme of this chapter is endgame technique when the kings are in close proximity.

Diagram 1

Looking for the Weak Point

Even the most solid castle has a weak point. The Mino castle's weakness is the square diagonally in front of the king on 7c. When attacking the Mino from the side, you need to get rid of the gold on 6a. To break down the Yagura castle, it can be a good tactic to aim at the gold on 3b by dropping a knight on 2d or a silver on 4a.

You must always be aware of the powers of your pieces in hand and know what pieces you need to launch the most effective attack. In Diagram 1, the weak points of Black's king are its vulnerability to attack by a bishop or a knight. If White had a knight, he could drop it on 4e. If he had a bishop, he would have the powerful punches ...B*3i and ...B*8d. The essential requirement for White in this position, therefore, is to find a way of getting a knight or bishop in hand.

Diagram A

In Diagram 1, I dropped a rook in my own camp with ...R*5a. This aims to get a bishop in hand while taking the offensive. What happens if Black now plays Bx5b+ Rx5b; S*4c K-3e; Sx5b= (Diagram A)? In this position, the bishop-drop check ...B*3i is very powerful. After G*4h, White wins simply with ...S*3g, threatening mate (...Sx4h=; Gx4h Bx4h+; Kx4h G*3g with forced mate). Since Black must part with his precious gold in hand with G*4h after ...B*3i, he cannot go completely onto the offensive. In view of this threat, Black must attack while keeping a silver in hand so he can answer ...B*3i with S*4h. Meijin Nakahara therefore played Bx5b+ Rx5b; P*3f (Diagram 2), threatening mate while keeping his silver. This leads to a seesaw battle of attack and defense.

Diagram 2

Defending While Attacking

Diagram 3

In Diagram 3, I played ...B*8d. Here Black would like to defend with P-6f, keeping his silver in hand, but this leads to forced mate after ...Gx4f; Px4f Bx6f; K-6g Bx7g+ (Diagram B); Gx7g S*6f; Gx6f Px6f; Kx6f P*6e; K-5g S*6f; K-4i G*3g; K-5i (Diagram C) G*6h; Gx6h Nx6h+; Sx6h N*6g; K-6i G*5i; Sx5i R-7i+; K-5h +Rx5i mate. This is quite a long sequence, but it's almost entirely a straight line without many difficult variations.

Diagram B

Diagram C

So we have seen that Black cannot defend and keep his silver with P-6f. This means that ...B*8d is not merely an attacking move but also a defensive move that eliminates the mate threat to my own king by forcing Black to use his silver to block the check.

In response to ...B*8d, Meijin Nakahara first played the tactic P*7e (to draw the bishop closer) and, after ...Bx7e, S*6f. With this, the mate threat to my king disappeared. I had succeeded in making excellent use of the technique of indirectly protecting my own king by attacking the opponent's king and forcing him to defend. This kind of tactical sequence occurs quite often in the endgame.

After S*6f Px6f (Diagram 4), it is White who is threatening mate.

Diagram 4

A Hallucination

Diagram 5

Nevertheless, the position in Diagram 4 is still unclear and quite unpredictable. The game continued Gx4e Kx4e; G*3e K-5d (Diagram 5). Here I expected Black to first play B-4d+ K-6d (Diagram D) and then turn to defense with Px6f. In Diagram D, Black's king has more space than in Diagram 5 because he now has an escape route from 4f to 4e. But Nakahara had a reason for not playing B-4d+. As we will see, there was a variation which, though it did not occur in the game, would have made B-4d+ disadvantageous for Black.

Diagram D

From Diagram 5, play continued Px6f R-4b; Gx2e S*3g (Diagram 6). Gx2e was a hallucination. With this move, Black planned to escape via 4h while preparing the potential threat of N*4f. But in Diagram 6, the Black king’s escape route has been completely blocked and the possibility of N*4f has also been eliminated. Why doesn't N*4f work in this position? In fact, Meijin Nakahara immediately played N*4f here. Let us see what happened.

Diagram 6

From Diagram 6, play proceeded N*4f Rx4f; Px4f Bx6f (Diagram 7); K-6g Nx6h+; G5hx6h (if (1) Kx6h S*5g; (2) G7hx6h G*7f; K-7h Gx7g; K-6i Gx6h; (3) Kx6f G*7f; K-5g +Nx5h) G*7f; K-5h S-4h+ and Black resigned. In Diagram 7, if Black takes the bishop with Kx6f, there follows ...S*7e; K-5g N*4e and mates. In Diagram 6 White had a forced mate after N*4f Rx4f; Px4f.

Diagram 7

An Unclear Variation

Diagram E

After G7h-6g, White must threaten mate before Black can get in Gx7f, but this does not look possible in Diagram E. But if there is no way of threatening mate and no way of defending against Gx7f, is this a losing position for White?

It is time to remember the words at the beginning of this chapter: "When the kings are near each other in the middle of the board, checking is not just chasing." In such cases, checking is an effective method of changing the situation of the two kings, and in Diagram E the silver drop ...S*6i is the only way of escaping from this tight spot. After ...S*6i; Gx7f Bx6f; Kx6f (if Gx6f Rx7g+) Rx7f (Diagram F) Kx7f S*7e; Kx7e P-7d; Kx7d G*6d; K-8e G*7d (Diagram G); K-7f (if K-9f S*9e; Kx9e P-9d) G7d-7e; K-6g P*6f; K-5g Sx5h+; Kx5h P-6g+; Px6g Rx4g+; K-7h G-6g; K-8i (Diagram H), chasing the Black king around the board. The aim of this series of checks is not to mate but to remove the knight on 7g which prevents White's king from moving forward. After ...Gx7g, Black is no longer threatening mate. By means of successive checks, White thus succeeds in changing the mutual relationship of the kings.

Diagram F

Diagram G

Diagram H

Even so, the position after ...Gx7g is still unclear since Black can resist by removing White's promoted rook with R*4d +Rx4d; Bx4d+ (Diagram I). It is difficult to say which side is winning here. Nevertheless, I think you can now understand that, by means of a series of checks, White has succeeded in extricating himself from what seemed like a hopeless situation after G7h-6g.

Diagram I

Just One Check

Diagram D

Diagram I

The most important thing in the endgame is to play according to clear requirements. You must know when you have to threaten mate and when you have to deliver mate. The opening and middlegame are more difficult because the requirements are not so clear and vary greatly according to concepts or individual preferences regarding, for instance, winning material or making the king safer.

An essential skill in mastering the endgame is first to set clear requirements in the given position. Once you have done this, the lines you consider will become much simpler because not many moves meet the requirements. In most cases, you can narrow it down to two or three moves and then thoroughly analyze the variations. The method of successive checks to eliminate the mate threat to my king in the position after G7h-6g (Diagram E) is a case in point. It proves that proverbs such as "checking is just chasing" lose their meaning under the particular conditions of the endgame. This example shows how checking can be wonderfully effective when the kings are close to each other. In each case, you must clearly grasp the situation and set the requirements. You cannot rely on proverbs or even common practice in the endgame.