Chess Discussion With Zaidan!

 Zaidan

This evening Zaidan and i spent about an hour discussing about endgame theory at Putrajaya Precint 9 Food Court. Zaidan shows me some basic endgame position like key squares and also some unusual and interesting endgame tips such as queen vs bishop&knight and queen vs rook &pawn. For example, he show me an interesting endgame theory :-

Queen vs Rook + pawn

1.Rg3 Ke4 2.Re3+ The rook just move between the square (e3 and g3) protected by the pawn. 2...Kf4 3.Rg3 Qc6+ 4.Kg1 The king stay near the pawn and black can't make any significant progress ½–½

This is a drawn endgame because white can build a fortress which the side with the queen can't do anything if (i) the rook and king stay together and near to each other , (ii) the pawn remain on the 2 rank. At my home i do some checking by referring to my endgame book- Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht . The book mentioned that in this type of endgame :-

"A pawn on its second rank draws if it is not a rook's pawn and the defending king and rook are next to it" because no encirclement by the attacking king is possible!

As i mentioned in my previous post, Zaidan is a medical student in National University of Ireland, Galway . He is having a few months semester break. After the discussion we chat about chess especially his preparation for the coming 2008 National Closed which will start this coming Saturday. I was quite surprised when he ask me for some advice. I said to him " don't give up"and tell him my bad experience playing in National Closed 1997 when i lost 3 out of 4 early round and only collect 1/2 points . After round 4 i just walk over from the tournament after feeling so depress and quite chess for almost a years. The amazing think is after leaving chess for quite a long time, i return back ( without any preparation!) and won my first game in a serious team tournament (Sabarudin Chik Team Tournament organized by International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) at the Wetworld Hotel, Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur, against NM Kamal Ariffin.

The morale of the story i told him is don't push yourself too hard and take it easy... if the result doesn't go your way...just be objective and don't scold yourself ....sound like a loser advice :) but i think he appreciate it.