Endgames with Boris Gelfand

Starting with issue 2025#8, Boris Gelfand, the 2012 World Champion finalist, will keep track of what’s happening on the chessboard. He will highlight the most interesting games and endgames that are not featured in our tournament reports.

As we have limited space in our magazine, there was some very interesting and entertaining material left that we would love to share with you. Below are some instructive endgames with Boris Gelfand’s comments.

Ukraine won the 2025 European Team Chess Championship in Batumi, which was somewhat of a surprise, as they were the 9th seed in the starting lineup. In the match England - Turkey, the young English prodigy Shreyas Royal had to defend a tricky rook ending against Vahap Sanal. In the end, he managed to secure the draw, but not without mistakes from both sides. Watch and learn!

Shreyas Royal – Vahap Sanal
25th European Teams, Batumi 2025
White gave a check, which seems to be a mistake.
64. Rf8+?
Here, White had to include 64. g4! f4 and then check. 65. Rf8+ Ke5 66. Rf5+ Kd4 67. Rxf4
Still, it is not obvious, but White now has counterplay as the g-pawn will run.
64... Ke5 65. Re8+ Kd4 66. Rd8+ Ke3
Here, White tried the single rook endgame.
67. Rxd2 Kxd2 68. Kg2
This is a very important moment.
68…Re7!!
A very clever move. He wants to push the pawn.
If 68... e3 69. Kf3, and there is nothing for Black, so first he played Re7.
69. Rb2+ Kd3 70. b4 e3 71. Kf1 Rc7 72. Rb1
72…Ke4??
Here, Black missed a really instructive win.
72...f4! 73. gxf4 Ke4
Now the king has a shelter.
74. f5 (74. b5 Kf3 75. b6 Rh7 76. Kg1 Rg7+ 77. Kh2 e2 also wins)
And now 74... Rh7! on top to win a tempo.
If you start with 74... Kf3? then 75. f6 and White gets rid of the pawn. Rf7 (75... Rh7 76. Kg1= Now Black does not have Rg7+ anymore.) 76. Rc1 Rxf6 77. Rc8= When the f6-rook moves, the white rook can start giving check.
75. Kg2 Rg7+ Also an important point of 72...f4! as the g-file is now opened to give this crucial check. 76. Kf1 Kf3 77. Rb3 Ra7 78. Rb1, and now Rh7, of course.
73. b5 Kf3 74. b6 Rh7 75. Kg1 Rg7
Because of the pawn on g3, there is no check, and White has just enough counterplay.
76.b7 Rxg3+ 77. Kh2 Rg8 78. b8=Q Rxb8 79. Rxb8 e2 80. Re8 Kf2 81. Rf8 e1=Q 82. Rxf5+ Ke2 83. Re5+ Kd2 84. Rxe1 Kxe1
½-½

In Saint Louis, Fabiano Caruana won his fourth US Championship in a row, finishing half a point ahead of Wesley So. In his round 2 game, Caruana narrowly escaped against one of the rising American stars, Andy Woodward. Andy had a solid performance with 5½/11, but he could definitely have scored more points. After his missed opportunity against Caruana, he made an unfortunate mistake in a rook ending against Sam Shankland.

Andy Woodward – Sam Shankland
ch-USA, Saint Louis 2025
Woodward played 38. g4??
But he had to do it with the rook somewhere. He had to make a move, basically.
38. Rc5 Ra1 39. g4 wins easily.
38... a4 39. Rxf5
39. bxa4 allows b3 40. cxb3 The big difference is that here there is Rd2+
39... axb3 40. cxb3 Rd2+ 41. Ke4 Re2+ 42. Kd3 Rd2+ 43. Ke3 Rb2
Black's pawns are more advance and so he will never lose.
44. h4 Rxb3 45. h5+ Kg7 46. Rc5 c2+ 47. Kd2 Rf3 48. Rc7+ Kh6 49. Rc6+ Kh7 50. Kxc2 Rxf4 51. g5 Rh4 52. Rc7+ Kh8 53. Rc8+ Kh7 54. Rc7+ Kh8 55. h6 Rg4 56. Rc5 Rg3 57. Rb5 b3+ 58. Rxb3 Rxg5 59. Rb2 Rg2+ 60. Kb1 Rxb2+
½-½

Shortly after the ECC, Gukesh had to travel to Saint Louis for the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown. Magnus Carlsen was victorious, finishing ahead of Caruana and Nakamura with quite a considerable margin. In the ending that occurred in Gukesh - Carlsen, it was clear that with these faster time controls, even the best players in the world can make some big mistakes in what appears to be a simple position.

Gukesh D – Magnus Carlsen
Clutch Chess The Champions 2025

25. c4??
OK, now 25. Rxe4 Rd1+ 26. Kf2 Rd2+ 27. Kf3 Rxb2 28. Rxe6 is a draw, but they went into a pawn endgame.
25... Rxd4 26. exd4 Kf7 27. Kf2 Kf6 28. Ke3 Kf5 29. b4
In the game, Black played 29…a6?
Instead, 29... c6 was winning, actually, for some strange reason. 30. a4 g5 31. b5 e5! 32. d5 cxd5 33. cxd5 b6 with a mutual zugzwang. Black wins.
30. h4??
Now White should have played 30. a4! g5 (30... c6 31. g3 b5 32. cxb5 cxb5 33. a5 is a draw) 31. b5 axb5 32. axb5 b6 (Now after 32... e5?? Black even loses. 33. d5 b6 34. c5 White has a breakthrough.) 33. c5 h4, and again, the game should end in a draw.
30... b5 31. c5 c6 32. g3 e5
0-1