Published 10/12/2025
Hello guys! Today we will be taking a look at a game played between Giri Anish and Alexandr Predke in Round 6 of the recent European Team Chess Championship. I specifically chose this game because I believe it is instructive to see how a top 10 player approaches a rather uncommon rook endgame where it is clear that he has the better position but still needs to show good technique and decision making to get the win.
Without further ado, let’s get into the game (Skip to move 33 for commentary):
Key Takeaways:
-The f7 pawn had to be defended. Trading the a3 pawn for the f7 pawn only benefitted white because it created a loose weakness on e6. Although white would have an outside passer on a3, it was not an advanced pass pawn and black’s rooks were in good positioning to contain it and hinder its progress.
-The key to many of these rook endgames is patience. Giri’s play demonstrates this perfectly, as he made sure that his rooks were placed on ideal positions before slowly pushing his pawns on the kingside and taking space.
-Passive play when defending these types of rook endgames is almost never ideal. Predke just shuffled his king and invited Giri to achieve a dream position. Predke should have at least tried to push his g or h-pawn at some point to prevent Giri from gaining so much space.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you learned something new! As always, leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions. Until next time 🙂