Nicholas Pert vs Adam Hunt, British Championships 2011, Gruenfeld Defense

Some openings lead to violent clashes in the midgame with overwhelming material wins or checkmate (for one player or the other) the most likely result. The King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4) is a good example. But it is impossible to play the midgames resulting from certain openings if you do not understand the endings!

 In this example of the Gruenfeld defense to the Queen Pawn opening, White is more less finished with the midgame after he plays 20. d6.

Now all White wants is a suitable one-rook-and-pawns endgame, because he's got a lovely protected passed pawn on d6 at the end of a three-pawn chain.

Black's strategy in the Gruenfeld is to let White get that huge pawn center in the opening which is immobile in the midgame and needs constant protection while Black tries to get an attack with his more active pieces.  White's pieces are busy holding up the center pawns and defending the empty squares left behind by the pawns' advance.

The Gruenfeld is a good choice for the aggressive Black player, as it's easier for many players to see combinatorial possibilities than keep an eye out for threats to empty squares, White's biggest liability in the midgame resulting from the Gruenfeld.

But IF ... (that's a big If, you know!)  ... if Black does not get a good attack and win some material or bust up that huge White pawn chain with the passed pawn at the tip, Black is going to have just the sort of horrible endgame that he gets in this game after the queens come off the board at 32. Qxf4 Rxf4.

 

Here Black is a pawn up but all the chances are White's! White plays 33. Rd1 (threatening to queen the d-pawn) and goes on to convert to a win. Black makes time control and resigns after his own 51. ... h4

 

In the final position White can play 52. Rg8+ and the Black king sits helplessly on the h-file while the White king shepherds a center pawn to its queening square.

So you see ... if White did not understand R+P endgames very well he would not know how to play the midgame that results from this opening:

• seeing the advantage of achieving the temporarily stalled passed pawn on d6
• preserving the pawn center
• keeping watch over his own dangerous open squares
• responding to Black's threats by forcing trades down into the R+P ending.

 BTW, Nicholas Pert (White here, winning) and his brother Richard G. Pert are the only twin grandmaster/international master pair I know of in chess!