Endgame Tragicomedies at the World Cup 2025

In the recent World Cup 2025 there were 4 instances of such tragicomedies in Rook and Pawn versus Rook endings. To be fair to the highly rated players featuring in them, we must add that the endgames were played under severe time pressure. However, let that not diminish the feeling of relief for an average club player who will see that even strong grandmasters may struggle in textbook endings.

The first endgame was played in a blitz tie-breaker. The evaluation bounced between "winning" and "drawing" 4 times.

In the next instance, the game just entered the Rook and Pawn vs Rook ending and a top grandmaster immediately blunders, turning a draw into a loss.

Below, in a winning position, White directs his king to the wrong square and Black finds the right move to achieve a drawing position. A little later the same Kg6 move that led to a draw, under the changed circumstances, loses the game for Black.

In our last tragicomedy, Black seems to hesitate at a critical moment and ends up pushing his king to a wrong square, missing out on a win.

And finally, a recommendation: if you have a Windows PC and want to view the above material as it was intended...

... install Chess Forge, run it, select File -> Online Library - Public and click on the Endgame Tragicomedies workbook in the Bookcase B: Endgames and Exercises section.