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Chad Lieberman

A skilled chess player's intuition and instinct can be the saving grace in a battle over the board; but it could also mislead you occasionally. In my experience, this happens most frequently in endgames.

The latter part of a chess match requires very careful and precise calculations. While there is a common misconception that grandmasters calculate more than a dozen moves ahead in positions they are analyzing, this statement may not be so far off for endgame positions.

Strong chess players do have the ability to calculate many moves ahead in positions and to visualize stages of development within those branches of analysis. As you might imagine, this becomes easier to do near the endgame as there are fewer pieces to track.

Concrete conclusions to these analyses are also a helpful aspect of calculation in the endgame. Often the branches of the analysis end with an obvious win for one side. With this ease comes some difficulty though: endgames tend to be tricky.

Because of the alteration of the pieces' relative values in the endgame, a greater breadth of possible moves must be considered. All piece sacrifices must be considered. Any move that creates a passed pawn might be worth considering because that pawn could soon queen.

White to mate in two moves.
Link to solution at the bottom.