Magnus Carlsen Focuses on Activity over Material in Endgames...You Should Too!
When we first start out playing chess, much of our learning revolves around winning material or at least not losing material. We learn how to punish opponent's mistakes to capture free pawns and pieces, how to do basic calculation to see if we have more attackers than defenders on opponent's pieces and how to avoid making tactical mistakes that would lose material for ourselves. As we progress in our chess improvement, then we learn that it is good to sacrifice material if we're going to get a guaranteed attack (and hopefully checkmate) in return. However, many players continue to hold onto an obsession with material and play the game purely focusing on holding onto their material, never willing to give it up for any reason other than attacking. Especially in endgames, many players would shudder at the thought of giving up a pawn in return for activity. When we watch Grandmaster games though they are willing to give up material in return for positional reasons such as piece activity without any semblance of an attack happening. They're even willing to give up material in the endgame! Why can they do this and get away with being down in material when playing against other world-elite players while still winning the game? How can we learn from their example?
In the video below, I take a look into the battle of activity vs material in the endgame phase and we get to see how Magnus Carlsen was able to apply this concept in a game he played vs Hikaru Nakamura during the 2018 unofficial Fischer Random World Championship. After seeing how this worked out in a Grandmaster game, then we'll see how one of my personal students had the opportunity apply this EXACT SAME CONCEPT in his own game to get a strong position. After looking at my student's game, then we'll see a third, final position which will be an exercise for you all to solve. The PGN for each game is shown below the video as well as a bullet point list for the lessons we can learn from this. I hope you enjoy! 
Grandmaster Game:
Student Game:
- Winning material does not guarantee that you will win the game
- Giving up some material in return for activity can be worth it if you get enough counterplay in return
- Sometimes it is better to not win material if it means that the opponent will get activity themselves
- Try to keep the opponent as passive and constricted as possible
Exercise:
BLACK TO PLAY
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