FYI, a master once told me that in major-piece endgames, g2/g7 is usually the best luft square for the king. one reason is that the king on g2 guards both h2 and f2 pawns.

ok, as i type this i see that g3 seems like it would have been a better luft-move for white in the variation where black takes Qxf1+.

i had to return some faulty curtains at Target today. so i got home and was happy to see this new curtains video.

I never heard that axiom, but why is the king guarding h2 relevant? f2 I can understand, but it also opens up the king to checks along the diagonal, and we can't block with g3, like we can with our king on h2. Honestly I don't know any rule of thumb for such things, I'll have to take a closer look.

Yeah ok, f2 is way more important than h2.

FYI, GM Larry Evans says h2 is generally the best luft square [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luft] , but he doesn't qualify it during the endgame or middlegame. I assume h2-h3 is particularly better than g2-g3 when there are knights and esp. bishops on the board.

I think g2-g3 would be clearly best when there are only rooks on the board-- no pieces can control the long diagonal, and the king can help defend pawns. Perhaps h2-h3 is more precise when queens are still on, as in your game. I dunno, i'm only patzer, hehe.

Hopefully you can get both accounts onto the best list at the same time.

Interesting opening analysis of the 3.d4 lines. I used to play the exchange QGD, so I found the discussion especially useful.

I really like the position you got out of the opening. Makes me want to play the English just to go into the Flohr-Mikenas attack.

After 22...Qxd3 I wanted to play Qf6, but I was looking at 23....Qxf1. I completely missed 24.Kh2! Awesome idea.

Your opponent played the first 20 moves very quickly. But I'm glad you got the draw, and a better position by the endgame.

Anyways, thanks for the video!

Thanks. Btw I'm suffering from a cold, so I won't be making videos until I'm better. Not good for me to have to talk for so long etc. Also I'm sucking bigtime on my anon account but whatever

Very nice!

Go on Greg!

Maybe you should use pre-move a bit more to save some time in these end games. That would allow you to still focus on the opening since that seems to be where you lose the time battle to your opponents. Keep up the great work. I think your style is not only perfect for a master(funny, witty, and easy to agree with) but also for us lower level chess players.

Mr. Rolex is an IM now:

http://www.chessclub.com/activities/fin ... le=mrrolex
http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=1501720