The Chess Rocky Story (Part 3): The B+ Rule
How to convert the winning endgame with 9 seconds on the clock.
The clock reads 9 seconds…
You have a winning, but complex endgame…
You only have a 2-second bonus increment…
Your heart is pounding as you’re full of adrenaline…
Can you convert under pressure?
As we enter week 3 of training with my rusty 48-year-old "Chess Rocky," Mike is going through the most difficult part of our training yet: endgames.
The Endgame Struggle
Yes, endgames are hard for him. Heck, endgames are hard for everyone — unless your name is Magnus.
If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 of my story, I introduced you to my friend Mike, a Master who hasn’t touched a real chess piece in 10 years. Mike decided to jump into the deep end by signing up for the Daniel Naroditsky Memorial — an 11-round blitz gauntlet over the 4th of July weekend packed with Super-GMs like Hikaru Nakamura.
Mike asked me for the impossible: Can I coach him to survive among the world’s elite, and act as the “Mickey” in his corner?
Want to sponsor our underdog?
Mike’s 'Rocky' journey to Charlotte is completely community-driven. If you want to help back the ultimate underdog and cover his travel/entry fees, we set up a GoFundMe page!
Last week, we discussed his opening repertoire and how I overhauled his 20-year-old opening knowledge. Using the power of spaced repetition, I have Mike drilling my Chessable courses (like the Grand Prix Reloaded and my Nimzo/Bogo repertoire). I also created a personalized Hungarian Dragon course for him as our secret weapon against 1.e4.
But while anyone can drill openings on a computer, how do you actually improve at endgames? Specifically, how do you get better at converting winning positions under extreme time pressure?
Practical Endgames
There’s no need for Mike to memorize 100 theoretical positions or read Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual cover to cover. There’s simply no time for that in 3+2 blitz, where instincts and practical skills dominate.
Instead, I curated a custom database of practical endgames. Mike’s task is to convert these positions under pressure against my friend (a 2300 FM) in sparring matches.
Let’s look at a few examples.
White to move:
White is up a pawn on the kingside, and our b5-pawn completely fixes both of Black’s queenside pawns. This is a won endgame if you apply Botvinnik’s famous principle: Knight endgames are essentially Pawn endgames.
Meaning, if you remove the knights from the board, it’s an easy win for White. All White has to do is prevent Black from playing …Nc7 and …a6, which would generate counterplay. Thus, the easy move is 1.Nd4! Simple centralization. If Black tries 1…Nc7, it is met with 2.Nc6+ and Nxa7. Black is cramped and will eventually lose.
However, Mike failed to convert this one. He got too low on the clock, panicked, and allowed a knight fork.
Here’s another one. White to move:
White has an exchange for a pawn in an open position with pawns on both wings. With best play, this should be a win (the engine evaluates it at +2). Yet, it’s incredibly hard to actually convert under pressure.
White doesn’t have a clear, forcing plan and constantly needs to adjust based on Black’s reactions. The correct strategy can be broken down into 3 parts:
Activate the king! (This is a universal endgame principle you must know). Play moves like 1.f4 and 2.Kf2.
Create weaknesses. Use the rook, king, and pawns to create targets in Black’s camp (easier said than done!). Right now, Black has no clear weaknesses and can comfortably play …a6.
The Breakthrough. If …a6 is played, White’s king can make a dash towards the b6-square, timing a rook sacrifice for the bishop and b7-pawn to transition into a winning King + Pawn endgame.
Imagine trying to calculate all of that with just seconds on the clock! Once again, Mike failed to win this one.
Let’s look at a success story. Black to move:
Black is up a pawn with a highly active rook and a monster knight on d5. Moreover, White is totally paralyzed with a poor king on g1. What’s your winning plan?
Mike handled this one brilliantly! He won easily by pushing his f-pawn, activating his king, and using the K+R+N trio to weave a mating net around White’s king. This is a great example of how attacking skills still apply in the endgame!
(Note: If you are a paid member of Grandmaster Secrets, I’ve added a link at the bottom of this post to download these exact endgames and many others so you can practice them against a weaker engine like Maia Chess or Stockfish!)
The Clock Problem
When Mike is trying to convert a better/winning endgame, he’s looking for the best moves. I call these the A+ Moves.
The problem? In the above endgames there’s no need to spend 40+ seconds looking for the best move. Even if you get a winning position but leave yourself 9 seconds to convert, the 2-second increment will not prevent you from blundering away the game.
This is not just a problem for a rusty Master — players of all levels make this exact mistake!
But don’t worry, I shared a GM secret with Mike to fix this.
The B+ Rule
The secret to elite blitz is making good moves quickly, and making non-committal decisions. I call it the B+ Rule.
What is a B+ move? It’s a move that doesn’t blunder anything, slightly improves a piece and keeps the position solid.
The Math: Playing ten "B+" moves in a row (taking 3 seconds each) is infinitely better than playing one "A+" move that takes 40 seconds.
When you have a winning position, the pressure is actually on the defender to try and complicate things.
My GM advice to Mike:
The Trap: Mike, your biggest trap right now is trying to force the win, which requires deep, time-consuming calculation.
The Fix: Instead, make non-committal, shuffling moves. Move the Rook from c1 to c2. Move the King from g1 to h2.
Why it works: It takes you a few seconds to make a non-committal move. But the moment you do, the tension is passed right back to your opponent. Now, the FM has to burn his clock trying to figure out what you’re doing. You want his clock to bleed, not yours!
Hopefully, this advice will click, and we will see a brand new Rocky emerge from this training!
Catch us on YouTube and Podcasts!
Mike and I were guests on Ben Johnson’s Perpetual Pod recently. We talked all about this crazy David vs. Goliath journey. You should check it out here!
I also analyzed one of Mike’s wins for Ben’s YouTube channel:
Stop Searching for the A+ Move
Mike’s biggest struggle right now is trusting his intuition instead of trying to calculate a winning sequence with only 9 seconds on his clock.
This is the exact same problem I see with adult improvers in the opening and middlegame. You don’t need a 40-hour Chessable course to find an “A+ Move” on move 12. You need a solid, intuitive system that gets you to the endgame safely with plenty of time on your clock.
I designed the Tournament Starter Kit so that any adult improver can reach comfortable, strategic middlegames where your understanding — not your raw calculation speed — wins the game.
When you upgrade to a paid membership, you get instant access to:
The 2026 Tournament Starter Kit: My complete “Old Man” repertoire (Catalan, Jobava London, Hyper-Accelerated Dragon, Nimzo-Indian) designed to be learned in just 40 minutes, featuring full video lessons and PGNs.
The Endgame Practice Vault: (New this week!) Download the exact PGN of the endgame positions Mike is drilling so you can practice them against the engine.
The Openings Vault: A permanent library of “Gambit Killers” to help you stop falling for common club-level traps as well as a new weapon: The Hungarian Dragon.
The Tournament Survival Guide: My 1-page PDF of gold nuggets from 35+ years of OTB play.
P.S. I’d love to hear from you in the comments: What is your biggest struggle when trying to convert a winning endgame?