Openings have infinite variety and endgames have almost none, which is why endgame study pays better per hour than anything else. A handful of positions recur constantly, and knowing them turns half points into full ones.
1. The square rule: can the king catch that pawn?
Draw an imaginary square with the pawn at one corner and the promotion square diagonally opposite. If the defending king is inside that square, or can step into it on his move, he catches the pawn. If not, the pawn queens. No calculation needed.
Remember that a pawn still on its starting rank can jump two squares, so measure the square from the rank it can reach, not the one it sits on.
2. Opposition in king and pawn endings
Two kings facing each other with one square between them: whoever is not to move holds the opposition and effectively controls where the other king goes. With a single pawn, the opposition usually decides whether the position is a win or a draw.
The rule of thumb for king and pawn against king: if the attacking king is in front of his own pawn with the opposition, it wins. If the defending king reaches the promotion square first and keeps the opposition, it draws. The two exceptions are rook pawns, which draw with the defending king in the corner regardless, and positions where the attacker is far enough advanced that opposition no longer matters.
Push the king before the pawn
The instinct is to run the pawn. Usually wrong. In king and pawn endings the king walks in front of the pawn and clears the way; the pawn follows.
3. The Lucena position: how to win with rook and pawn
Your pawn is on the seventh rank, your king is in front of it, and the enemy rook keeps checking. The winning method is called building a bridge: put your rook on the fourth rank, step the king out, and when the checks come, block them with your own rook.
It is four or five moves long and completely mechanical once learned. Rook and pawn endings are the most common endgame in chess, so this one position converts more games than any other piece of endgame knowledge.
4. The Philidor position: how to draw with rook against rook and pawn
The defensive twin of Lucena. Put your rook on the third rank to stop the enemy king crossing. When the pawn finally advances to the third rank, drop your rook to the eighth and check from behind. The attacking king has no shelter and the position is a draw.
Between them, Lucena and Philidor answer most rook endings you will ever reach. Learn them in that order.
5. Basic mates: queen, two rooks, rook and king
Queen and king against a bare king takes under ten moves with the knight's-move technique. Two rooks take about the same with the ladder. Rook and king is the fiddly one: you must use your king to take away squares while the rook cuts the enemy king off, shrinking the box rank by rank.
If you cannot deliver rook-and-king mate without thinking, that is the single highest-value hour of study available to you — it comes up whenever a long game simplifies.
Principles that apply to all endgames
- Activate the king. The piece you spent the middlegame hiding becomes a fighting piece once the queens come off. A centralised king in an endgame is often worth more than a pawn.
- Rooks belong behind passed pawns — yours and theirs. Behind your own pawn the rook gains scope as the pawn advances; behind theirs it loses scope as the pawn advances.
- Create a passed pawn. Most endgames are won by promoting something. A passed pawn far from the enemy king is worth more than an extra pawn in a cluster.
- Do not rush. Endgames reward improving your worst-placed piece before committing to a plan. There is rarely a clock on the position itself.
Opposite-coloured bishops and other draws
An endgame with one bishop each on opposite colours is drawish even a pawn or two down, because the defender can blockade on a colour the attacking bishop can never touch. Knowing this saves you from pressing a dead position, and tells you when to force that trade if you are worse.
How to practise
Set the positions up on the board and play them against the computer from both sides. Winning the Lucena against a strong setting proves you know it; losing it proves you do not, which is equally useful to discover now rather than in a game.