Chess Endgame Essentials: The Handful of Ideas That Win and Save Games

King activity, the opposition, the rule of the square, Lucena and Philidor, and the practical rules that decide most endgames.

Endgames are where games are won by players who know a few specific ideas and lost by players who “feel” their way through. You do not need to memorise hundreds of positions. You need roughly a dozen principles, and you need to recognise when a position falls under one of them.

1. Activate your king

In the middlegame the king hides. In the endgame the king is a fighting piece, often valued at around four pawns. As soon as the queens are off and no mating threats remain, march it toward the centre. A king on e5 or d4 often decides a pawn endgame before any calculation starts.

2. The opposition

Two kings face each other with exactly one square between them. The player who does not have to move has the opposition, and the other king has to give way. In king-and-pawn endings the opposition decides whether the attacking king can reach a square in front of its pawn. If you can, the pawn promotes; if you cannot, it is a draw. A useful beginner rule: if your king stands on the sixth rank ahead of its pawn, the pawn queens whoever has the move (a rook pawn is the exception); further back, the opposition decides.

3. The rule of the square

To see whether a king can catch a passed pawn, draw an imaginary square from the pawn to the promotion rank, with the pawn on one corner. If the defending king can step into that square on its move, it catches the pawn. If it cannot, the pawn runs through. It saves calculation and prevents the classic mistake of chasing a pawn that cannot be caught.

4. Rooks belong behind passed pawns

Siegbert Tarrasch’s old rule still holds: place your rook behind a passed pawn, whether your own or the opponent’s. Behind your own pawn, the rook supports its advance and gains more scope as the pawn moves. Behind the enemy pawn, the rook attacks it from behind and forces the opponent to defend. The rook in front of a passed pawn gets less room and is easily blocked.

5. The Lucena position (how to win)

You have a rook and a pawn on the seventh rank, your king is in front of the pawn, and the opposing king is cut off along a file. The winning technique, sometimes called “building a bridge”, moves your rook to the fourth rank, brings your king out to the side and uses the rook to shield it from checks. It looks counter-intuitive the first time, and it is one of the endgames worth learning exactly.

6. The Philidor position (how to draw)

The defender keeps the rook on the third rank (the sixth rank from the attacker’s view) to stop the opposing king from advancing. The moment the pawn moves to that rank, the defender sends the rook behind the pawn and gives checks from a distance. The attacker cannot hide the king from them, and the position is drawn.

7. Bishops of opposite colours

Endings with bishops of opposite colours are famously drawish: the defender can often hold even a pawn down, because the attacking bishop can never challenge the squares the defending bishop guards. Keep this in mind when you consider trading into such an ending while ahead, and when you are defending.

8. The wrong rook-pawn

A bishop and a rook pawn (a- or h-file) do not always win. If the bishop does not control the promotion square and the defending king can reach the corner, the result is a draw. Check which colour the corner square is before you head for this ending.

9. Create an outside passed pawn

A passed pawn far from the main action drags the enemy king away from where it is needed, so that your own king can capture material on the other wing. It is one of the most reliable ways to convert a small advantage in a pawn ending.

10. Do not rush

Many endgames can be improved slowly. Put the king on its best square, bring the rook behind a pawn, tie the opponent to a weakness. Count the opponent’s counterplay before every pawn move; once a pawn moves it cannot return.

Practising endgames

Reading is a start, but endgames are learned by playing them out against a computer until the technique is automatic. After your own games, review the blunders that happened in the endgame separately — they are usually technique errors that repeat. And if you want to set up a specific position and see the engine’s best line, the board editor lets you place the pieces yourself.