Chess endgames for beginners

The endgame is the last phase of the game, when most pieces have been traded. It is where won positions are often thrown away, because a few precise ideas decide everything. The good news: there are only a handful of basic endgames, and once you know them, you will convert your advantages instead of drawing or losing them.

Three rules for every endgame

1. Activate your king. In the middlegame the king hides. In the endgame it becomes a strong piece: bring it toward the center and toward the pawns.
2. Create and push passed pawns. A passed pawn has no enemy pawns in front of it on its own file or the files beside it. It threatens to promote and ties down your opponent's pieces.
3. Trade pieces when you are ahead, not pawns. Every trade of pieces makes an extra pawn more important. Every trade of pawns brings your opponent closer to a draw by insufficient material.

King and queen against king

The basic queen mate

This is the first checkmate every player should be able to do without thinking. The method: use the queen to cut the defending king into a smaller and smaller box (stay a knight's move away from it), walk your own king up close, and give mate on the edge with the king protecting the queen.

It never takes more than ten moves from any position, so practice it until it feels automatic.

The stalemate trap

Here Black is not in check, but the king on a8 has no legal move: b8, b7 and a7 are all covered. It is stalemate, and the game is a draw, even though White has a whole queen extra.

Stalemate is the most common way to throw away a won endgame. When the defending king is on the edge, always check that it still has a square to move to, until the move that gives checkmate.

King and rook against king

The rook mate uses the same idea as the queen mate but needs more cooperation from your king. Use the rook to cut the defending king off along a rank or file, bring your king forward so the two kings face each other (this is called opposition), then give check with the rook along the edge. When the defender steps away from the opposition, use a waiting move with the rook. It takes up to 16 moves, so be patient and avoid checking for no reason.

King and pawn endgames

The rule of the square

Draw a square from the pawn to its promotion rank: here from a5 to a8, then across to d8 and d5. If the defending king can step into that square, it catches the pawn. Black to move plays 1...Kd6 and is inside the square in time. If White were to move, 1.a6 would make the square smaller and the pawn would queen.

This trick saves you from long counting in races between pawns and kings.

King in front of the pawn

With a single pawn, the attacking king should go in front of its pawn, not behind it. Once the king reaches the sixth rank in front of its pawn (except with a rook pawn on the a- or h-file), the position is won whoever is to move. Here White plays 1.Kd6 Kd8 2.e6 Ke8 3.e7 Kf7 4.Kd7 and the pawn promotes.

When the kings stand face to face with one square between them, the side that does not have to move holds the opposition. Taking the opposition is how the defender blocks the attacking king, and how the attacker gets past.

Rook endgames

Rooks belong behind passed pawns

Rook endings are the most common endings in real games. The most useful rule comes from the great player Siegbert Tarrasch: put your rook behind passed pawns, your own and your opponent's. Behind your own pawn, the rook gets stronger with every step the pawn takes. Behind an enemy pawn, it stops the pawn without being tied to the square in front of it.

Two famous positions are worth learning by name as you improve: the Lucena position (how to win with rook and pawn against rook when your king is in front of the pawn) and the Philidor position (how to draw with rook against rook and pawn by keeping your rook on the third rank).

Endings that are draws

• King and bishop against king, or king and knight against king: there is not enough material to checkmate.
• Two knights against a lone king cannot force checkmate.
• A rook pawn with the wrong bishop: if the bishop does not control the promotion square, and the defending king reaches the corner, it is a draw.
• The 50-move rule: if 50 moves pass on each side without a capture or a pawn move, either player can claim a draw. Pawnly applies it automatically.

How to practice endgames

Play the computer and trade pieces early on purpose, so that you reach endgames more often. Against Level 3 or 4, try to win every game where you are a pawn up. If you reach a won position and the game ends in stalemate or repetition, use Takeback and find the moment it slipped away.