Table of Contents

• Checkmates
  • King and Queen
  • King and Rook
• Pawn Endgames
  • Opposition
  • The Square of the Pawn
• Rook Endgames
  • Lucena
  • Philidor
• Endgame Books

The Russian Endgame Handbook outlines the general process of these basic checkmates:

P.S There are a few different methods of doing these checkmates!

King and Queen vs. King

Goal:

Get the King to the edge of the board, control the escape squares with your King, and give the checkmate with your Queen.

Method:

Use the Queen to corner the King to the side of the board, then bring your King in to execute the checkmate. An easy method is the “L-shape” method where your Queen pushes the King to the edge by always being an L-shape (or Knight’s move) away from the King.

King and Rook vs. King

Goal:

Get the King to the edge of the board, control the escape squares with your King, and give the checkmate with your Rook.

Method:

This one is a little trickier, let’s do it in steps:

1. Cut the King off with your Rook
2. Bring your King toward the Opponent’s King for the Opposition
3. When the King’s are in Opposition, give a check with the Rook

If your Rook is ever under attack, just take it far from the King while staying on the cut-off file/rank and if your opponent’s King is ever tricky and refuses opposition, make a waiting move with your Rook!

Positions taken from Russian Endgame Handbook

King and pawn endgames can be deceptively simple, but they are the foundation of all other endgames. Understanding the concepts of ‘opposition’ and ‘the square of the pawn’ is crucial.

Opposition: When two kings stand on the same rank, file, or diagonal, and it’s the turn of the player not controlling the square between them to move, the other player has the opposition.

Using Opposition to Win

Goal:

White has the move, and the goal is to promote the pawn. To do this, the King needs to lead the way.

Method:

3 Golden Rules to remember

1. Always keep the King in front of the pawn
2. Take opposition, don’t allow your opponent to
3. Outflank after opposition (move up)

Using Opposition to Draw

Goal:

Black has the move, and the goal is to stop White’s Pawn from promoting, by preventing the white King from moving forward.

Method:

1. Always take opposition
2. Stay in front of and close to the pawn

Positions taken from Chess Endings for Beginners

The Square of the Pawn

A mental square drawn from a pawn to its promotion square which tells you if the opposing king can stop the pawn from promoting. Count the number of squares to the promotion square, then use the same number of squares to extend and create a large imaginary square

• If the opposing King is inside the square (or on its border), it can catch the Pawn before it promotes.
• If the opposing King is outside the square, the Pawn can safely promote before being caught.

Remember: This rule assumes that it’s the pawn’s turn to move, and there are no other pieces involved in the play. As with many chess guidelines, there are exceptions in some positions, but the rule of the square is a quick and handy tool to judge the basic pawn races in endgames.

When the King is in the square:

When the King is not in the square:

Let’s take a look at an example where both sides have a passed pawn, and the rule of the square comes in handy:

If White pushes his pawn with 1.a5? the square is moved up, and the new corner squares are a5/a8/d8/d5. Black’s King could make it to that square if he wants, but in this position, he has a much stronger reaction: 1…h3.

White’s King is not in the square, AND Black will win the Pawn race and promote first. Therefore, going back to the first position, 1.Ke3 is the best move for White, entering the square of the black Pawn:

Positions taken from Chess Endgames for Club Players

Breakthroughs

Goal:

In a position where you have three Pawns facing off against your opponent’s three Pawns, and yours are more advanced, as in the position above, you want to have one of your Pawns break through to promote.

Method:

• Move your middle Pawn up
• Your opponent has two side Pawns to capture with. Push your second Pawn up on the side that did not move. i.e. your second Pawn will be the one with an opposing Pawn
• Voila! Your final Pawn has no opposing Pawns that can stop it from being promoted.

Rook endgames are the most common type of endgame. There are a few theoretical rook endgame positions that players should learn in order to easily convert the game to a win, or be able to hold the draw.

Lucena Position

A winning position where the stronger side has a Pawn on the seventh rank and needs to promote it. You can only achieve this by using your Rook as a shield.

Goal:

Your Pawn needs to promote, and to do this, your King needs to move out of the way. Your opponent’s Rook will check your King, and in order to shield from these checks, your Rook needs to get to the 4th rank.

Method:

• First, ensure that your opponent’s Black’s King is at least two files away from your Pawn. Often we need to do this with a check
• Place your Rook on the 4th rank
• Bring out your King, towards your Rook, to the 5th rank
• Eventually, you will be able to promote the Pawn and shield Black’s check with your Rook

Here is an example from Theoretical Rook Endgames:

Philidor Position

You will also reach endgame positions where you are only playing with a Rook and King vs a Rook, King, and Pawn, where the objective will be to draw. One of these positions is called the Philidor Position, and by learning this technique, you can save yourself half a point (and many headaches!)

Goal:

Hold a draw by preventing your opponent’s King from moving in front of their Pawn.

Method:

Keep the Rook on the third rank (or sixth rank from its perspective) to prevent the Pawn from advancing. If the Pawn moves, move the Rook away and give checks from behind, stopping White’s King from entering.

Position taken from 100 Endgames You Must Know

Author Sam Shankland sums up the essence of the above two Rook and Pawn endgames as follows:

Disclaimer for beginners:

There is a lot of terminology in chess, and it might be overwhelming to try and remember it all. At the end of the day, it is more important to understand the technique and theory than it is to know what it is called. However, if you do find yourself in a conversation where the terms “Lucena” and “Philidor” are thrown around, and can’t remember the distinction between the two, a little cheat code is to think of “Philidor” as “Philidraw” to help you remember that this is the drawing technique, making Lucena the winning one.

And that’s enough endgame theory for today!

Endgames may seem like a huge mountain to overcome, but these books will guarantee an easier learning process:

Endgame Books

The Russian Endgame Handbook

Author: Ilya Rabinovich

Publisher: Mongoose Press

View Free Sample

Chess Endings for Beginners

Author: J. H. Blake (Updated by Carsten Hansen)

Publisher: Independent

View Free Sample

Chess Endgames for Club Players

Author: Herman Grooten

Publisher: New in Chess

View Free Sample

100 Endgames You Must Know (4th edition)

Author: Jesus De La Villa

Publisher: New in Chess

View Free Sample

Level up and add a book or two to your library. For a limited time, get these and a further selection of award-winning endgame books with a 20% discount on: www.forwardchess.com

Have any questions, or opening suggestions? Let us know in the comments!

Before we begin, there are a few rules that we must be clear about.

Two Knights Cannot Checkmate alone. The following position is a draw no matter who is to play.

White can give a check and force the black king to move to the corner, but the next knight check needed for the checkmate needs two moves, which is not possible!

An important rule to understand when you are dealing with knights is that Knights cannot waste time or lose a tempo!

Troitsky Line and second Troitsky line

There are limitations when a double knight can and cannot checkmate. This important theory was discovered by the famous chess composer Alexey Troitsky.

This position denotes the Troitsky line when White has two Knights and black has the pawn. The Red Stars denote the Troitsky line. It means that if black’s pawns are placed on this line (Red stars) or behind them (yellow star), white can force checkmate.

There was one problem though. In some of these squares, it takes more than 50 moves to checkmate.

The second Troitsky line or Muller Line:

GM Karsten Müller, the famous Endgame expert proposed a second set of Troitsky lines applicable to today’s practical play. (Checkmate Under 50 moves)

Exceptions:

There are a few exceptions to the Troitsky line though. A player can win even if the pawn has crossed the Troitsky line if the enemy king is stuck to a corner in a favorable way. Here’s an example:

It’s easy to learn this technique if you begin from the end!

Take this simple example of why Two Knights versus Pawn is a win. After cornering the enemy king,  white simply has to let go of the blockade and rush to deliver checkmate.

In the below position, white uses the same method but is a few moves behind.

Now, Let’s go back a little further.

Recognizing patterns: Did you notice any common pattern of movement in the above examples?

The Clever Knight maneuver: When the enemy king gets locked down to the last file (Or the last rank), you can notice a single knight moving in a weirdly symmetrical manner. This is an important maneuver we must understand.

The Knight maneuver across a vertical or horizontal line can be achieved in different ways. Here’s the horizontal version of the same maneuver in the below example.

Useful tools: The Triangle maneuver or Triangulation.

What if I told you that this Checkmate has successfully been demonstrated as early as 1931?

Eugene Znosko-Borovsky, the Russian chess master demonstrated the checkmate a long long time ago. And in his game, we can observe both the knight maneuver as well as how the king sometimes moves in a triangle to lose a move.

If Knights cannot waste a tempo, someone else has to do that. Who else do we have but the king! Observe the King’s path from the above position until the last position.

The loops in the King path is the King moving in a triangle in order to lose a tempo and give the move to his opponent. This is very important because Knights cannot waste a move and it is futile to maneuver the Knight expecting to achieve this tempo loss miracle.

Moving the blockaded Knight: The blockaded knight can be helpful in two ways. The first is to lose a tempo. The blockade can sometimes be released so that the other knight can take care of the blockade in the next safe square. The second is that although the knight is blockaded, it can still control a few squares from the idle position, which is always helpful.

How to get this knowledge working for you? By practice 

Here are a few positions and the required number of moves it will take to win. Setup the position and play with your computer to consolidate your learnings.

Well, I hope your fellow passengers are insured.

Similarly, there are different methods to develop a solid understanding of Chess Endgames. This blog will help you get started on your journey to Endgame mastery through different methods and book recommendations.

Let’s see step by step procedure on How to Study Chess Endgames

Endgame Theory:

I imagine theoretical endgame positions as lighthouses. A stranded boat might find a way to the land if they spot a lighthouse in a distance. Similarly, the more knowledgeable you are, say about Rook endgames, you’ll know which way to steer your boat to gain an advantage or a safe draw when there are more pieces on the board.

Let’s take the following position for example:

100 Endgames you must Know by Jesus De La Villa and published by New in Chess.

[A free sample of the above book can be found here Or click the image above.]

The author has also recently released a workbook (100 Endgames You Must Know Workbook) which can be studied along with this book.

[A free sample of the above book can be found here. Or click the image above]

One more reference book on Chess Endgame is Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual. You can call it the Bible for Chess Endgame and every serious chess professional will be studying the principles from the book.

[A free sample of the book can be found here. Or click the image above]

General Endgame Strategies/Principles:

The second most important aspect of getting better at Endgame is understanding the different strategic ideas that are important in the Endgame phase.

Example: King Centralization, Piece Activity, The importance of Tempo, Liquidation, Principle of Two Weakness, Prophylaxis, etc.

Now, consider the below position. Capablanca wins this endgame with white against Ragozin back in 1936. What interests us most is Capa’s annotation, which helps us understand his way of thinking in this position.

“White’s plan is to prevent the advance of the c-pawn (after which the b-pawn could become weak) and to control the entire board up to the fifth rank. This is achieved by moving the king to e3, and by placing the rook at c3, the knight at d4, and the pawns at b4 and f4. After he has attained such a position, White will be able to advance his Q-side pawns” ~ Capablanca

These Endgame strategies can be learned by studying games (and their analysis) of great endgame players like Capablanca. But another smart way is to study books on this topic because the author must’ve already done the hard work of combing through tons of games to find specific games and explained in simple words.

Recommended Books for Endgame Strategy:

Capablanca’s Best Chess Endings – By Irving Chernev

Endgame Strategy by Mikhail Shereshevsky

Also, note that Dvoretsky Endgame Manual has a chapter on General Ideas in the Endgame with fantastic examples.

There are also newer books in the market like:

– Monster Your Endgame Planning series (Links for book sample: Volume 1, Volume 2) by Grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer Efstratios Grivas.

– Mastering Endgame Strategy by Swedish Grandmaster Johan Hellsten. (Book Link).

– Improve Your Practical Play in the Endgame by Grandmaster Alexey Dreev. (Book Link)

[Note on Forward Chess book links: The Forward Chess links we have mentioned in this blog can be used to download free samples of the mentioned books]

Calculation:

Well, a car needs four wheels after all! You can’t drive much with one or two wheels missing.

Knowing the theory and strategies alone will not help you bring home the win. You have to be able to calculate Endgame properly. For this our recommendations are:

• Solve Tactics every day using either book or apps. [List of best-sold books on Chess Tactics can be found in this link]
• Solve a lot of Pawn Endgames! (Pawn Endgame is a magic pill for your calculation practice!)

Book Recommendation for Pawn Endgame: 

Secrets of Pawn Endings – by Karsten Muller, Comprehensive Chess Endings Volume 4 Pawn Endings by Yuri Averbakh, 100 positions you must know workbook.

[Best-selling Endgame books catalog on ForwardChess can be found here]

Practice: The last, but the most important aspect of Endgame study.

Yup, that’s the fourth wheel!

In the end, you should be able to put your knowledge and skill into actual practice. Practice important Endgame positions with your friends or using any software or online tools (example).

You can set up the Endgame positions and practice until you beat (or draw) against the computer! This step helps us master our Endgame techniques and develops a deeper understanding of the different ideas involved!

Thank you for reading

Our best wishes for your endgame journey! Let us know what you think using the comment section below.

Until next time,

Arun from Forward Chess team.

https://forwardchess.com/

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