The endgame is the final stage of a chess game, when few pieces are left on the board. Most often it means that the queens and some of the minor pieces have been exchanged.
The great José Raúl Capablanca advised beginners to learn chess starting with the endgame: there are fewer pieces, and it is easier to understand what each of them can do.
The main principles
The king is an active piece
In the middlegame the king hides from attacks. In the endgame there is hardly any danger of mate, and the king becomes a strong fighting piece: it protects its own pawns, attacks the enemy's and helps a passed pawn to promote. That is why in the endgame the king is brought to the centre.
The passed pawn is the main trump
A passed pawn is a pawn with no enemy pawns in front of it or on the adjacent files. It can only be stopped by pieces. In the endgame a passed pawn often decides the outcome of the game.
Time is everything
In the endgame it often comes down to a single tempo: who promotes first, who reaches the key square first. Precise techniques help here: the opposition, the rule of the square, triangulation, zugzwang.
Example: the opposition decides
1… 2. 3. 4. 5.
Kinds of endgames
- Pawn endgames — only kings and pawns. The most exact of all: calculation decides everything.
- Rook endgames — the most common in practice. A famous saying goes: “All rook endings are drawn” — a joke, but with a grain of truth: they are hard to win.
- Minor-piece endgames — with knights and bishops.
- Queen endgames — with queens, full of checks and calculation.
Where to start
The study of the endgame begins with the basic mates and the simplest pawn endings. Without this knowledge it is hard to convert even a won game.