Improve Your Chess by Studying Endgames

Many people ask, "Shouldn't I study openings first? Otherwise I may never get to the endgame." That statement certainly makes sense, at least on the surface. In chess endgames many times it will appear to be obvious that one thing is true, just based on common sense, and yet when you investigate it further you find out that it is just the opposite. Take the example in the square of the pawn. It would seem that if the king is one square away from the pawn he is closer than if he is five squares away, and yet, depending on who's turn it is to move, that can be totally the opposite. If the king is in the square of the pawn, then even if he is five or six squares away, he is closer than if he is one square away from the pawn, say kitty corner behind it, and it is not his move.

The same counter intuitive concept applies to why you should study endgames first. As Capablanca, one of the world's greatest chess players of all time said, (and I'm paraphrasing) you will never understand how to play the opening and middle game if you don't understand the endgame. You will not know when trading pieces, for example, is a good idea. Now, it is true that you should do tactics puzzles, and understand some basic truths about chess principles right from the get go. But tactics puzzles are something you just should do, they aren't really something that you study. On the other hand many endgame concepts like the Lucena Position, or the Philidor must be learned, memorized and practiced. The opposition too, a concept rather difficult to understand must be learned. Very few people can figure something like that out over the board although I did see one child age seven figure it out that way. Even simple things like checkmating with a rook and a king you might need to study or be taught, rather than just try to figure it out on your own. You can try to figure it out on your own first maybe, just so that when you learn it, it soaks in better.

Rooks are often the only pieces left in an endgame, although you can have bishops or knights, or queen endgames. The active rook is the concept that is discussed in the video. In each different kind of endgame it is a good idea to understand something about the principles of that endgame. For example, bishops of opposite colors is often a draw. Rook pawns are often a draw. You cannot checkmate with just two knights, but you can checkmate with a bishop and a knight, and with two bishops. Queens can often find perpetual checks and thus draw otherwise lost games. Protected passed pawns are a very strong thing to have, and of course usually the goal in an endgame (besides the obvious checkmate) is to queen a pawn, so you can checkmate. Knights have a harder time with long distances, so if the pawns are seperated by several files knights aren't as strong as bishops, but if the pawns are all together knights are better since they can get to both colored squares. These principles are logical, if you think about them. They certainly make sense. But never-the-less we might need to be taught them, or read them in a book before we realize them. There are certainly endgame principles I forgot to mention here. (Bring the king to the center, and pawn structure comes to mind). These are just a few. But you can see how they make sense and might help you when deciding when to trade down.