Endgame Strategy

The line between middlegame and endgame strategy is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with the quick exchange of a few pairs of pieces. The endgame strategy, however, tends to have quite different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have quite different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important; endgame strategy often revolves around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank. The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame strategy. It can be brought to the center of the board and be a useful attacking piece.

Endgame strategy can be classified according to the type of pieces that remain. Some common types of endgame strategies are discussed below.

Basic checkmates

These are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. A queen or a rook can easily checkmate a lone king. See Wikibooks - Chess/The Endgame for a demonstration of these two checkmates. Two bishops can easily checkmate a lone king, provided that the bishops move on opposite color squares. (Two or more bishops on the same color can not checkmate.) A bishop and knight can also checkmate a lone king, although the checkmate procedure is long (up to 33 moves with correct play) and is difficult for a player who does not know the correct technique.

King and pawn

King and pawn endgame strategy involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides.

Getting a passed pawn is crucial (a passed pawn is one which does not have an opposing pawn on its file or on adjacent files on its way to promotion). Nimzovich once said that a passed pawn has a "lust to expand". An outside passed pawn is particularly deadly. The point of this is a decoy - while the defending king is preventing it from queening, the attacking king wins pawns on the other side.

Knight and pawn

Knight and pawn endgame strategy feature clever maneuvering by the knights to capture opponent pawns. While a knight is poor at chasing a passed pawn, it is the ideal piece to block a passed pawn. Knights can't lose a tempo, so knight and pawn endgame strategies have much in common with king and pawn endgame strategy. An outside passed pawn can outweigh a central protected passed pawn, unlike king and pawn endgames. A knight blockading a protected passed pawn attacks the protector, while the knight blockading an outside passed pawn is somewhat out of action.

Bishop and pawn

Bishop and pawn endgame strategy comes in two distinctly different variants. If the opposing bishops go on the same color of square, the mobility of the bishops is a crucial factor. A bad bishop is one that is hemmed in by pawns of its own color, and has the burden of defending them.

Bishop and pawn versus bishop on the same color. Two rules given by Luigi Centurini apply:

* The game is a draw if the black king can reach any square in front of the pawn that is not of the color of the bishop.

* If the defending king is behind the pawn and the attacking king is near the pawn, the defender can draw only if his king is attacking the pawn, he has the opposition, and his bishop can move on two diagonals that have at least two squares each (Fine and Benko 2003:152).

Bishops on opposite colors

Endings with bishops of opposite color, meaning that one bishop works on the light squares, the other one working on dark squares, are notorious for their drawish character. Many players in a poor position have saved themselves from a loss by trading down to such an endgame strategy. They are often drawn even when one side has a two pawn advantage since the weaker side can create a blockade on the squares which his bishop operates on. Interestingly the weaker side should often try to make his bishop bad by placing his pawns on the same color of his bishop in order to defend his remaining pawns, thereby creating an impregnable fortress.

Bishop versus knight (with pawns)

Current theory is that bishops are better than knights about 60% of the time, in the middlegame and endgame. The more symmetrical the pawns are (i.e. Black's pawns are on the same files as White's pawns), the better it is for the knight. The knight is best suited at an outpost in the center whereas the bishop is strongest when it can attack targets on both sides of the board or a series of squares of the same color (Beliavsky and Mikhalchishin 1995:122).

Fine and Benko (Fine and Benko 2003:205) give four conclusions:

1. In general the bishop is better than the knight.
2. When there is a material advantage, the difference between the bishop and knight is not very important. However, the bishop usually wins more easily than the knight.
3. If the material is even, the position should be drawn. However, the bishop can exploit positional advantages more efficiently.
4. When most of the pawns are on the same color as the bishop (i.e. a bad bishop), the knight is better.

Rook and pawn

Rook and pawn endgames are often drawn in spite of one side having an extra pawn. (In some cases, two extra pawns are not enough to win.) An extra pawn is harder to convert to a win in a rook and pawn endgame than any other type of endgame except a bishop endgame with bishops on opposite colors. The great master Tartakower once jocularly said "All rook and pawn endings are drawn". (It may have been Siegbert Tarrasch who said this - see the article on Tartakower.) Rook endings are probably the deepest and most well studied endgames. They are the a common type of endgame in practice, occurring in about 10% of all games (including ones that don't reach an endgame) (Emms 1999:7).

Three rules of thumb regarding rooks are worth noting:

1. Rooks should almost always be placed behind passed pawns, whether one's own or the opponent's (the Tarrasch rule). A notable exception is in the ending of a rook and pawn versus a rook, if the pawn is not too far advanced. In that case, the best place for the opposing rook is in front of the pawn.
2. Rooks are very poor defenders relative to their attacking strength. So it is often good to sacrifice a pawn for activity.
3. A rook on the seventh rank can wreak mayhem among the opponent's pawns. The power of a rook on the seventh rank is not confined to the endgame.

Queen and pawn

In Queen and pawn endings, passed pawns have paramount importance, because the queen can escort it to the queening square alone. The advancement of the passed pawn outweighs the number of pawns. The defender must resort to perpetual check. These endings are frequently extremely long affairs.