Pawn Endings: Beginner to Expert

King ending: the Opposition

Of course a position consisting of just king versus king is drawn. The aim of this position is to illustrate the concept of opposition.

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King Ending: The Distant Opposition

The purpose of this position is to show an example of distant opposition. This is when the kings are on the same line (rank, file, or diagonal) with an odd number of squares between them.

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King Ending: Distant Diagonal Opposition

The purpose of this position is to show an example of the distant diagonal opposition. This occurs when the kings are on the same diagonal with an odd number of squares between them. Here there is an even number of squares between them. The side to move can gain the distant diagonal opposition.

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The Square of the Pawn

The goal of every passed pawn is to reach the last rank so that it may be promoted to a queen or some other piece. When there is only one pawn on the board, it can only be stopped by the opponent's king.

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King and Pawn versus King: The Opposition

When the kings are on the same line and the number of intervening squares between them is odd, then the player who has to move will lose the opposition.

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The Rook Pawn

Winning with a rook pawn is the most difficult as this example illustrates.

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King ending: Opposition and Outflanking

White to play has the opposition. His goal is to reach f8 or h8 in at most 17 moves. Black will be trying to stop him.

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Cutting off the King

If it were Black's move in this position, he would be able to draw. White, with the move, will be able to win this position by cutting off the opposing king from the important squares.

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Shielding off the Opposing King

Black hopes to draw by quickly returning to the queenside. White needs to prevent this by shielding off the opposing king.

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The Critical Square

When there is only a rook pawn and kings on the board, the weaker side can draw if his king can reach the critical square.

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The Skewer

If both sides have passed pawns that queen at the same time, the side that queens first will usually have the advantage.

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The Basic Position

White will try to queen the pawn. Your goal as Black is to stop the pawn and draw. This basic position should be thoroughly mastered by every student.

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King and Pawn versus King: The Critical Squares

Opposition is the key to such endings. White needs to get the king in front of the pawn and also must gain the opposition at the same time.

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King and Pawn versus King: The King on the Sixth Rank

An important rule to remember is that a pawn on the fifth rank wins with the king in front of it.

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King and Pawn versus King: The Rook Pawn

White's winning chances are greatly reduced when the only pawn is a rook pawn.

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King and pawn versus King and pawn: The Sixth Rank

A very important rule of king and pawn versus king is that White can win if he can get his king to the 6th rank in front of the pawn.

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King and Pawn versus King and Pawn: The Defense

This is a very important problem on your road to mastering chess endings. If it's White's move, he wins. If it's Black's move, then he can draw.

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The Critical Squares

Whoever moves has the advantage in this position. White to move wins. Black to move results in a draw. White can win if he can get the king to one of the critical squares e4, d4, or c4.

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The Opposition

The key to a successful Black defense is to prevent the White king from getting in touch with the pawn's queening square.

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Connected Pawns

Being two pawns up in a pawn ending is usually an easy win. Here White has some problems, because if he advances the king too rashly, Black could draw by stalemate.

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King and Disconnected Pawns

Being two pawns up should be an easy win in a pawn ending. However, here the pawns are disconnected and the White king is completely out of play. Black can draw if he can win one pawn and then stop the other.

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Controlling the Critical Diagonal

Usually, king and pawn versus king and pawn is drawn, but there are a couple of exceptions.

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Knight Move Opposition

The theme of this position is very important and often occurs in pawn endings.

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The Sacrifice

Doubled pawns are pawns that are on the same file. Usually doubled pawns are weak, but here you have two pawns and your opponent has none.

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The Breakthrough

White is a pawn ahead and needs to find a way to breakthrough.

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Blocking the Critical Diagonal

White has an outside passed pawn, the a-pawn. However, the Black king is within the square of that pawn. Nevertheless there is a way to block the critical diagonal.

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Blocking

A very important rule of an ending consisting of king and pawn versus king is that if the king gets to the 6th rank ahead of the pawn, it's a win.

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The Protected Passed Pawn

A very strong pawn setup is when one side has a protected passed pawn. Then the inferior side can neither capture nor stray too far from this pawn.

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Timing

White's first move will be the most important. If he does not time things just right, then a draw will result.

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Breakthrough Sacrifice

In this position we see a breakthrough sacrifice, characteristic of backward pawns when the opposing king is far away.

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Backward Pawn

Whoever has the move in this position wins. White's problem is because his c-pawn is backward. Black's single pawn on the queenside holds up both of White's pawns.

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Creation of a Passed Pawn

You must keep your eyes open to tactical opportunities, especially in regard to passed pawns.

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The Blockade

Positions can arise in which a single pawn can blockade two opposing pawns.

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Opposition

This example is an excellent demonstration of opposition.

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Related Squares

This position is an illustration of key or related squares. To win, White must capture Black's c3-pawn. He will achieve this if he can get the king to either one of the key squares e2 or b3.

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Protected Passed Pawn

With a protected passed pawn, this position will be easy to win.

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Disconnected Pawns

White is a pawn ahead, but his pawns are disconnected. To win he must follow the important endgame rule of advancing the pawns only at the right times.

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The outside passed pawn

This position shows the advantage of the outside passed pawn in an endgame. Material is even, but White is winning.

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Pawn Ending

This is a variation of the previous challenge. Here we will see what might happen if White takes the Black pawn on h4.

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Doubled Pawns

Unless one of the pawns will be immediately lost, doubled pawns as in this example win if the king is present to protect them. The key is that the rear pawn can be used for tempo moves to gain the opposition.

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Key Squares

This ending illustrates key squares. Key squares are the "dream squares" that the king wants to occupy in order to carry out a goal.

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Overextended Pawns

White will be unable to win this position because both pawns are too far advanced.

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Zugzwang

This position occurred in the game Chkonia-Shivogin, USSR 1954. White has a win, but was not able to find it in the game.

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The Chase

This is a study by I. Moravec, 1952

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Path of Return

White must quickly return the king to his kingside, but he must choose the correct path of return.

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Changing the Critical Square

White appears to be in trouble, as he will soon lose his pawn. Hence a king and pawn vs. king ending will result.

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Jettison

At first White seems to have a good position, as he is a pawn ahead. However, a closer look shows that he is in trouble.

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Clearing the Path

Even though both sides have four pawns, White has a way to break through and clear a path for a passed pawn.

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Elegant Breakthrough

Here we will see what White should do if Black answers White's 1.f5 with 1...Kd4.

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Double Pawns

This ending shows how to use pawn moves for tempos to gain the opposition. Doubled pawns are usually weak, but in pawn endings they can be used for tempos.

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Schlage-Ahues, Berlin 1921

This position occurred in the tournament game Schlage-Ahues, Berlin 1921.

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Vulnerable Square

This is a study by Duras from 1905. White is able to win by forcing the Black king to a vulnerable square.

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Three Opposing Pawns

When three or more pawns are opposing each other, there is always a chance that one side or the other can create a passed pawn. Everyone should know this position thoroughly, as it can easily occur in practice.

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Prevention

This is a study by F. Dedrle from 1921.

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The Defense

White will win this position if he can get his king to one of the key squares b6, c6, d6, f6, g6, or h6. Black's goal is to prevent the White king from ever reaching one of these squares.

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The Space Advantage

This is the conclusion of the game Brinckmann-Rubinstein, Budapest 1929. Rubinstein was one of the greatest masters of the endgame.

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Missed Opportunity

This position occurred in the game Chigorin-Tarrasch, Ostende 1905. White's position looks critical and he actually went on to lose. But he could have drawn! Can you find it?

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An Endgame Study from 1885

This is a study by Teed.

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Pawn Sacrifices

This is the conclusion of the game Averbakh-Bebchuk, Moscow 1967.

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Diversion

This is a study by D. Goldberg, 1932.

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Tempo

A tempo is a unit of time defined by one move. Often one tempo can be the difference between winning and losing, as whoever has the move in this position wins.

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Reti Study from 1922

This composition of the Czechoslovakian Grandmaster Richard Reti is probably the most famous example in chess literature of king and pawn on either side.

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Triangulation

This is from a game played long ago between Fahrni and Alapin. White is able to win by a triangulation maneuver.

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Deflection

This position arose in the game Lasker-Tarrasch, 1914. Lasker demonstrates a clever king maneuver. His idea is to use an outside passed pawn as a deflection.

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A Study by C.Salvioli, 1887

The position is completely symmetrical, but having the first move allows White to set up a favorable king position.

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Opposition and Triangulation

This ending features the important themes of opposition and triangulation.

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Pawn endings: Related Squares

This position is an illustration of key or related squares. To win, White must capture Black's c3-pawn.

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Taimanov-Cuellar

This is the conclusion of the game Taimanov-Cuellar, Leningrad 1973.

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The Queenside Majority

This is the conclusion of the game Tal-Djurasevic, 1958.

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The Stalemate

This is the conclusion of the game Nikolaevsky-Taimanov, 1967.

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Alekhine-Yates

This is the conclusion of the game Alekhine-Yates, Hamburg 1910. The struggle will center on key points in the position, which are f4 and e6.

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Combining Two Ideas

This is a study by I. Moravec, 1952.

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The Maneuver

This is a study by I. Moravec, 1941.

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The Awkward Square

This is a study by A. Mandler, 1938.

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The Path

White needs to return the king to the other side of the board to prevent Black from queening the a-pawn. But he must choose the right path to get there.

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Disconnected Passed Pawns

This is the conclusion of the game Stoltz-Nimzovitch, 1928. It illustrates the power of disconnected passed pawns.

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Connected Passed Pawns

This study by J. Behting from 1900 demonstrates the power of two advanced connected passed pawns.

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More Related Squares

This study by G. Walker from 1841 is a good illustration of related squares.

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Flohr-Capablanca

This is the conclusion of the game Flohr-Capablanca, Moscow 1936. Black has a very poor pawn structure. The only way that he can draw is by preventing the White king from advancing.

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Pachman-Ilivitsky

This is the conclusion of the game Pachman-Ilivitsky, Match 1956. This is another example of the important endgame rule that pawns should only be advanced carefully.

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Aronin-Smyslov

This is the conclusion of the game Aronin-Smyslov, Moscow 1961. Smyslov, one of the great masters of the endgame, finds a very clever way to save the game.

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Two Passed Pawns Three Files apart

This is a variation from the game Aronin-Smyslov, Moscow 1961. Here we see how Black could have responded had White tried the active looking move Kc4 instead of playing c3 in the game.

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The Blocking Maneuver

This is a study by Adamson from 1915.

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Corresponding Squares

This is a study by Bianchetti from 1925

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Just in Time

This is a possible variation from the game Pachman-Ilivitsky, Match 1956. Here we see how Black draws if White tries to advance the king instead of pushing the b-pawn.

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Drawing Resource

This is a variation from a study by Adamson in 1915.

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Mutual Confusion

Grandmaster Andy Soltis wrote in his recent endgame book that one should not trade down into a king and pawn ending unless one could safely bet one's first-born on the outcome.

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