Engame Strategy - Spotting the Tactics (with Puzzles)

A high percentage of your chess games will end with endgames. Endgames are different than middlegames because less pieces are on the board; however, many people argue that more thinking, especially long-term, is required than the middlegame.

Many middlegames end after a long, dragged out battle of maneuver that ends with promotion. However, if you wish to be a great chess player, you must learn various tactics in the endgame - and that involves studying the most basic of chess maneuvers - forks, skewers, checkmates, etc.

These terms, which we all learned as novices, will win endgames for you, if you can spot the moves! Often times, however, these winning moves are difficult to spot. As such, you must grind into your brain the idea of forks and pins and other tactics. If you do so, then you will remember the 'general position' involving each of those ideas, so that they are easier to spot in regular competition.

Many articles on chess.com have been written on these tactics, which provide a general idea about each. However, a good investment is to purchase a book of chess puzzles that pertain to these moves. Often times, these books offer hundreds of positions for you to view and are not too expensive.

Once you clearly understand each tactic, you can combine them in your games - forking and pinning in one move series is a great feeling!

Here are several puzzles to get you started. Each has at least one tactic in mind, and many have more than one! The tactics involve checkmate, promotion, skewers,

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