Chess Strategies: Mastering Endgames

     Hello and welcome back to my blog, where I write about chess tactics and openings - but mostly focus on endgames! Many chess players make the mistake of learning too many openings and not focusing on tactics or endgames. Most players who are around 100 - 1000 elo don't even know basic terms such as a pin, en passant, underpromotion, zugzwang, a skewer, etc. Lets first look at an example of a rook and pawn endgame:

White needs to protect their e5 pawn with the rook, which rook? The one on a1 or the one on f4? Either rook would work, but think - "active rooks are worth more than an inactive queen" (quote by me). So the a1 rook would be the best choice, getting all of your pieces into action is crucial in an endgame. Especially one like this, now here's where it gets tricky..

Solved it? Great! (Credits: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/more-puzzles/difficult-endgame-puzzle). 

Personally I've realized that no matter how much and how often I study endgames, I still seem to suck at them. That may be because you can't train for everything... But the best we can do is be prepared for everything we can! So lets look at a opposite colored bishop endgame: 

White clearly has the advantage due to their two extra pawns lol. But do you know how to checkmate with only two bishops and a king? 

As with most checkmates in the endgame, you have to force the opponent's king into the corner. Some people say "high level chess is just memorization", but that is completely false. Yes, memorization is key in chess, especially the openings. But you don't need memorization to win, believe it or not, some absolute beginners have beaten GMs at chess. Though it's highly unlikely, anything is possible. Personally I've taught a number of players how to play chess, and some of them have natural talent. Never give up on chess, tilt after tilt - all that means is that you're improving! 

So, do you think you know your endgames? Knight and bishop vs two bishops? Queen vs queen and pawns? Rook vs rook? Lets put that to the test - -

Chess endgames are unpredictable, so you'll need to learn and study as many as you can, I hope this blog helped with that. See you in the nest blog, coming out around November!