Endgame Corner #1

Mr. Mark Dvoretsky says that "King activity is the most important factor in the evaluation of position in a pawn endgame" in his epic book Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual. Really, in almost all kinds of endgames the activity of the Monarch is deciding factor over the board. In the opening and middlegame, we want to secure him but when it comes to endgame, he always wants to lead the whole army and show who the real commander is   What the King do in the endgames then? 

• It outflanks the opponent King,
• It provides Blockade to attack the opponent's pawns and pieces,
• It helps his own pawns march towards the promotion squares.

In this part we will try to understand some King and Pawn Endgame concepts. Firstly I want to explain some ideas of "Distant Passed Pawn" 

Distant Passed Pawn is a real weapon against your opponent and it ties down the opponent's King to the edge of the board so that your own King can easily wander through the war area...

Second example is again a study. I like including endgame studies in my training program because it helps to improve both my intuition and calculation. If you get easily bored when it comes to study endgames, I might highly recommend to take a look at some endgame studies. Let's have a look: