Chess Endgames

Thread by:  @imraghav2013 • @SPK1729 • @EnCroissantIsBrilliant

See also:  Chess Openings • Chess Middlegames

A place to share, ask for advice on, or learn together about chess endgames.

Endgames are my absolute favorite part of the game, especially pawn endgames, thingögs can get tense, but its not as complicated as the middlegame

I do not like queen vs rook because I fail to understand it

i legitamately think endgames are my weakest point, even when im up a piece, i sometimes struggle to win because of pawn promotions, and the more pieces the worse i am

me too, it used to be my strong point but now it's my weakest. How do I improve at these?

Opposite bishop endgames might be my greatest weakness at the moment, any book suggestions D:

I don't know any books focused on that topic, but maybe Silman's book?

Some drills on Chess.Com help you with this. I try to do them and they somewhat help. At first, it’s a bit difficult but you will get used to it

Basic checkmates are useful but where to practise the lucena postions and also can you tell me how to use each and every piece in the endgame...

Thanks!

Yuri Averbakh wrote 5 excellent books on endgame. Volume 1 covers Bishop & Knight endings.

In that book, he put a section called "Bishop of Opposite Colour",
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This might solve your problem. You can also read the very popular "100 Endgame You Must Know" by De La Villa where he covered this part of the endgame. And of course, some other great books like Endgame Manual, Fundamental Chess Ending, Silman's endgame book, John Nunn's Endgame books also covered this ending.

Try checking mindlessly until you have a fork, or when it's not possible, try attacking with your king, also.

I think same-colored bishop endgames are my weakpoint, although I struggle in multi-pawn endgames as well

Multi-pawn endgames are mostly theory, you'll have to learn what moves to make in different situations and recognize patterns. I mostly struggle with those, but, the most important part of those endgames is to isolate the enemy king, if you can, and calculating if a trade is really good for you, I lost many winning pawn-only endgames because of a bad trade.

Thank you so much!

Sorry, I forgot to mention the name of the book, which is
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100 endgames you must know from Jesus de la Villa, is the perfect book and I think probably the most useful for chess players, it is a must read if you want to improve your endgames

I hate end games! It seems like more memorization is required compared to the middle game? Too slow to get check mate compared to the many options and possibilities in the middle game. And it feels much more difficult to recover from a single mistake than to recover from one bad move in the middle game. Maybe it is just me...

Are there general principles for the end game (like there is for the opening) instead of mindlessly memorising how to check mate with each combination of pieces?

Endgames in chess are honestly more about memorization than anything else. At a certain point, it’s not about intuition or creativity, it’s about whether you’ve seen the position before and know the exact method to convert or hold it. There’s a huge body of theory built around these positions, and strong players just know what to do because they've drilled them. If you haven’t studied them, you’re basically just guessing and hoping for the best. It’s kind of like the math portion of chess - there’s a right answer, and you either know it or you don’t.