How to be the endgame master

Or PrAcTiCe

One thing I really liked that Hikaru said is that what sets Magnus apart from the rest, with Ali being also up there (his words), is that he knows master endgames by heart, every move.

That in the old days, many masters would memorize older master's endgames because you could recall some miracle endgame tactic and "extract water from stone" that way. Endgame wizardry was a bigger part of the game back in the day, because there was no stockfish, table bases etc... 

Of course people probably still do this, but imagine a field of GMs who all work their butt off vs stockfish and one guy just knows 100 master endgames from 1910-1940 by heart. You see where I'm going here yes?.. 

Hikaru was talking about this after Ali pulled off some miracle seemingly impossible endgame tactic vs Shak and won from 0.0 in great style..

It would be interesting to hear from people who played pre-computer era what they do/did for endgame improvment... Please share if u are out there!   

 I'm definitely gonna try to memorize some stuff , I mean if they can memorize hundreds of full games surely I could memorize one or two... Not to try to recall a certain tactic just to maybe get some of that pre-computer spirit in to my game, idk.. Maybe if I believe it it'll become true?.. 

Good luck all  

So someone rated well over 2000 is on this forum asking advice about endgames. And he's getting it from people rated below 1500--and even below 1000. Yeah, that sounds about right. 

It just so happens that the answerers are rated lower than him (yikes)

I’m worse at endgames than most 1000’s

aren't we all tho?

Just set a dedicated month or two to only studying endgame and nothing else. You can learn endgame strategy watch a ton of famous endgames. Learn some theoretical endgames that you should know for your level and you will see some improvement. Obviously I’m not as good at endgames as you but doing this helped give me a better understanding so now I purposely go into endgames when I can. 

For books, there are Muller and Lamprecht's Fundamental Chess Endings, Silman's Complete Endgame Course, and Dvoretzky's Endgame Manual.  Silman's is probably the easiest to read of the three, but they all give good practical advice for how to approach various types of endgame.

For practice, chess.com has a few useful sections with practice drills.  Look under Learn -> Endgames and Learn -> Practice -> Drills on the website, or under More -> Drills -> Endgame Practice/Endgame Fundamentals on the app.  The instructions and lessons that accompany the drills are rarely useful (they can be shockingly bad at times), so have one of the aforementioned books on hand for reference.

From my personal experience as a chess player, I feel as if one should make the most of whatever is present on the board. I like to regurgitate things I learn, and I heard a terminology that I thought was cool: status examination.

Examining the status of your pieces, while also looking at whatever remains of that of your opponent.

One thing I been trying to make more of a mental note during the endgame is the positioning of my opponent's King piece. By seeing which angles would not only put it into check but also helps me build both offensive and defensive synergy with my remaining pieces on the board... it has done me wonders recently.

Also, one thing to consider from my humble opinion is that your opponent is going to try his or her or they best to win the match with a checkmate as well. Keeping in mind where your pieces move based off the tactic your opponent will use towards you... it never hurts to move the pieces with that in mind during the end-game phase.

“the king’s synergy has done me wonders” also you: loses all of your rapid games. Don’t think I can trust this advice lol

Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  My (unintentional) method of doing that (not for the faint of heart) was to not try to keep up with the latest opening theory.  That put me into middle games where I had to fight for equality.  Then I ended up in a LOT more endgames than most 1700-2100 players   As time went on I became a little bit better in the openings and, more importantly, the time controls sped up and more people were used to finishing in the middle game, with the result that those 1700-2100 players were playing significantly fewer endgames than they used to while I was still getting into endgames about as often as before.

Feeling comfortable in endgames made me willing to play in the middlegame in a way that gave the opponent endgame weaknesses.  Then I would push into the endgame and take advantage of those weaknesses (helped by the greater stamina I had a couple of decades ago when I was still in my 40s).

I remember one game where a lower rated player felt like he did great by remaining materially equal through about move 35.  I then pointed out that he let me inflict a fatal endgame weakness on move six and I just simplified into the endgame to exploit it.