How can I improve my endgame? My openings are decent, middlegame is good. But the endgame always kills me. I have literally watched victory slip out of my fingers so many times!
How can I improve my endgame?!
Follow these principles, this is pretty much everything I know about endgames
1. Pawn structure in the endgame - be mindful of having pawn structure weaknesses, avoid multiple pawn islands, isolated pawns, doubled pawns, backward pawns
2. Double Minor piece endgames - Bishop pair is almost always to be preferred to a knight pair or a knight and a bishop (there are exceptions like direct attacks against the king, the knights may be better depending on the circumstances)
3. Single Minor piece endgames
- Bishop is better than the knight when pawns are on the two sides of the board, the knight is better than the bishop when pawns are only on one side of the board (a lot will depend on king position distance from pawns etc so again there are exceptions)
-Opposite colour bishops favour the attacker but in most cases have drawish tendancies. So if you are a pawn or two down go for a pure opposite colour bishop endgames with no other pieces.
-Knights are bad against outside passed pawns Bishops are not
-Keep a bishop of the colour of the queening square of the opponents passed pawn
4. Rook endgames - Stay active, double on open files, sacrifice pawns for rook activity
5. Rook and Queen - Stay active, focus on tactics
6. King and pawn - Stay active, centralise the king
This book will help you through your chess life . . .