King and Pawn Endgames are IMPORTANT. Free Elo.

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Nov 18, 2025

Well we’re back with clickbait titles, but it worked last time 😅.

I recently did an opening advice forum and people seemed to engage with it, and I hope it helped some people. This is slightly different, because I don’t have much “general advice” for endgames (beyond centralizing the king etc - not in the opening, like certain forum members would have you believe!!). In fact, I largely suck at them.

However! There are two VERY important king and pawn endgame concepts that every early intermediate and beyond need to know. These are ridiculously common, and will help you turn draws into wins and potential losses into draws.

I’m not going to spoon-feed this, though… instead, I’m simply going to advise that you remember:

a) king opposition

b) the importance of a single tempi (or… who’s move is it next and why does it matter?)

as such! Please see some example puzzles below for you to test it out…

1. White to play… Win or Draw?

2. Black to play… Draw or Loss?

3. White to Play… Win or Draw?

4. Black to Play… Win or Draw?

hopefully, the above has given you an insight into this simple chess concept, but if you’re still confused, here’s two slightly more helpful hints to apply (lifted shamelessly from Wikipedia, an author who’s much better at phraseology than I am!):

1. When two kings face each other with only one square in between, the side with the move may have to move the king away and allow the opposing king to advance.

2. The player without the pawn should place their king in the path of the pawn to try to prevent its promotion. (Unless this will land them on the wrong square with the wrong tempi)

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Finally! Please note: the rules are DIFFERENT for “a” and “h” pawns. If you’ve solved the above, then you should be able to intuitively understand why. So, final piece of advice, if you’re making decisions about which pawn to hold on to as you transition into an endgame, prioritize pawns on the edge of the board, as they are harder to stop.

DoYouLikeCurry

Nov 18, 2025

Once you understand how to win positions up a pawn in the endgame, or save positions down one, I promise it will be responsible for a genuine uptick in your rating as you convert more and throw less. Good luck!