What's the most powerful thing to try for in a chess endgame?

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Avatar of Gensokyo_Millennium

Now I know that there are generally 4 major things that I believe are at play in any chess endgame. These 4 things seem to be king activity, passed pawns, piece activity, and material. Furthermore, I know that in every endgame things depend and one simply can't make a generalization for every position. 

However, if you had to rank these between 1 and 4 (1 being the most important and 4 being the least important) what would you rank these as in terms of importance in any general endgame? 

My personal ranking would be:

1. Passed Pawns

2. King Activity

3. Piece Activity

4. Material

Feel free to agree or disagree. I'm mainly just looking to see how I can shift my mindset when it comes to endgames because I'm noticing a lot more now the importance of pawns and I kind of feel like they are the most important in endgames in general.. even more than the king or other pieces. Furthermore, I think material is almost irrelevant because anyone that promotes a passed pawn can quickly get a lot of material back. Anyone that has active pieces can give their opponents a lot more trouble even if they have less material. Anyone that has a much more active king, similar to active pieces, can also give their opponent a lot of trouble for even the price of 2 pawns etc..

Curious to know your opinions and your rankings on passed pawns, king activity, piece activity, and material!

Avatar of Alexeivich94

Id take check mate above those

Avatar of nov04-inactive
Alexeivich94 wrote:

Id take check mate above those

well if you can't?

Avatar of nov04-inactive

I do agree with the 1st ranking, but material should be higher because you can't just sac a piece for a pawn and some good pieces (most of the time) so I would rank material 2nd, then the rest after that

Avatar of JBarryChess

1. Material. A queen and a rook or two rooks makes life easier.

2. Pawn management - (begins in the beginning of the game and this eludes me often)

Avatar of ChessMasteryOfficial

Ensuring your king is active and centralized is often the top priority in endgames.

Avatar of nov04-inactive
JBarryChess wrote:

1. Material. A queen and a rook or two rooks makes life easier.

2. Pawn management - (begins in the beginning of the game and this eludes me often)

but if you are a knight up, but your opponent has 3 connected passers, now material does not matter

Avatar of nov04-inactive
ChessMasteryOfficial wrote:

Ensuring your king is active and centralized is often the top priority in endgames.

yes an active king in an endgame is almost 4 pawns

Avatar of ZyzomysAbyss
1. King activity
2. Piece activity
3. Passed pawns
4. Material
If you are only down a couple of pawns in the endgame, but your pieces and your king are very active you can still win.