Basic chess endgames: king and queen mate, rook mate and pawn endings
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Many beginners skip endgames, because openings seem more exciting. But a game that is won in the opening still has to be finished, and plenty of winning positions are drawn or even lost because a player did not know how to convert an extra queen or a pawn. A few basic endgames are worth learning early: they come up again and again, and they teach how the king and pieces work together.
Why endgames matter
- Converting an advantage: being a piece or a pawn up is only useful if you can turn it into checkmate.
- Avoiding stalemate: with a big material advantage, the main way to throw away a win is to leave the enemy king with no legal moves while not in check. That is a draw.
- The king becomes a fighting piece: in the endgame, with fewer pieces on the board, the king is safe to come forward and is often decisive.
- Better decisions earlier: knowing which endgames are winning tells you which exchanges to make in the middlegame.
King and queen against king
This is the first checkmate to learn. The method:
- Use the queen to restrict the enemy king to a smaller and smaller box. A knight's move away from the king is often a good square for the queen, as it takes away squares without giving check.
- Push the king towards an edge of the board.
- When the king is on the edge, stop and bring your own king up. The queen cannot mate alone.
- With your king supporting, the queen gives mate on the edge, often directly in front of the enemy king with your king protecting her.
Watch for stalemate. Before each queen move near the end, check that the enemy king still has a legal move or is in check. A common mistake is to keep chasing with the queen while the king has just one square left, and then take that last square away too.
King and rook against king
This takes longer but uses the same idea: drive the king to the edge, then mate it with the rook on the edge and your king in front of the enemy king.
- Use the rook to cut the enemy king off along a rank or file, creating a box.
- Bring your king towards the enemy king to support the rook.
- Shrink the box one row at a time. When the enemy king steps towards your rook, protect it with your king or move it to the far side.
- When the kings stand facing each other with one square between them, a rook check along the edge is mate.
Practise this against a computer or a friend until you can do it confidently. It comes up in real games more often than you would think.
King and pawn endings
These are the foundation of endgame understanding.
The rule of the square helps you decide whether a king can catch a passed pawn. Imagine a square with one side running from the pawn to its promotion square. If the defending king can step into that square, it catches the pawn. If not, the pawn queens.
Opposition is the key idea in king and pawn endings. Two kings are in opposition when they stand on the same rank or file with one square between them. Whoever has to move then is at a disadvantage, because their king must give way. Having the opposition, so that the other side must move, lets your king advance past theirs, or stops theirs from advancing past yours.
In the classic ending of king and one pawn against king:
- The attacking king should usually go in front of its pawn, not behind it.
- If the attacking king reaches a key square in front of the pawn, the pawn usually promotes.
- If the defending king gets in front of the pawn and takes the opposition at the right moment, the game is often a draw.
- A pawn on the edge of the board (the a-file or h-file) is a special case: it is very often a draw if the defending king reaches the corner.
These details take some practice to understand properly. Set up the positions on a board and try them from both sides.
Practising endgames
- Learn king and queen mate until it is automatic.
- Then king and rook mate.
- Then simple king and pawn positions, focusing on opposition.
- Play out positions against a computer: set one up and try to win, or to hold the draw, with no help.
Once these are secure, rook endings with pawns are the natural next step, as they are among the most common endings in real games.
Which ending gives you trouble, or which one did you finally win in a real game? Tell us in the comments.