“It is impossible to become a World Class player without proper endgame technique”.
~ Mark Dvoretsky
Ever since starting my chess career, I have been a terrible endgame player.
Oh sure, I have read some chess endgame books.1 I have heard something about chess endgame principles. I have analyzed and practiced some endgames. But my study wasn’t systematic. Or methodical. It was a bit random.
As a consequence – my play 2 suffered. I lost several drawn positions. I failed to convert several good positions. And I shed a number of rating points.
Which kinda pissed me off. So I decided to do something about it. At the beginning of 2019, I decided to do something about it. I decided to put real effort and improve this phase of my game.
And was immediately confronted by a question: What is the best way of studying chess endgames?
How to study chess endgames?
“Practically all chess players I have trained have had a high level of technique and an excellent grasp of the endgame“
~ Mark Dvoretsky
To find the answer to this question, I decided to seek wisdom from the trainer of all trainers – Mark Dvoretsky. In several books, such as Technique For The Tournament Player, School Of Chess Excellence 1: Endgame Analysis, Endgame Manual and Tragicomedy In The Endgame, he talks about the topic of studying the endgame. 3 His philosophy can be reduced to two important points:
Learning theoretical endgame positions
Just like in the opening, it is impossible to manage without memory. There are certain theoretical positions that simply have to be learned by heart. Extensive knowledge of elementary endgames allows us to quickly evaluate the consequence of our decisions, without wasting time and energy on calculation.
Ironically, many chess players 4 resist doing it and believe they can manage everything when there are so few pieces on the board. However, both Dvoretsky and tournament practice demonstrate it is impossible to develop a good technique without the knowledge of theoretical endgames.
Improving your endgame technique
Now, Dvoretsky also points out the human memory is limited. That it is futile and impossible to learn to play the endgame by heart. That you have to increase your understanding and improve your endgame technique – which is a skill.
How does one do that? First and foremost, Dvoretsky recommends analyzing endgames from the practical play:
“We shall now discuss how to raise the level of your technique. To do this it is necessary to study questions which are common to all (or many endgames)… The best way of learning all this is to analyze practical endgames played by the great masters”.
Apart from that, playing classical chess on a regular basis also helps. In tournament practice, a player is bound to encounter different endgames. Detailed analysis of these games with a particular focus on the mistakes you made is bound to improve your play in subsequent games. 5
10 Endgames Every Chess Player Should Know
After reading Dvoretsky’s words, I took a deep breath and realized my knowledge of theoretical endgames sucked 6 The first step toward improving my endgame was clear – actually learning them. I grabbed Jesus De La Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know and Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual. And got down to business.
This time, I tried to have a more methodic and systematic approach. Which leads me to the motivation behind this post. I realized that some positions appear more frequently than others. And that I have trouble remembering them. So I decided to reduce De La Villa’s number. And write a blog post about 10 Endgames Every Chess Player Should Know.
The idea was that doing so would help me memorize these endgames better.
And that readers would also find it useful. And get motivated to improve their endgame technique as well.
Hope you will enjoy it! Without further ado – here’s a list of 10 endgames I think every chess player should know.
1. The Lucena – the bridge (rook+pawn vs rook)
An elementary endgame, which kids in Russia learn by heart even before they learn how to speak.
2. The Philidor position (rook+pawn vs rook)
A position in which the weaker side has a king in front of the enemy pawn. Easily drawn with proper play.
3. DT – Distant (side) checks position (rook + pawn vs rook)
Sometimes the weaker side is unable to reach the Philidor position. Do not despair – there are alternative defensive methods available. The first one is the so-called distant (side) check defence.
Knowledge of this position helps us make more complicated decisions:
Alas, it is not always so easy. Even future World Champions are sometimes prone to mistakes in these endgames:
4. The Kling and Horwitz Defence (rook+pawn vs rook)
What if the weaker side is also unable to utilize distant (side) checks. There is, fortunately, another (lesser known) defence – the Kling and Horwitz.
5. The Vancura Defence (rook + pawn vs rook)
Rook endgames with rook pawns are particularly tricky. The knowledge of the Vancura Defence is the first step toward understanding them.
6. The Centurini Position (bishop + pawn vs bishop – same coloured bishops)
Centurini’s position refers to a set of same-coloured bishop positions. There is a whole bunch of the problems he studied. We will consider two instructive ones. The first one is trivial:
The second one is slightly more difficult (and more famous:)
7. Tarrasch’s Position (bishop + 2 pawns vs bishop – opposite coloured bishops)
Tarrasch’s position demonstrated important principles regarding the opposite-coloured bishop position where the stronger side has two connected passed pawns:
8. The Philidor position (queen vs rook)
Although we all know that Queen and King win against Rook and King, none of us actually bother to study this endgame. Yet, it is not so trivial against the best defence. 7 In order to win it, one has to know another position studied by the French genius, Francois Andre Philidor:
9. The Philidor position (rook+bishop vs rook)
Last but not least, I have decided to include two rook+bishop vs rook position. This decision might seem weird. However, it DOES appear in tournament practice than other material relations 8 And it often costs players half a point. I think it is worth knowing the correct method of attack and defence, even though matters are more complicated than in previous endgames.
Let’s start with the standard position in which the stronger side is winning. Have I mentioned it was also studied by Philidor? You have to admire the strength of the French master. Don’t forget there weren’t any computer engines in the 18th century.
10. The Cochrane defence (rook+bishop vs rook)
Now we know what the stronger side wants to achieve. How should the weaker side go about avoiding it?
- More precisely – sprinted through them
- And my results
- And bashes young modern player who make elementary mistakes in the endgame because they „devote too much time to opening study“
- The author of these lines included
- Note, in passing, that playing Internet Blitz and Bullet s not that effective in that regard – very few games on shorter time controls reach endgame. Even if they do, a player usually has too little time to figure out what is happening. But more on the dangers of Internet blitz in a subsequent article.
- In late 2017, I failed to hold a Philidor position – rook+pawn vs rook in a blitz game
- Feel free to try yourself against the engine if you don’t believe me
- Such as knight +rook against rook
thanks for the information. but this article is partially spoiled by the fact that you did not specify which side it is to move on a given position. Readers are forced to see the solution before solving.