The endgame is the final phase of a chess game which features a reduced amount of material on the board. A common piece of advice to players seeking improvement is to study endgames before any other phase of the game. There are many benefits to this approach.
- Unlike openings and middle games, endgames (because of the reduced material) can be “mastered” more readily
- Because of the reduced material, studying endgames allows a player to develop a greater feel for the energy and capability of his pieces
- Because the middlegame is always just a few exchanges away from an endgame, the middle game cannot be played properly without the ability to evaluate and play endgames successfully
- The study of the endgame is an important means of improving positional technique
- Many wins and draws are routinely thrown away in the endgame
So what are some ways to go about studying the endgame?
Study a primer on the endgame
For this purpose, I recommend Fundamental Chess Endings for beginners and intermediate players (players below 2000 of strength, or so) and Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual to experts and masters. Each of these books contains a lot of standard endgame positions that you should become thoroughly acquainted with. Technique in these simplified positions is sure to increase your playing strength.
Focus on rook endings and pawn endings
Rook endings are by far the most frequent type of ending, and also the trickiest to handle. It can take a very long time to acquire technique in these endings, but when you do your ability to convert advantages (even in the middlegame) will increase significantly. Pawn endings are very significantly, because practically every other ending can potentially reduce into a pawn ending.
Train, train, train
Do not be content with studying endings from a book. Take interesting positions and set them up to play either with a friend or a computer multiple times. Done properly, you will quickly find gaps in your knowledge, fix them, and acquire a complete and automatic handling of whichever endings you choose to. With a friend, this can be a particularly exciting method.
Review the endings of the great players
Practically speaking, all world champions have possessed phenomenal endgame technique though some are more well-known for it than others. The best known are Capablanca, Smyslov, Karpov, Fischer, and Kramnik. Studying the endgames of these great will help you to develop a feeling for how more complex endgames are handled, and how they are reached.
Each of these ideas can help to propel your endgame knowledge and your chess results further. While the endgame is not as “sexy” to study as openings and tactics, it can pay off great dividends (quite a bit more than openings can, in particular).
Happy king hunting!
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