Essential chess endgames to know

Most endgames come down to a pawn or two, so king and pawn technique is the highest-value study in chess. Two ideas do the heavy lifting: opposition - standing your king directly in front of the enemy king with a square between, forcing it to give way - and the rule of the square, a quick way to see whether a lone king can catch a passed pawn. Get these right and you win drawn-looking positions and save lost-looking ones.

Opposition is the single most important king-and-pawn idea. You have the opposition when the two kings face each other with exactly one square between them and it is the opponent’s turn to move - forcing their king to step aside and let yours advance. Winning the opposition in front of your pawn is usually what turns a draw into a win; losing it is what throws the win away.

The rule of the square is a shortcut for races: draw an imaginary square using the passed pawn’s distance to its promotion rank as one side. If the defending king can step into that square on its move, it catches the pawn; if not, the pawn queens. It saves you from calculating the race move by move.

Before the pawn endings, you must be able to mate with king and queen and with king and rook against a bare king - the endings you reach whenever you promote. King and queen is quick: box the enemy king to the edge with the queen a knight’s-move away (never stalemating), then bring your king up to mate. King and rook is harder because the rook needs the king’s help: use the kings in opposition and the rook to cut the enemy king off, shrinking its box one line at a time. Both are covered step by step in our basic-checkmates guide.

Rook endgames are the most common endgame of all, and two positions cover most of what you need. The Lucena position is the fundamental winning method when you have an extra pawn and your king is in front of it - "building a bridge" with the rook to shepherd the pawn home. The Philidor position is the fundamental drawing method for the defender - keeping your rook on the third rank until the pawn advances, then checking from behind. Knowing both tells you instantly whether a rook ending is won or drawn.

Endgames are concrete: the positions repeat, the correct method is knowable, and the points are there for whoever studied. A club player who knows opposition, the Lucena and the Philidor will out-convert a stronger tactician who skipped them. And because Audit Chess ranks where you actually lose points, you may find the endgame is quietly costing you more games than your openings.

The only way endgame technique sticks is by executing it, not reading it. Audit Chess Practice serves these endings as positions to play out against the engine with a goal - win this, or hold the draw - and you repeat until you get it right. It is free, needs no account, and runs in your browser, alongside basic checkmates and tactics.